We all search for Truth.
The game of enlightenment is looking for truth in life. Each country has its own set of beliefs, its own consensus reality.
But if you look at the unhappiness in people's lives, obviously there's something wrong with consensus reality. If you look around and decide there is something called "truth," the more you focus on it, and find ways of empowering your life, the more it reveals itself to you. There comes a time when you pierce the veils of illusion and step into a greater reality.
It's called "enlightenment" or "awakening" or "self-realization."
How did you come upon that focus
Take Jesus as your savior, be absolved of your sins and achieve salvation upon death."
It tells you what to do now and what's going to happen as a result.
"Okay. Define God for me," I don't care what sort of Christians they are, the answers are either completely ridiculous, or they'll say something like, "Well, look, I really don't know. You just have to take that on faith."
And, why? What is faith?
Why not take it on intelligence, consciousness and awareness, and see where that takes you? It doesn't take more than a cursory study of religions to find out most of them are power-based.
The history of religion through the ages is absolutely appalling. Pretty well every war on the planet today is a religious war. And I'm not getting at religions- they do what they do. People obviously need it. But to me, that was not the way to go.
I carried on working the same as before on the farm, but I had a whole different focus. I was suddenly alive with inquiry, instead of just working blindly day after day, the way so many people, unfortunately, live.
Treenie had been saying these words for 15 years, but for the first time, I truly connected to them. In one flash of insight, I thought, "My God, if I believe I grow from pain and suffering, how could I know what love is? How could I know what joy is or peace?" I was completely shocked.
My experience was like an explosion of light.
I stood in the center of this incredible light, and it was just an instantaneous falling in love with self.
But enlightenment is not the end- it's just a new beginning.
No, we don't do anything like that. People ask me if I would certify or train people. I say, "Look, if you have truth, you don't need me.
If you don't have truth, how can I teach you how to speak it? Once you live it, you are it. Once you are it, you can speak it. I could teach you every one of the words, but what's that got to do with anything?" I change them frequently anyway.
The great spiritual questions of the ages -- ”Who am I? What is my purpose? How do I live a good and happy life? What remains, and where does it go, when my body dies?” -- have been with us from the first day of the first millennium.
Throughout human history, the questions have remained the same; the ways of seeking have changed with the times.
The new American spirituality is part of this on-going search for the truth about our life here and beyond.
It takes the DNA of America
-- the Judeo-Christian theologies, the Puritan ideal of personal spiritual transformation, the reverence for nature from the Native American traditions, and our core values of democracy and individuality
-- and updates them with newer influences from the diversity of our people and the changes in our culture brought on by psychology, civil rights, and feminism.
Out of this soup comes a different way of approaching the perennial spiritual questions.
Instead of belonging to just one church, one theology, one vision of God, American diversity allows us to combine many perspectives into our own personal way of seeking.
Instead of being told how and when and where to worship by an outside authority, American democracy allows us to choose for ourselves, using our own moral compass and spiritual longing for direction on the journey.
beyond will be given the opportunity to create a personal and practical synthesis of the world’s wisdom traditions into a living theology that honors the full picture of
Human spirituality: our souls and our bodies, our minds and our hearts, our individuality and our communion with others.
When asked about the myriad of choices available to Americans, E.B. White said, "I wake up in the morning torn between the desire to save the world and to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day."
Don’t feel torn as you walk a new spiritual path into the next millennium. You don’t have to choose between saving the world and enjoying the world, between loving your self and loving God, between opening your heart and illuminating your mind.
If you take your time and keep your wits about you, you can create a wholesome and artful spiritual life that nourishes the whole self
-- a spirituality that will help you enjoy the world, and perhaps even save it.
http://www.nexuspub.com/articles/2002/nov2002/interview.htm
http://www.nexuspub.com/articles/2000/sept2000/millenium.htm
