What does enlightenment mean to you?

Criticism is also a form of control. It's one of the tools of ego.

how enlightening!

It's all good, boogie. I understand your frustration. I've dealt with issues with people who think they know all the answers, who think their god is bigger and can show the way. Their is something to be said about kindness and understanding. Answers come through us to each other if we listen with the heart. We're all in this thing together, and as we grow as a community of love, healing is inevitable. Love is the greatest healing force.

Amen! Well said. The game of making people feel inferior is fueled by  the knowledge that most  people do not take responsibility for their lives and are looking for a purpose outside themselves, creating a need to follow. Following doesn’t require any responsibility and is the way of the masses. It is the followers who do all the harm in the world, not the leaders as is evident throughout history. It doesn’t matter what religion I belong to, or what political party I belong to, it is all an ideology created by a person that needs followers in order for it to exist. Not being responsible for oneself is to be a martinet, controlled by anyone who can capture the attention by creating the illusion of self worth which manipulates the strings. To me all religions are the same created by a person manipulating its followers. Politics is the same, it doesn’t matter whether I am a Republican, Democrat, or a Nazi, they are all followers to a higher calling and abrogate themselves of all responsibility.

As Barbara Redcay said yesterday,  “If my truth isn’t the same as someone else’s truth, it doesn’t mean that my truth is wrong.”

That's it! Imagine a world like that? Perhaps that's what heaven is about, no armies, gangs, political parties, or religions.

A beam of light will fill your head
and you'll remember what's been said
by all the good men this world's ever known.


“Another man is what you'll see
He looks like you and he looks like me
and yet somehow he does not feel the same.


His life caught up in misery
he doesn't think like you and me
cause he can't see what you and I can see…”


I'm a melancholy man
that's what I am
All the world astounds me
and I think I understand


That we're going to keep growing
Wait and see….


Moody Blues - Melancholy Man


There is no growing, there never was, and never will be…. there just is now… and joy is our choice…. no one else made us unhappy or angry.. we just choose to be angry at the way of the world.

There certainly is a lot of BS in the world, aimed at getting us to buy that which we don't need or already possess. Marketing.

Marketing! Creating the elixir for the unhappy and the quest to cover up a poor self-image.

The thing about religion and spirituality is that they are innate. You don't need the teachers. You don't need the books. All you need is you. I don't feel pity for people that use teachers to reach their spiritualities if it works for them, but I'd personally find it inhibitory. I can admit not knowing about this or that, but I won't agree that someone else knows what's better for me than I do. I see where you're coming from and I have to agree.

Well said, Dave. You are a man on the cutting edge. Watch your toes!

I think you are right on, I also feel the journey is different for each one of us. I just don't have the skills to express with as much passion as you have.

I've always appreciated your “bullshit o meter”

Everything I need for enlightenment is between my ears.

This is is Stacy:

“i don't think anybody needs to get enlightened.  i think what needs to happen is for everyone to realize they already are.  :-P  nobody can do it for you.  nobody can show you the way.  nobody has the answers, they don't even have the right questions!”

You got it sister!
Perfect.

:)
xo

R George; you don’t have the skills to express yourself? Really? Who told you that? Why do you believe that? And why compare yourself to a standard that is outside of yourself?  Is life to be mimicked, following arbitrary and capricious leaders? Are you enlisted in the concept that man is a helpless, depraved, contemptible creature, and hold that, as a fundamental certainty? I think not! Man is noble and society is a conspiracy that struggles to never let its members discover such a notion.

Will - I love the way you think!

Man I love this spirited conversation… :) Good for the soul… hehe

nobody is better than anybody else BRAVO!

Guru schmuru…

Here is my way of looking at it…

Kids love this book :)

Stacy, I am right here with you on this one :) Excellent discussion, everyone!

Religon Fails. An old concept of keeping people in check. Kill the religious aspect and obtain spiritual enlightenment. I think everyone needs to experience the feeling of enlightenment. Whatever you want to call it, I think everyone needs to experience the euphoric and blissful state of oneness that people so commonly describe as enlightenment.

Well said, boogie.We all have a role to play in the 'big picture'. Chaos, baby. 

Laurie, and I want to read your book! There is a publisher waiting for your transcript, so that he/she can publish it, filling the need of those who are waiting for a great book that will make a difference in the quality of their lives.

Hey Boogie,

Due to the fact that feelings of enlightenment and oneness brings happiness (assuming the heavy research done by people on the topic is correct), don’t you think everyone deserves to  experience that feeling of happiness?  No two individuals experiences’ would be the same. That’s probably because we are all unique and adopt different belief systems. And yet, because we are all human and that our brain matter is made out of all the same stuff, everyone’s experience HAS to be similar right?? Not that I actually said, “everyone should share a similar spiritual experience.“

I absolutely agree with you when you say that, “I do not believe that our unique spiritual experiences should be diluted and homogenized into a one-world religion”.  Yeah, stuff that. I’d love it if all religion got canned altogether.  Just imagine how many people would be saved from war due to the clash of religious beliefs? Just imagine how happier people in general would be? Imagine what people would do if they felt happy most, if not, all of the time? A new world would arise.  In fact, one very similar to what you imagine….This is off your blog, your words, correct?

”Imagine what the world might be like if all people chose to look within themselves for all the answers. Imagine a world without governments and wars, because each person would be self-governing. Each person would define for themselves what is right and wrong, and in so doing would learn to respect everyone else's autonomy. Just imagine! There would be no written laws, because the Law lies only in each person's heart. There would be no jails, no poverty, no abuses against humanity. Why is it that many people find this so hard to imagine? It's the only thing that really makes sense to me. I don't understand when people hurt people. I don't get it, why anyone would ever kill another person. There's no reason good enough. So what if I am right? What if everyone really does have the ability to know the difference between right and wrong, if they'd only look within and trust their intuition? What is stopping my dream from becoming reality?

Let's take this a step further. Let's imagine the above scenario is true. What would religion look like in such a world? What if religion were defined by each individual for themselves? What if nobody ever told anyone else what to believe? What not to believe? What if the fear were gone, and people were free to find their own Divinity, inside themselves? It would not be a godless world, as some philosophers have said. It would rather be a very magical world! Religion and spirituality would be as real and important to people's lives as the air we breathe or the water we drink, because nobody would make anyone else afraid to believe the truth that lies within. What if?”

I hate to admit it, but your world vision at first glance seems extremely close to what I would envision…except this would only be possible with your mass hypnosis mind-control programming suggestion. Why? Because people are ignorant, or arrogant. Or maybe both. At the end of the day, people need to believe in something, have faith in something in order to feel accepted and to be safe-guarded by a “higher being” or whatever  you wish to call it. Why, I’m not sure. Maybe we’re just ill-designed, or maybe we’re still evolving. I’m not sure. Religion provides this. But it’s fail because there’s too many different beliefs, too many clashes between factions. If people search inside themselves for their own meaning without being dictated to through religion, would people be happier? Maybe.  How would they become happy without their religious beliefs? I guess they would need another form of enlightenment, or dare I say it, discover the feeling of oneness. Because, oneness=enlightenment , enlightenment = happiness. Happiness= a better world for all.

 I think everyone needs to experience the euphoric and blissful state of oneness that people so commonly describe as enlightenment. For the sake of a better world! So, you don’t need my oneness to feel enlightened do you? Ok, that’s cool. I wasn’t offering you any. I’ve got to quote you again though, “maybe i don't need your religion to make me a better person.  maybe i don't share your belief in One True God.  maybe i don't believe that we are all One.  maybe i don't want to.  maybe there's nothing wrong with me, and nothing wrong with what i believe, even if it's not the same as what you believe is true.  maybe truth only exists subjectively.”

Yeah well, maybe you do, maybe you should, maybe you should try, maybe you’re scared(?) and  maybe there is.  There is one thing I can agree with you on though, sweetheart; “Maybe truth only exists subjectively.”  

Maybe you’re right. I really hope not, however.

You’ve inspired me to start a new thread called; is it selfish not to seek enlightenment?

No, yes, not sure, and u seem happy enough.  Do I think “Gods” are a higher being? Certainly not.
 
And finally, no and no.

http://mamaboogie.gaia.com/blog/2009/5/song_for_bob_dylan…………..

……….ARE U SERIOUS??? Oh man…I better clear off my schedule this week… you'll be hearing from me! lol

My only times of experiencing oneness were drug-induced, and usually ended in my feeling much worse than usual (which believe me, is pretty bad to begin with most of the time). Oneness to me seems more like death than life, which doesn't seem very fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmybVZnyXJ0