The Myth Of Sudden Enlightenment

[Guest guest]

Here is some interaction on the spiritual humanism site that you all

may find quite revealing.Enjoy,Doug...........

 

Dear Marifa,

 

You said;

 

>>In my understanding, and in my pre-enlightenment view,

any kind of enlightenment has to be integrated in everyday life,

that is the realisation of one's real nature has to penetrate

each nuke and corner of the old personality,

and that requires long and hard work and doesn't happen

instantaneously.>>

 

(M)

Exactly. And for this to happen naturally and without force, the

psychophysical vehicle has to be prepared thoroughly beforehand

otherwise the whole thing will be pulled back by the force of habit

of emotional, psychological and mental reactivities, as well as

mental conditioning. This is why people who have 'enlightenment

experiences' and then believe themselves to be fully realized so

often still show many of the same unresolved issues the rest of us

suffer from. They have not been sensitized sufficiently to the fact

that no aspect of the psychophysical being can be by-passed

permanently. Da Free John correctly said: 'That which is not

transcended will control you'.

 

Nowadays we hear every other new born Advaitist to stand in the full

light of undivided consciousness. Wow! Soon the world will run out

of ordinary guys like you and me to become enlightened! Fortunately

these pseudo enlightenments with no love, no charity, no kindness, no

heart, only clever ultimate statements about things, have yet a long

way to travel. In fact often a longer way than you and me, because

they first have to go back a few steps down the ladder of delusion.

And this is not easy. So they remain stuck in some hell of mere

presumption, declaring their state 'oneness with consciousness'.

Strange, would you not say, how easily we can delude ourselves even

about matters of such vital importance as freedom and humane living.

 

May I also say that there is no such thing as a one-

off 'enlightenment'. This is part of the great delusion. The whole

thing is based on the notion that because mind cannot become

enlightened, and enlightenment is not of mind, a radical and clear

shift between delusion and that which is not of the nature of

delusion, needs to occur for the other to be. This makes a perfect

argument. But I said to Maria, it does not work that way. Human

life is not an either or affair. We can be and are both good and bad

and these may show themselves under different circumstances. The

totality of our human potential is always available to every moment

of human living. There is no such thing that any state has to wait

for some grand final shift before aspects of itself could begin to

reveal itself. As our self-enquiry deepens and allows for greater

clarity, any aspect of ourselves can show itself at any moment.

 

So, if we create the right conditions for our deepest non-dual

nature to reveal itself in any moment, it cannot but do it. And the

path is just about creating the right circumstance for our natural

condition to become our living reality. No doubt, a gradual

appearance of our humane qualities of love, compassion, honesty, non-

divisiveness, charity and intelligence will begin to become evident.

It is not an either or affair. Human life does not work like that.

We need to become realists, not idealists. And unless proper prior

work is done to free the psychophysical being from its habits of

inner confusion, no sustainable 'enlightenment' could happen. And

yes, unless the free, completely open and natural state can sustain

itself, and not be dragged back into the habits of illusion, our

enlightenment could still be regarded as suspect and not yet ripened

into maintaining its disposion of equanimity, charity, love,

intelligence and compassion. Freedom from bondage is only true when

it is self-sustainable.

 

In fact the whole thing has to do with integration. No genuine

enquiry into our human condition is not evidenced by a process of

gradual integration of, and the infiltration of , our deeper nature

into the functional living reality of our lives. This is how it

works, simply because this is how we are. Our being is capable of

such inter-action between bondage and freedom. At the uninspected

level of being only folly is evident. When we begin to awaken to our

deeper nature, the two manifest intermittently. When our work is

complete, there is only freedom, lightness of BE-ing and the

wholeness of life.

Hand in hand,

Moller.

www.spiritualhumanism.co.za

Author of: Spirituality Without God.