Enlightenment: The Next Step in Evolution?
[The Electric Jesus] • In this podcast, a dose of ayahuasca, dancing DNA strands, and a lotus flower ride have my spirit guides answering the question I've always wanted to know: "It's true; humans can become enlightened. In fact you already are... Now it's time to remember." Is enlightenment really possible or is it a cosmic carrot to grab for? As always, I'd love to hear your personal experiences and stories on the subject.
Creative Commons Image: LisaRoxy on Flickr.
Tweet- 10-23-07
- Talat Jonathan Phillips's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
Comments
Thanks for the podcast
Thanks for the podcast. Like you, I also never used to give a thought about enlightenment, but as I've been experiencing a whirlwind of synchronicities, I've come to believe that it's not only possible but will perhaps happen in the very near future - say around 2012. Now, what that might like look I can't really imagine but it's fun to try.
Universal Enlightenment
Yes, but not always easy to remember in the day-to-day
I agree. I used to only think of this in logical terms of the mind (hey, we're all one, right?), but over the past few years, I've have had brief moments of experiencing an "enlightened essence" in all the beings of our world, but then I forget and the next thing you know, I'm arguing with a cab driver, and I have to start focusing on the breath, letting go, so I can experience the connection again.
In'lakech
Well that's samsara for you, isn't it? =)
One of my favorite meditations was partially inspired by Buddhism and partially inspired by the Mayan greeting of "In'lakech" which means "I am another yourself."
When I move around in the world I try to remember that all entities are a part of the divine source of the Self. So.... I try to see everyone as reflections of me, and myself reflected in them. When I remember this, it instills in me a directive something like Christ told with the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Because why would I be angry or hateful to someone when they are another part of myself? I am more inclined to try to be kind and generous with them when I remember that they are me and I am them.
Podcast not working for me
Working Now
Sorry, the link in the teaser was working, but not the one on the back page. Both are fine now. Cheers - Jonathan
Sure its true...
Well Said
Thanks OneLifeOneARt for those insights. i agree that sayind "I am enlightened now" misses the paradox and flow that seem to be the universe - by identifying or labeling you've denied the essence that is.
Your water/cloud metaphor rings beautifully true and reminds me of the universal substance we're all made of (at least according to string theory) - energy. And at subatomic levels we're all a symphony of mixing, vibrating, flowing energy, singing the song of creation.
2012 We can & must work in HyperSpace as Terrance envisioned
I oscilate. Sometimes I
This Lifetime or the Next and next
This is a wonderful thought and I'd like to lean that way in my thinking - that after death we get the choice of staying with God in perfect peace - but my own gnosis/experience has suggested that we've set out on a journey and until we've really made it complete, we'll keep reincarnating.
Or as "The Gospel of Thomas" states, “Those who will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing.”
But who knows, I for one, hope Adam's right. Of course, there's muliple, perhaps endless possibilities on all of this.
To be enlightened is to be
http://people.tribe.net/neekos
8)
Enlightenment is
It seems that the linear processes of our thinking, the process that allows us to realize a self, an other and the unity of the two, is the very thing that makes us experience the separation from our true nature of enlightenment.
This thinking process seems to be the creator of the materialistic world. The enlightenment of human consciousness is known when we experience the individuation of the material world and its true nature as omnipresence, omnipotence, omni-creative, in absolute unity with the non-presence, impotency and non-creative true nature of reality.
In anthroposophical (R. Steiner) terms, enlightenment is the spiritualization of the material world. Perhaps it might be better said as the realization of the spiritualized material world. The activity that occurs as a result of realization is often talked about as something that has been done or can be done, when in reality it is just what is.
In my experience, Ayahuasca threshes out the chaff of linear thinking and linear time from reality and allows my thinking "personality" to die while maintaining the individuation of being a consciousness in a material form. It enables me to see that the form is not separate from the emptiness, that neither have precedence, nor do they not exist. The gift of Ayahuasca is a window (a picture ring?) into reality.
However, it also has been my experience that it is just a window, and that the regular practice of basic, non-yogic, non-doing meditation is what enables me to recognize the experience while being in this thinking/material reality.
Enlightenment already is. One cannot do anything to grok it, nor can one not not-do anything to grok it.
I love this site. Thanks for everyone that makes it possible!
Beyond Ayahuasca
I also believe "ayahuasca threshes out the chaff of linear thinking and linear time from reality and allows my thinking "personality" to die while maintaining the individuation of being a consciousness in a material form." Like you said, it's a mirror or at least only temporary, but the great gift it gave me was opening that window, a window I didn't even know existed.
It was a major gateway for me realizing their may be more to our spiritual paths, an evolution or remembering that we're all undertaking. It gave me incentive to do yoga and meditation which has really payed off, giving me similar ecstatic, transcendent experiences, but on a daily basis.
form kNowLedge
dear michael,
yesterday i had a conversation on this theme of FORM ...
a famous form is the form of a cube framed by 2 diagonals ...
example meta-level: input - store - process - output ( - harmony )
the last one can be seen as the peace and silence mode of it all ...
the four are steps in a roundabout to maintain that harmony & peace (psi-force)
a more practical sequence facilitating the meta-level might be:
information - memory - formulation - express ( - silence )
you can draw 4 lines, each time taking a corner of 90 degrees all left or all right ... you end up by the beginning and then the cross, the 2 diagonals can be put on "the cube", agreeing with all partitioners in the steps token.
What happens "all the time" is - some partitioners do not invest in step 2 and 3 ... and there by do not invest in setting the content - memory (remembrane) & process (sharing mutuall) ...
The memory part is diffused by the Priest and the process part is diffused by the Merchand ...
This was what we talked about yesterday ... and somehow it comes together in PSI*Me*Nu:
PSI is represented by the diagonals ...; Me is represented by the 3 corners of 90 degrees to take with the other one (270 degrees) ; Nu is represented by take 1 step at a time and thereby respecting the essence of all steps / lines ...
s'ace
SPI*Me*Nu on NeuReeBah strings
Enlightenment is recognition of your real Self
(The following is the impression I've got from reading and satsang, I don't claim to be enlightened so bear in mind this is just my take on the subject...)
A lesson that seems to get reiterated quite a bit about enlightenment is that it's a case of realising your/our true nature, and then living from that realisation. It's not a mental state, rather the awareness in which all states, thoughts, concepts, identities, beliefs arise.
We are all already enlightened, we just suffer from mistaken identities - we believe that we're individual egos, which is only relatively true. What we really are is pure Consciousness. And it's all the running around that our minds do, towards some things and away from other things, that stops us from waking up and seeing it.
I find Adyashanti and Gangaji to be two of the clearest and most radiant teachers on Enlightenment today.
“There is a subtle essence that pervades all reality. It is the reality of all that is, and the foundation of all that is. That essence is all. That essence is the real. And thou, thou art that.” - Chandogya Upanishad
“The traditional analogy is the ocean and its waves, which is a really boring analogy, but bear with me. The wetness of the water is Suchness (or spirit). All waves are equally wet. One wave isn’t wetter than another. And thus, if I discover the wetness of any wave, I have discovered the wetness of all. When I directly recognise Suchness or Emptiness, or the wetness of my own being, right here, right now, then I have discovered the ultimate truth of all other waves as well. Emptiness is not a Really Big Wave set apart from little waves, but is the wetness equally present in all waves, high or low, big or small, sacred or profane – which is why Emptiness cannot be used to prefer one wave over another.
Enlightenment is thus not catching a really big wave, but noticing the already present wetness of whatever wave I’m on. Moreover, I am then radically liberated from the narrow identification with this little wave called me, because I am fundamentally one with all other waves – no wetness is outside of me. I am literally One Taste with the entire ocean and all its waves. And the taste is wetness, suchness, Emptiness, the utter transparency of the Great Perfection.” - Ken Wilber
Andrew Cohen
enlightened is our authentic nature