I have thought about enlightenment for years. For a long time I sought it out, demanding it from the Universe, praying for it, meditating for it, intending it with groups of people, going to sacred spots, and trying to find community that was interested in moving toward Enlightenment together. At some point I decided to give up on it, hearing that is the way to achieve it. And there were even times in there that I thought I was enlightened, sometimes other people did too.
My favorite story is when I was visiting a community in WV, I was on a journey visiting many places at that time in my life. I had given away almost everything I owned and left a commune I was living in with $150 and a lot of faith. Two days after leaving the commune, I had a vision/enlightenment experience...I called it receiving Christ Consciousness for a while. I was meditating everyday at the time, and doing everything based on my intuition. In the "vision" I got all sorts of information about what is happening on the planet and what my life is about. I felt amazing for months after this experience. It was during this time I was visiting the community in WV. I was basically thinking of myself as enlightened, but wasn't telling anyone that I thought that...but perhaps had convinced a few people of that by my way of being. I'm chuckling now thinking of it, because what happened to end my belief of being enlightened was that I was in a garden with some of the other young adults in the community. They had bee hives, and suddenly a bee is buzzing near me. I scream and run away in fear around the corner. I'll never forget Bevin saying something like, "I thought you were enlightened." All the wind came out of my sails and I no longer believed I was enlightened...but here is the key, I also no longer acted like I was enlightened. Beliefs create our reality. If we think we are enlightened, we act it. If we believe we are perfect, we act like we are perfect.
If this is the case, why are we told by our culture from an early age that Human Nature is evil? What if we were told we were enlightened from an early age? What if we were told we were perfect? We see the evil that comes from cultures like America, where we use huge portions of the world's resources and labor to make objects for us to hoard and covet. We destroy the planet and use up people's lives in meaningless ways. We go to war for oil to supply us with our endless need for stimulation so that we don't have to feel the pain of our separation from ourselves and others.
One community that I've connected to in my research that does tell themselves and their children that they are perfect is Lafayette Morehouse. http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/ My understanding is that by doing this in community, if someone is behaving in a way that is not enjoyable, by being approved of, they find empathy for themselves and make different choices in their behavior in the future. I heard a story from a woman who grew up there that in her teens, when her father died, she started acting out. By being loved and approved of, she could see her behavior clearly and decided to change it herself. Interesting to me is that what I call enlightenment, Morehouse calls sanity. And they seem to acknowledge that we go in and out of states of being sane. Its my impression that they actually set up their teachers for courses to be able to be their most sane for when they are teaching. The way I think they do this (I have not confirmed this- its my theory) is that they make sure the teachers of the course have all their needs met before and during a course (they have people actually waiting on them, making them food, bringing them drinks, etc) and I'm guessing they have some rituals that they do before and during the course to keep them having good attention for the students. My guess is that they do a process they call with holds to keep charge down, and make sure that everyone's nervous systems are grounded.
To my mind, enlightenment/sanity, actually then becomes a formula, that anyone can do. And then when I see gurus who sit on a stage and give out love and wisdom to large groups of people, while having every need taken care of...I think its a huge sham, an act. I've given out huge bursts of love and spiritual energy when all my needs are met, and given wisdom that has changed people's lives. Put me up on a stage, take care of my every need, support me in every desire I have to help the world through helping me with my ideas for charities and such, and I could be an enlightened guru too. My bet is that almost everyone on the planet who has had the opportunities for growth that I've had, and has done the personal liberation work, has committed to listening to their inner voice, could also be an enlightened master on the stage, given the opportunity. The time of gurus is over, its time to take back our power and know our enlightened birthright, and create a world where everyone knows themselves as enlightened.
My theory/formula for enlightenment/sanity is something like this: create a community of people who are committed to personal liberation/enlightenment. Make sure everyone's basic needs are met (all needs is even better- Nonviolent Communication is great for distinguishing needs from strategy). Have containers/technology within the community for the personal liberation work to happen, and make sure there are at least a handful of people who have done enough of this work to have attention for people who haven't done as much or any work. Have a lot of focus on having fun, bonding and loving one another. Individuals are committed to listening to their inner voice/re-wilding to the best of their ability, and the community is committed to finding win/win solutions for everyone. The intention and containers/technology may be enough on their own, but the process may be more painful or feel more chaotic.
I'm going to break this down in upcoming posts, giving examples of what I mean, and how it works, where I've seen it work, and how I've seen it not work. I know enlightenment is possible for every Human on the planet, and its possible this lifetime. I'm not sure why we have been told its not, or why humans believe we aren't, but I think it has something to do with this ecological mess we've gotten ourselves into. And I think group enlightenment is the way out.
