Identifying the Enlightened

Part 3 of the Enlightenment Series

How do you know if someone is enlightened?

Definitely, it's not like in pictures or paintings, wherein the enlightened people have golden halos around their heads. Close, though.

Enlightened people are good people. Emphasis on the word good.

Linguistically, the word good may seem like a weak word. Synonymous with the words nice and kind. But they are not the same.

A person may be nice, but not good. A person may also be kind, but not good. But a good person is both nice and kind.

You will know a good person when you see one. It's in the way they smile, the way their eyes look at you when they're talking, and the way they stare at you when they're listening. It's also in the way they talk. Good people will never mutter expletives. For them, there is always a perfect word to embody your emotion. If you resort to using the words fuck or shit to refer to something, then that just shows how lazy you are to think of that perfect word. You can actually tell a lot about people by the words that come out of their mouths.

Good people always think about others first before themselves. When they have food, they will share. Et cetera, et cetera. You already know that.

Not all good people are enlightened. But all enlightened people are good.

This is the composition of human goodness: The most numerous are the normal people. Normal meaning they can succumb to the dictates of the flesh, they think ill of other people, they will save their own asses before others. You cannot blame them for that; that is the natural human state. After the normal people, we have the good people, who are only a small fraction of the number of normal people.

And from the pool of good people, we have the enlightened ones. They are the ones who walk the path of righteousness, never straying, twenty-four seven. Which is something very difficult to do. And there are only very, very, very, very few of them.


*DISCLAIMER: I am not enlightened. But I wish I was.

Who is God?

Part 2 of the Enlightenment Series

Once, I got into a debate with someone who was trying to recruit me into his bible study group. We were discussing about God, and I asked him, "So what do you think God is, some old man in heaven dressed in white, with a long, flowing beard?"

Of course, I asked this with sarcasm, so I was surprised when he answered, "Yes." And this guy was already in college.

So who or what is God?

(I shall use the pronoun "He" with a capital H, not because I believe God is a man, but because of standard usage, since I am Roman Catholic by tradition. God has no gender, nor does He have any form.)

God is the Force. The Almighty. The fiber that holds the universe together.

I told bible-study guy to look at one single blade of grass. I told him to admire it, to adore its softness, and its greenness. Then I told him that that single blade of grass was unique. I told him to look at the blade of grass beside it. Those two blades of grass may look similar, but they are different; they are not the same blade of grass. Then I told bible-study guy to look at the entire field, made up of probably thousands, nay, millions of blades of grass, all similar, but none of them exactly the same. That, I said, was God. The power that can create a million similar yet different blades of grass. The power that can cause running water to wear down a rock. The power that cause an eighteen year-old to die from an automobile accident, or an eighty year-old to die of old age. The power that can create life, that can create twins and triplets inside a womb.

In order to be enlightened, this is the first step, the first hurdle, that you must overcome. You must find God. Some people scoff at such an idea, and say that God does not exist. But these people have not tried to find God. They have not tried to reconcile the conflicting ideas in their heads. The Force is always there, and only the Jedi are sure the Force even exists. And only those who believe in God can tap into His reservoir of unlimited energy to be able to work magic.

A few days after that encounter with bible-study guy, I chanced upon him again, wandering the campus alone. He no longer carried his bible, and he was always alone, staring into space. He seemed lost. And I believe I was partly to blame. I shattered the only God he ever knew, the one with the white robes and flowing beard, and I didn't guide him to the truth. Well, wherever you are, bible-study guy, if you ever read this...I apologize. And I hope you are fine.


*pic from myspace.com

Secret to Enlightenment

Part 1 of the Enlightenment Series

There are actually several paths to enlightenment. One can use the path of Siddharta Gautama, but it is a difficult path, and not for the average person. Or one can use the enlightenment of Jesus of Nazareth, by fasting for forty days. This I plan to try in the future.

The paths I mentioned above are paths to enlightenment popular thousands of years ago. Although they can still be used today, the mindset of the world right now is so different from what it was then. And so humans have discovered other paths of enlightenment.

Some people might argue that the use of psychedelic drugs is one path to enlightenment. They might even cite the extensive body of work of anthropologist Carlos Castaneda. Let me correct them.

Psychedelics may clear your inner demons. They may give you the energy to deal with emotions long suppressed. They may show you your path in life, or reveal your destiny. They may make you a better person. But that is not enlightenment.

At most, psychedelics may show you the door. But to walk through the door, and tread the path of goodness, that is what enlightenment is. One must walk the path, and never stray. But that is hard work, and very, very difficult to sustain. It requires pure devotion. Which is why enlightenment cannot be achieved by everyone.