The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Saturday, February 03, 2007

How I know I am not enlightened

Listen carefully: this is the most important post I have ever made here.
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This is an odd post, because in saying I know for certain that I am not enlightened, I am actually saying that I am closer to it than at any time in my life. I am most certainly not saying I am closer to it than anyone else. Just me. The reason that I am closer is that I now understand more clearly what it is. Why that is I may choose to elaborate upon another time. Let's just leave it at that, reject it if you wish, or accept it. It doesn't matter at all.
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From my current understanding, Enlightenment is not mystic union, or God Realization, or the acquisition of special powers. It is simply being awake from the dream. It is Truth realization. Those other things are great things, but they are not Enlightenment. This maps over with core statements from every realized being who has ever left a paper trail of his or her path or perceptions. But even if it did not, my "Is-ness" knows it to be true, and this would be enough.
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How do I know I am not there? Curiously, this came up three days ago, when a famous friend who is overly impressed by my mind asked me about Enlightenment, and I commented that it is reasonable to me that perhaps a couple of dozen Enlightened people live upon the earth at any given time. "Of course" he said, "you are one of them." I could only laugh.
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Reading back over this blog for the last few days should give anyone all the evidence they need that I am not. An Enlightened being sees the things of this world as shadow-play, is not attached to winning or losing, or the rightness and wrongness of things. They would never find their emotions spiking as mine do on racial issues. The question of race and IQ would not engage them as it does me, and the question of black male images in film would be less important than whether a black or red ant gets that piece of sugar. I am caught in the dream, struggling to awaken. I'm still asleep.
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Understand something: I will never accept white people's judgement, or calculation, that black people are, on the average, mentally inferior. It would make more sense for a cow to accept a butcher's arguments about why hamburger is good. When a group of black psychometrists sit me down and explain how they came to the same conclusion, I'll listen more carefully, and perhaps accept it. But if I was actually Enlightened, I would not care.
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There is not joy in this realization, but there is relief, and a certain satisfaction. I know the direction ahead, or within--both terms are only substitutes for words that don' t exist. I know what has been pushing me all these years. I know which of my teachers have been "there" and which have only been "here" with some interesting ideas about what "there" is like. It's actually kind of funny.
I'll continue to report back. But watch me: any time I get caught up in these debates, shake your head and say: "O.K., Steve: not yet. Not yet."

God knows I will.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The peak of Truth is
1) Identity with the Mystery, that is being aware of your own awareness.
2) Knowing that words cannot affect you since words are only of the mind.
3) Compassion for humanity because they identify with an image of the Self (i.e., words hurt them)
4) Knowing that the Mystery is infinite and eternal but it peaks in knowing itself in Humans who reach a high-level of consciousness.
5) That when the body dies the Mystery remains but no longer knows itself but still exists in all manifestation.
6) The God-head has always existed and is replaced ad-infinitum by the hard work and efforts of the human race.
7) I am the God-head but cannot speak to the world because it cannot understand.

Anonymous said...

The previous poster did well to explain the peak of Truth. I'll have to borrow it. Personally, I replace Mystery with Consciousness. Awareness of the true nature of Consciousness is the realization. Enlightenment to me, currently, is the assimilation between ego state and pure consciousness. The poster writes 7 as I. If one is Enlightened, the question is - does the I remain? It must to assimilate with the knowledge gained of Consciousness, but can they become one?
The godhead is all of us because we are but receptors to Consciousness.
The most exciting time to be alive is right now. Technology and Science have combined and found Consciousness to be apparent in all things, especially the quantum physics in our neurons. Check out Orch Or Theory of quantum consciousness.
I must agree that there might (currently and in the past) only be a dozen Enlightened individuals on the planet at once. But in light of this new Science of Consciousness, the evolution of human kind is about to take a step in the right direction... if they're receptive and are able to accept this collective realization.

Anonymous said...

I believe love is the clue to tell us the nature of enlightenment. enlightenment is knowing the true self, our true nature. The love we can feel for another person is us finding our highest reflection. Remember, everything we percieve is part of ourselves. the greatest things we can percieve relate to the true self: love, and the sacred love that is associated with god. I repeat again, everything we percieve is part of ourselves! Your perceptions come from your own mind, they are you!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your honesty!

steven said...

you are close Dar, as to the first commenter....there is no mystery...there is only the isness...words are only a manifestation of your mindthoughts, and its all just mind thoughts....everything you experience with your five senses is you creating your world at the moment you percieve it...in this mind place (and I know of no others) there are many of us sharing common perceptions of the most mundane (like walls and floors etc.) and a few of us that share common perception of the less mundane (like self realization)...the paving stones under my feet forming the sidewalk on which I walk are only thought manifestations that I and those who are also walking on them are sharing in common becuase our habitual thought patterns/cycles has drawn us together in this shared experience....its all just thoughts we choose to have and either comingle or not commingle.....beyond the thoughts there is nothing...nor is there not nothing...nor is there either nothing and not nothing....there is only observation...free of worry, free of cares, free of plans...there is only the "knowing" that you choose for yourself in this moment...there is not a great hidden mystery...there is only the most mundane...the most everyday...there is only thoughts manifesting and and selecting through your five senses for no purpose whatsoever other than observation/creation itself....there is no meaning...nor is there not meaning...nor is there meaning or not meaning...there is only the is...that is all.

This leaves you with only two "activies" in your existance that are not profoundly absurd...to manifest non-violent happiness in this moment regardless of circumstance while your mindbody is engaged here, and to inspire others to self knowledge and happiness when they permit you to do so.

steven said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
steven said...

As an aside...IQ is a function of interest, not genetics. i.e. if you are interested in something you are Albert Einstein on that subject, if you are not interested in something you are dumb as a rock on that subject...which by the way is why all of our wives think we are dumb as rocks lol.

Niels Klein said...

A lot of people turn their life/dream into a nightmare by making their comfort dependent on the outerly world. This nightmare implies that they start to have judgement over others and other things. They need that, because they want to get rid of the things that seem to disturb their outer world. They start to pass judgement because part of creation is black, white, red, yellow, small, big, a spider, a snake, a rock, a plant. They need something to project their anger, lust, pride, small mindedness on.

Creation is good.

These nightmares lead to a lot of suffering instead of enjoying creation. All that potential wasted and just leading to suffering. To see that, for me, evokes compassion.

When anger arises based on compassion, in other words: if the anger is a tool for arousing the energy needed to help the people you have compassion for, then the anger can be pursued without creating more misery for yourself. However, if the anger is based on being offended by these people and judging them or their believes because you want to make your own outer world perfect, then it is part of your pattern of reinforcing your own nightmare. It's very good to see your own tender, soft spots, to realize that you are judgemental, angry and insulted: that is your wake-up call!

Anonymous said...

To "me" enlightenment is something to work towards, always.....
and just in thinking that thought, "I" am back to where "I" started.

All living things have meaning to their physical lives, which is nothing more than survival and reproduction, and this is good and well for life forms that can only think of such.

But add the human condition of ego and complex thought to the animal that we are, and the dream that is created can seem very meaningless.

By giving someone a goal to work towards, you are adding meaning to their mental/spiritual life.

I think the best path anyone can take along their journey is to help others through/begin their own.

Is this not the true essence of buddha?

Anonymous said...

Being the poster of the above comment,
I must add that I've come to this conclusion at the end of a week of sleepless madness since my first look into the truths behind the occult. Since this first prying open of my "eyes", I've studied everything I thought may help me understand all this on a "higher level", from the symbolism of Norse runes, Greek and Egyptian Mythology, to Paganism, Wicca and similar belief systems, right down to the selfish evils of Satanism, through all of which I've tried to keep an open mind to anything and everything.
I've felt the greatest joy (most of you here will not agree with the use of psychedelics I know, but even on extremely high doses of mescaline in the past, I've never "tripped as hard" as I did when I felt the connection to ways of life thousands of years old)and experienced the inner workings of a madman.
But after all this, I can't help but feel I've learnt nothing new, the symbolism and imagery of it all has caused me a lot of confusion, but as I near the end of each chapter, I've done nothing but clear up the thoughts that I already had, and learnt a bit of history. I now realize I could have saved myself a lot of this confusion by sticking to a particular path, but an open mind has begun to change my life immensely.
Never lose hope of reaching permanent enlightenment, It may just give us power beyond our wildest "dreams".