cathyq ~

I have nothing against spam ~ I find it amusing

love all-ways,
mem

Here is my experience with enlightenment....

Over the years since I was a teenager I have meditated and practised yoga even when the only space I had was a narrow hallway and my sinuses were clogged. My mother who I practised yoga with as a child truly fell off the path completely and devoted her life to unhealth. because of what I saw in her I've always been afraid of re-creating inmyself. So I made sure to read lots of books, to study, to do yoga, to care about my eating habits, and to have a cultured life. I also meditated and explored different religions and indeed took them seriously. especially Buddhism. But over the years I struggled with it and after a near death experience I gave up because I was angry at what some of these religions promise and what they tell you that you should be. I no longer believe in enlightenment and looking back I never did. It was always swirling around in my mind that it was all a bit too high and mighty for me and it reaked of power hunger to take advantage of the fearful in this society which is everybody. people who are afraid they can't achieve peace and happiness. The idea of enlightenment didn't help me. It was going against what was natural in me and therefore what helps me in my day to day life to survive and feel fulfilled. Anyone who says they are enlightened is not because no truly enlightened being would expect to be treated as exempt from the rest and this is how enlightened gurus are treated. I do not believe in gurus I believe in guides to play a part in my process. We put alot of power into teachers as if they are parents and that is faulty. We are adults that have a right and say to our own lives and a right to trust ourselves even if we make mistakes. To say we don't is treading on dangerous territory because anyone who says they are enlightened and therefore don't make the same mistakes as the rest of us humans in secret makes the worst mistakes of all which is dishonesty and hoarding of power. It's not as if I don't have faith in anything anymore. I simply don't expect anyone to become godlike even if they have been practising meditation for years. For some people it has been found in studies to be very unhealthy for the state of mind. So to say you are enlighteend is to say you are better than the person who cannot acheive this imaginary state when maybe the person who honors their health and remains humble is the one closer to enlightenment because they are not grasping for it. this is where i always questioned the idea of enlightenment. If we aren't supposed to grasp for states of being or for anything then what about this silent desperation for people to be enlightened and in fact to appear enlightened to others in the community by even speaking a certain way. This turns the whole idea of enlightenment on it's head the very fact that the whole idea is not to grasp but in doing meditation for this purpose is grasping and many feel they are grasping blindly. What kind of a life is that to struggle with never feeling you are enough of a human being until you are enlightened and what kind of a person constantly credits themselves with the time they have spent meditating and doing yoga over someone who hasn't? A high and mighty, untrustworthy and very unhappy individual pretending to be happy with the " right mask" Too many people use these practises to convince themselves and others they are happy when it's obvious that things aren't o.k because they are lieing to themselves and others about the truth so they can look good. Not enough people do these practises with a humble mind because too much importance has been put into them asbeing ways of becoming superhuman rather than ways of achieving peace and health over time. But for anyone to say their practises are a cure all are teetering on the edge of being a cult even if noone is telling you to give up your family or friends. The thoughts of individuals should be respected rather than that person being alienated because they deviated from dead teachings that everyone is trying to copy onto themselves and everyone else. Being different from others is not the problem. Not accepting differences is. Although many enlightened individuals profess to do this when it comes down to it they hold to the cold lines of right and wrong, enlightened behavior and unenlightened. Why can't people just call it caring about themselves and other people and put it to practise in their daily lives rather than making it into a word that some human made up centuries ago called "enlightenment"? Don't any of us have enough faith in ourselves or in anyone else t do things right without the need for the example of enlightenment? That doesn't mean tear down religions or practises at all. It simply means stop putting so much power into gurus because of our unaware disowned fear of being alive and of being human with all the mistakes we make. It means own our own power to our own paths and to not give the rights to our choices to make in this life away to anything, and idea or any one person. Life is to fragile and vulnerable to be wasted. it can end tomorrow. The best we can do for ourselves or anyone else is to live a life with true integrity. Otherwise everything we do is a lie if we are silencing our internal voice. Part of being human is our instincts and should not be rejected for the promise of enlightenment.
Love and respect all. Forget about the word enlightenment. It doesn't exist. Love does exist, integrity, truth. Perfection exists nowhere. Or what we can envision of what perfection should be rather than what is. Just live your life and do the things you want to do rather than holding yourself back because you should be doing more enlightened activities.

Anyway that's my take on enlightenment. For any who have felt threatened by what I said your just gonna have to get used to people who think differently about things than you because the world is diverse and no religion can change that. oneness is not about making everyone think the same things. I don't need to believe in enlightenment to be a good person or to achieve my own personal balance and neither does anyone else. If we stop believing in this word none of the practises of meditation, chanting, prayer, yoga will stop. Some people might stop only because it no longer has the "larger than life" purpose they were looking for which is false. The religions would be there, we'd just see them differently and would respond to them differently. The idea of it being "the answer" might disappear and no longer be a probelm and leave the religion with what is of most value. Ideas of conduct towards fellow man and oneself with absolutely no expectation of higher status through becoming enlightened doing these good things. Just how many people do good things just because it's needed rather than having a hidden ulterior motive that it looks enlightened and will get everyone in the community looking at them? The intent behind actions are important but even to those who preach that, just how many of them are making sure their actions are pure of intent with no expectations at all other than just doing good? there is no way to know. But I beleive the notion of enlightenment changes the intent of alot of individuals with anything they do. In their heads tallying up the points of everything they do as leading to enlightenment. Including good works to others and meditation, yoga. Somehow we consider being human as bad. doesn't that create alot of shadows that we project outside ourselves? That doesn't really make the world brighter by being disgusted with natural human parts of ourselves that are always in ourselves and in others. Anyway I've ranted enough.

Peace :)