• Why become enlightened? 1

    Thoughts on the why and the meaning of enlightenment enlight-1

    Enlightenment means continuous growth of consciousness.* It is not something that is attained and once started very unlikely you can shelve it again.* Once you will it into your life, hold onto your hat.* It will blow the doors off your life.

    Now what does that mean?

    Someone once told me that becoming conscious aka enlightened just starts the long process of us deprogramming ourselves.* We are full of programs we picked up from our parents, family, friends, associations, culture, religious background, media.* Some of it was helpful, and some was helpful at the time.* But like all programming, at a certain point we need to outgrow it.* As we move into a progressively more conscious state we must start picking through it and those around you will not like it.

    Unconscious people thrive on predictability and programming and the ability to have some degree of control (illusionary or not) over those around them. As you break out of your programming you become unpredictable.* You will suddenly help someone that your friend "judges" is not worthy of help or you will move in a direction that is outside their comfort zone.

    We still live moral lives, but it is no longer due to moral programming and the opinions of others.* We start acting from the heart not just the mind and what we were told is the "right thing".

    So why!* Why go through something that can cause so much upset in our lives.* Well, it does bring a greater sense of being alive.* Even if this sense of 'aliveness' is due to severe growing pains.* But maybe, just maybe, there is a bigger payoff for everyone as we break out of our secure drone states of life.* I would like to borrow a quote from Dan Millman's book entitled, "Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior."

    "To really help people, you first need to understand them - but you can't truly understand someone until you understand yourself.* Know yourself; prepare yourself; develop the clarity, the courage and the sensitivity to exert just the right leverage, in the right place and at the right time. Then act."

    It always comes back to, "If we clean up the inside, the outside will clean up".* It will not be instantaneous, but the universe will conspire as they say, when we are ready.* Another way to put this is we cannot reach someone when we do not understand them or we lack the courage or clarity to reach them.

    The reverse to this also applies to some extent, when we declutter the physical aspects of our lives and our surroundings. This makes room for new things and new growth to appear in us and around us.

    Contributed by... Koala