Quarterly Newsletter Winter 1999/2000
Namaste

From Seekers to Finders: The Myth and Reality about Enlightenment

I wrote From Onions to Pearls in a federal penitentiary at the beginning of my own wake-up call describing my own waking-up experience. Interesting to some seekers, perhaps, but what if this was only an isolated event, brought on by prison conditions? What about normal seekers who don't live in these extremes? How do they wake up? This new book addresses those individuals.

Onions was first published in August of 1996, the month I was released from the penitentiary. Before I had completed my required six months of halfway house confinement, the second 5,000 copies were printed, and there have been two subsequent printings. That first printing found its way into the hands of seekers already moving imperceptibly into this fourth-dimensional Shift before they had even read the book. This created a network of energy vortexes in cities around the world where I have facilitated three-day weekend intensives over the past three years.

When an author's first book is successful, there is usually a publisher's request for a sequel; most seem like the "same old same old," somewhat rehashed in a new format. Now, here is the sequel worthy of writing; feedback generated from the thousands of other seekers who have been sharing their own experience in countless Satsang circles (where two or more seekers gather to share their sacred truth). An incredible source of new information is now available to relay to you. The first book was about my wake-up-no big deal! This book will grab your interest big-time because it is the first I am aware of that openly shares what is really happening right now in the so-called Millennium Shift, which was foretold by not only Buddha, but also the Mayan and Hopi Indians. Part of this sharing involves dealing with the outrageous and funny concepts that virtually all seekers have about what it means to be "awake" or "enlightened" as they're swept away by the force of this Shift.

We had fun together in Onions, and maybe it got you wondering about old, worn-out concepts such as karma, reincarnation, free will, creating your own reality, and so on. It may even have opened you up to the possibility of a pathless, goal-less, do-nothing-to-self-realize attitude and understanding about your life and why you are even here to begin with. It's time to move on, with your trusty field guide reporting on countless people's transitions from both feet planted in the third dimension to taking a step into the fourth. And that is an interesting report to write!

Excerpts from Chapter 8. Does Anyone Really Know What Enlightenment Is?

Of all the topics in the realms of spirituality, this is the most confusing one I have come across. Enlightenment generally refers to living in a state of awakened, cosmic consciousness; to oneness, freedom, fulfillment, self-realization, and so on.

What I mean by enlightenment is that a person has gradually, or sometimes suddenly, remembered who they are at their core essence. The ancient memory that Consciousness is all there is, and I am That, comes from a forgotten, deeply hidden place in our own consciousness. Once the first glimpse of this comes to the foreground of memory, a slight Shift in the perception of reality starts to affect our daily lives. The big illusion that we have free will and choice-that we are "the doer"-fades away as the glimpses get longer and more frequent. Eventually we are swept away into the rapture of total freedom of knowing who you are.

I try to stay away from using the word enlightenment and use the word Shift to prevent the confusion of 5,000 years of building the "E word" into a giant, unfathomable myth. I call it a Shift because that's what really happens.

A person enters the world as Source in appearance. However, the game plan of Infinite Intelligence is that we enter a body in a state of forgetfulness of who we really are. We think that in the third-dimensional world, we are the "doers" of our destiny. This idea of "doing" then creates all the negative emotions that naturally flow from the disappointments set up by expectations in the first place. This is as it should be. The whole purpose of life in the third dimension is to know ourselves fully, and that includes the shadow side of the Source, once we find ourselves located in a dimension of duality and polar opposites.

Under normal circumstances, a person lives an average of some 70 years without having a clue of being One with the energy that is the Source of all seen and unseen realities. Then at death comes the big "Ah-ha!" experience of their whole life. Source has been playing hide and seek with itself for a whole lifetime-and now, at the moment of passing, we suddenly realize that we are not the limited, powerless, separated being we thought we were. Source has found itself after a lifetime of confusion and seeking.

The Shift happening now is the first in recorded history. Instead of sleepwalking through life then waking up and remembering our true nature and identity only at the moment of death, a multitude of seekers are actually remembering this while still alive and functioning in a body.

Who are the seekers?

They are those of us who are consciously aware now and have been for most of this lifetime that we have a deep longing and yearning to "go home" and know the thoughts of God. We feel as if we ended up on the wrong planet by some huge cosmic mistake in the shipping department. What drives and motivates the other 99 percent of the population-things like normal family life, careers with eight-to-five jobs, social and recreational activities, and the like-don't give enough juice to fulfill us. We crave something more. We don't even know what it is exactly that we need, but it has something to do with God and our interactive relationship therein.

Now out of the blue comes some new kind of cosmic energy field that changes our perception of everything that used to get us through this third dimension. First of all, our longing has been cranked up to maximum intensity. Nothing satisfies us now but a movement toward oneness. We get precipitated into a long period I call the dark night of the soul. While languishing there our bodies seem to be undergoing some kind of electrical rewiring to handle the higher frequency of the Shift.

Then come first glimpses of the Shift in subtle memories of who we are. They come and we think, Ah, now I am in the Shift into the fourth dimension that Nadeen is talking about, but then they vanish, leaving us depressed and disappointed. They return, with a glimpse longer and deeper than before, only to slip away again. With time these glimpses begin to stabilize into a permanent state of absolutely knowing and understanding that Consciousness is all there is and I am That. The really big Shift is evident when you understand: Not only am I That, but everyone is also That (far from the normal state of affairs on earth here, aptly summed up by Jean-Paul Sartre, "Hell is other people!"

Contrary to conventional wisdom, enlightenment is not an act-it's not St. Paul getting knocked off his horse by lightning, as in the New Testament. You are not suddenly and fully Shifted into a new dimension of perception and awareness. Not even close! Does the sun just pop up from the horizon and show up overhead in a flash? Nature takes it slow and easy in its unfoldment. After all, we have all eternity at our disposal.

Get used to the idea that if you're reading this book, you're definitely a seeker, already involved deeply in this Shift I keep talking about. The Shift has nothing to do with the concepts you imagined might happen around the idea of someone waking up while in a body. It's so subtle and gradual that your closest friends and family aren't even aware that you are changing so dramatically. You may not even realize how drastically your perception of reality is Shifting. It's almost never sudden or permanent. It generally takes a dark night of the soul, a rewiring of your whole electrical energy grid, and a few years of deliverance. Then you can stand up before a whole circle of Satsang participants and say with total knowing and confidence: "I am That, and this understanding has propelled every aspect of my life into a dimension of new and total freedom."

All my love,  

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