Enlightenment is instant but can take a long time to realise

The Ancient Hindu sages in their 'forest academies' in India would claim that a student who is ready would take 12 years to achieve the enlightened state of Samadhi.

The Zen Buddhists teach that we can shake off the errors of wrong learning and realise the 'Buddha within', our natural state of enlightenment, instantly.

The first method is concerned with 'one to one' teaching and demonstration from a guru with plenty of time for the student to reflect, contemplate, meditate, assimilate and realise the Truth.

The second method is concerned with shaking us out of our incorrect beliefs into the natural state of Truth.

If we are all each others students and teachers, in all that we do, maybe we can, both, shake each other into glimpses of Truth moments, when we can, and, also gradually help each other realise the underlying Truth at the same time?

Enlightenment from the East and the West

The Ancient Sages from the East ask us to simplify our lives and not become attached to material wealth and, also, to become detached from the results of our work, good or bad.

The Modern Guru's from the West ask us to better manage our complex lives, focus on goals and their results, and create wealth, so that we may then be in a better position to help ourselves and others.

Diametrically opposed views from opposite hemispheres of the planet, ancient and modern!

Rather like the brain, two hemispheres. One hemisphere concerned with detailed logical 'bottom line results in time' and the other hemisphere concerned with a holistic view, feelings 'beyond the bottom line' in the here and now.

The Ancient Greeks taught 'as above so below'. Maybe the two hemispheres of Planet Earth are a reflection of the two hemispheres of our brain?

Enlightenment from within

When we are most strongly influenced by what we see, hear, feel touch and taste from external sources - we shape our inner thoughts and feelings in the same way. We may then develop more fearful inner beliefs based on the lack and scarcity that we so often see.

When we are most strongly directed by inner certain knowings of wholeness, abundance, unconditional love, peace and wisdom - regardless of what we see externally, undisturbed, - we have become masters of our mind . We know that the inner Truth will manifest externally in time.

It's when we gain the certain knowledge that the stronger flow can be developed to come from within us that we start to awaken to becoming even more enlightened creators?

Enlightenment is realising everything is everywhere

A Sage taught me that everything is everywhere, if we choose to see.

If we choose to see nothing, we will see nothing.
If we choose to see everything, we will see everything.

In Reality, the Universe is full of everything but in our own reality our mind is full of whatever we want to think about. Then we see, hear, feel, touch and taste our own thoughts in manifestation?

If we relax our bodies and minds, and quieten our thoughts and feelings, we realise, in a sort of peaceful nothingness, a sort of peaceful everythingness.

But in peace, I do not choose anything. Yet in peace we are everything?

Why choose?

Enlightenment is simply being what you really are

We try too hard to become someone or something else.
If we set a goal, it is normally because we are not happy
with the present state and we want to be in a better state.

Sometimes that is very good. But not all the time!

Why not set a goal to have no goals for a while and imagine instant success instead?

Imagine being totally happy and content with who you are and what you are!
Imagine simply being, in the flow, and becoming whatever you always were!
Imagine unconditional love and compassion, peace and wisdom as simply being!

Kofi Annan says "We will have time to reach the Millenium Development Goals (which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015) - worldwide and in the most, or even all, individual countries - but only if we break with business as usual."

Is 'breaking with business as usual', simply thinking differently. Is it thinking and deciding to be and to do something here and now instead of setting a goal for the future?

I wonder if simply being what we all really are, right here, right now, would eradicate world poverty any sooner?

I wonder if simply being what we all really are, right here, right now, would eradicate our perceived lack for our selves too?

Imagine! Let it be! Where have I heard those words of wisdom before :-)

Enlightenment comes with Inner Peace

The Ancient Sages wisely taught us that you cannot see the true and clear reflection of the moon at night in a lake which has ripples caused by the wind.

You cannot see reality as it is unless there is perfect stillness and clarity.

So it is with the Mind. A clear (ripple free ) Mind that is not troubled by negative thoughts and delusions (winds) will become more enlightened and, ultimately, it will awaken to a picture and an experience of reality as it really is. No delusions, just as it truly is.

But the difference between the lake and the Mind is that we can train the Mind! We can discipline it, increasingly, to quieten and give rise to deeper peaceful states of stillness. With practice and diligence, our meditations will guarantee deeper and longer states of peaceful inner bliss. And this still inner bliss is within us all, all the time, awaiting our own personal discovery, awaiting our own personal experience of reality!

It's totally within. It's totally within our control. It's our choice.
And once we experience this peaceful bliss internally, we start to see and feel it in everything externally. Effortlessly. How wonderful.

Enlightenment is going far beyond knowledge

We create conventional knowledge though learnings and experiences, and that certainly helps us to manage our way through life. Yet why is it that the most carefully constructed plans, based on the best knowledge are never the case, in reality?

Our mistake is to believe that what we know is greater than what we do not know!

We need to constantly remind ourselves that our knowledge of the Universe we live in, and our knowledge of the Universe within each of us is so infinitesimal. Then we can remember to experience the naturalness of spontaneity and creativity. Then we can forget the ego for a while. Then, even miracles naturally occur.

Miracles are a part of every moment. We just don't see them enough?

Enlightenment is a moment of smiling!

Imagine you are smiling. Note how it looks and feels.

Spontaneous and natural.
A higher sense of certainty.
A connection with the Truth.
Love in action. Peace as purpose. Wisdom confirmed.

Humanity re-created in every smile!

We can all touch smiles and join the oneness of laughter .... I think?

Enlightenment is being anywhere, anytime

Enlightenment is of the Mind.

In its natural state the Mind can be anywhere, anytime.

It always was and always will be.

In an instant, the Mind can travel to the Moon.

In an instant the Mind can create. The Mind has created all that we think we are.

In an instant the Mind can make us happy or sad. It depends on what we choose.

We can choose our limiting beliefs or we can accept unlimited reality?

Enlightenment requires personal effort

The intellectual debates will always be there.

One view is that knowledge and wisdom can only be acquired through learning, experiencing and time. This is based on our senses absorbing what we see, hear, feel, touch, taste and think about the external world.

Another view is that knowledge and wisdom are within us all, or can be revealed directly, or is accessible to us all, perhaps in some universal knowledge base.

Another view is that it is not 'either/or' views at all but 'both' this and that.

My view is that we should not take other views at face value, as beliefs that we may or may not agree with, but we should make the personal effort to experience for ourselves.

Only through personal effort and personal experience can we get the 'aha' factor.

Only through personal effort and experience can we 'know' what is right, as opposed to having learned something which could be right or wrong.

You might call these 'aha's' instants of enlightenment?

www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment is reality

I share the view that all beings are enlightened.

The problem is that we do not know it.

The problem is that we are taught that we are not enlightened.

Many of us even feel guilty to even suggest that we might be enlightened.

The key is not to gradually become more enlightened as we journey through life, but to gradually, or even instantly, realise and remember who we always were and who we will always be, here and now!

Zen Masters know this well.

It's about discovering who we 'really are' and not about who we 'believe we are'.

At least I think and feel this is so?

Ron Young

www.in-love-with-wisdom.com

Enlightenment and higher consciousness

The Ancient Sages and Yogis have taught for many years that there are several degrees, or states, of awareness leading towards a fully realised awakened and enlightened state.

They would spend years in 'forest academies' (and still do) to learn to apply spiritual disciplines that lead to these higher states of consciousness.

What a colossal gamble to take! What great trust they must have placed in their teachers!

They propose that we are all familiar with the three states of 'dreamless sleep', dreaming and being awake. They propose that we are not really fully awake but in a lower state of awareness, and that we are still in a sort of dream state. They propose that we can all discipline and train ourselves to lift our states to a fourth and higher state of mindfulness and total awareness of the true reality of the 'here and now'. They propose that we can, through meditation, reach higher states of consciousness and even receive insights and/or higher intuitions. They propose that we will enjoy more peaceful and happy states and become more loving and compassionate towards our fellow beings.

What is nice is that they ask us not to take their word for it at all. In fact, they welcome constructive doubt and challenge. Rather, they ask us to simply try and see if it 'works for you'.

Many years ago, I thought I would try. And it works for me! How about you?

Enlightenment is simple purity

The Ancient Sages formulated the tradition of simplicity and purity, ultimately giving rise to a state of Enlightenment.

Simplify and purify thoughts, feelings, words and actions.

Simplify and purify the body, mind and heart.

Maybe the very acts of purification brings us nearer to a state of simplification.

Maybe the very acts of simplification bring us nearer to a state of purification.

To simply purify sounds right as an act, and to purely simplify sounds right as a thought?