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There are many different definitions of enlightenment. In the Western tradition, the term "nakeva" is known as "it isn’t what you think it is."In the Eastern tradition, the term "neti-neti" means " not this, not that." In other words, enlightenment is really beyond explanation. It fascinates us and so we pursue it. Some people even enter monasteries to experience it, while others enter retreat centers and programs to find " enlightenment" or "awakening." All around the world, people spend a lot of energy and time trying to find an awakeningor enlightenment.

Enlightenment is portrayed as a powerful, strange spiritual experience. You may feel a powerful spiritual experience when you first recognize your enlightenment, but it is not the enlightenment that is producing it. Quite simply, we can say that enlightenment is the awareness of true self. Your ego … Read More »

Being spiritual does not mean that one must forsake the world or worldly relationships and joys. Taking up spirituality is much more than this. Enlightenment awakening guides one regarding the art of coping with the world while at the same time detaching oneself from it. Attachment brings unhappiness; non-attachment brings peace. We waste the majority of the valuable moments of our lives by worrying about the future and regretting the past. We must remember that life is here and now. Life has to be lived to its fullest at each passing moment in order to attain its actual ecstasy.

Enlightenment is not something which can be gained through external efforts. The guide to enlightenment imparts important insights regarding one’s true self by quieting all personal delusions and false thoughts. This path brings about the awakening of a free soul, a … Read More »

In our busy lives, few have enough time to think about meditation or exploring the world of spiritual enlightenment. But overcoming the stresses and pressures of our busy lives is itself one of the best reasons to take this journey. Meditation helps an individual attain peaceful living in this unstable world. Meditation gives a greater simplicity and meaning to life. Meditation and yoga are the ways by which every individual can attain spiritual awareness. The key factor in our search for spiritual enlightenment is learning how to quiet our minds and be still.

On his Enlightenment Podcast, Dr. Robert Puff explores the various benefits of meditation , which is a critical factor on the journey to spiritual enlightenment. Practicing meditation regularly brings calm. Meditation gives us the key to master our mind and the power becoming a slave … Read More »

One of the most important tools that can help us enter the world of enlightenment is deep questioning about everything. If Albert Einstein had not questioned the laws of gravity he never would have discovered the special and general theory of relativity, which basically describes that gravity isn’t what Newton described as an apple falling to the ground but rather it is a curvature of space-time.

Questioning is key to enlightenment, but instead of questioning gravity or physics, we’re going to question everything. Particularly, we need to question ourselves. The most important question to ask ourselves is: “Who are we?”

Who we are has to be permanent. It cannot be something that changes, because if it were something that changes then who we are during our dreams would be our reality. But we wake up from our dreams so that can’t be … Read More »

As human beings we can suffer so much. Yes, there are joys in this life, but often with joys come pain. We just go back and forth between the thrills or excitements and then the suffering and pain that follow these highs. It’s as though with a high comes a low.

These emotional roller-coasters are often most seen in teenagers. They might fall in love, deeply in love, and think that they have found their soul mate. You might talk to them a few days, sometimes even a few hours, later and they are caught up in the deep, dark recesses of pain and suffering because something is wrong or amiss. Perhaps their boyfriend or girlfriend didn’t call them back, or they heard through their friend something sinister, so their soul mate becomes their bitter enemy. We might think this is … Read More »

What is perhaps the most important thing we can do to wake up and discover who we are is to ask ourselves “Who are we?” But is it knowledge and having the right information that enable us to wake up? Is it having a secret mantra so that we know who we are? Is it having a mystical experience so wonderful that it awakens us to the truth and reality of who we are?

No. It is really none of these things, although they are all important and wonderful experiences that we can have. But what I believe and have discovered to be the most important aspect of discovering who we are is silence.

If we’re new to our search for enlightenment, the most important thing we can do is be still. Instead of engaging with the world around us or with … Read More »

Desires cause us suffering and don’t work because anything that we choose as a desire is based on that which isn’t permanent. That which isn’t permanent leads to discontentment. Even though the desires may be fulfilled, later we’re going to seek new ones again. We’ll want something else and this endless cycle of desire and satisfaction, desire and satisfaction doesn’t work because we’re seeking that which is impermanent. If we truly want to find the ultimate fulfillment of all of our desires, then there needs to be an understanding that we don’t need anything, that what we desire we already have, and we already are.

If we can see that we don’t need anything then in a way we are desire-less. We are also free. We always are free but our desires interfere with this freedom. We desire this and that, … Read More »

Let us explore why self-identification causes bondage and how we can be free of it by identifying who we truly are.

I don’t know if you ever saw it but there was a movie once made starring Arnold Schwarzenegger called Total Recall. A large part of the movie revolved around the character discovering who he really was. He went into a machine that created an alter reality for him. But was this alter reality who he was? Or was he really just another person before he walked into that room?

As we watch the movie we see Arnold’s character go through a lot of emotional trauma trying to figure out the answer to “Who am I really?” We all want to know who we really are. I think that like Arnold in that movie, we just keep searching until we find who … Read More »

Though I was born here in the United States my relatives from my mother’s side and some of my father’s relatives came from Holland. I think because of my ancestry I’ve always been attracted to Dutch painters. One of my favorite painters in the world is Rembrandt. One of the things that Rembrandt loved to paint were pictures of himself. He would create self-portraits or have paintings where he inserted himself into the portrait.

I’m sure Rembrandt was a very wise person and perhaps there was a part of him that was trying to teach his audience or viewers about who we are. His work is a good example of who we are, actually. Our lives are being painted as we live them and we are the painters of our lives.

At the deepest level, however, there is just a painting and … Read More »

Let us take a good look at the question of who we are. What is equally as important is knowing who we are not.

As humans we have an incredibly strong tendency to identify circumstances and ourselves with labels. When events happen we say “I am…” (fill in the blank). For example, if we grow up and experience a few instances when we do something to another person, perhaps if we’re angry, we then identify with that anger and other people label us with it. We start identifying ourselves as an angry person.

This may continue for weeks or years until we start doing something about our anger, and then we change. We are no longer an angry person anymore. Rather, we might be kind or gentle. Who we are changes when we use labels. Yet, as we live life, these labels … Read More »

To solve any problem, we first have to go to its source, the ultimate source of ourselves to discover who we are. Our minds can think of two possibilities: we’re being or we’re non-being. But, because the mind is part of this enquiry, it is limited. It is incapable of going beyond itself and yet who we are is beyond the question of being versus non-being.

This is where meditation can assist us. When our minds are in a state of quiescence, such as when we quiet our minds during meditation, we revert to a more natural state. It is a state of non inquiry and a state of beingness. As for non-beingness, we reach that state when we sleep.

The ultimate self, who we are, is beyond both states because both are part of time and space. They’re therefore also impermanent … Read More »

As we journey through life we spend a lot of our time in the pursuit of things which we believe will bring us happiness, joy and peace of mind.

For example, when I was at Princeton working on my Masters degree, I had a friend who was really in love with a woman and he felt that if he got her to marry him, he would be in a state of eternal bliss and happiness. What happened was that he did end up marrying her. About five or 10 years later I called him just to see how things were going. Life was going on and he was doing okay, but his deep passion and love for his wife had clearly dissipated. He still loved her, but her bringing him bliss had clearly gone away and he was in pursuit of … Read More »

Who are we before anything else ever was? Who are we permanently at our core? When we take everything that is impermanent away, who are we?

When we begin to remove things that we often consider to be the ultimate, we are left with God. However, although God may be the ultimate, our concepts of God are not. Though religion plays a beautiful role in this conceptual world of ours, it still prevents us from God, from the ultimate, because it labels God. For instance, it says, God is good, God is benevolent, or God is wrathful. Any label cannot describe God, cannot describe the ultimate. The ultimate is that which is before anything and everything else, including our concepts of God. In fact, God or the ultimate precedes any label we can use to describe them.

Our concepts are that which … Read More »

When looking at causation, we need to ask: What causes things? What is the ultimate cause of everything? By taking a look at the universe we can see that everything is interlinked at such a level that we can’t help but wonder if anything really can happen. We need to understand that it’s up to the universe to make things happen. The entire universe needs to conspire to cause them to happen.

There’s this wonderful saying that I like: “When I pull a blade of grass, the entire universe shakes.” Scientists and philosophers around the world will agree with and validate the fact that things are interconnected. Everything is interlinked even at microscopic level. But all this causality and interlinking occurs in space and time. When it comes to enlightenment, what we’re talking about is that which is before, beyond and … Read More »

I wrote a poem based on a Zen tradition and it describes aspects of enlightenment:

I wake up,
rain washes the trees,
smells are fresh,
spring is abounding now,
then I wake to the illusion
I’m dreaming.

Enlightenment is about waking up to the reality that life isn’t real. It’s merely an illusion, an extended dream. Our minds create a reality, saying “This is real, everything is real, I am real.” Instead of just witnessing life and being aware of it, we identify with our lives and take them on as an identity.

Enlightenment is like seeing the world through the moon and then all of a sudden, the sun arises and we see the real world through the sun. Everything that we’ve imagined to be real through the glow of the moon pales in comparison to what we see through the sun or through enlightenment.

When enlightenment occurs, … Read More »