What is Enlightenment?
Enlightenment is a word that conjures up some mystical image off a far of place that we may someday arrive at if we are lucky enough. A state or place to arrive at or a real thing to behold.
Really though, what is reality beyond that which we perceive?
I put it to you that reality is merely what we perceive it to be and what we perceive is merely the outcome of our neurology.
So, enlightenment is no more than creating the right neurological conditions in the body to give rise to the optimal biochemistry which forms a contented serene world view – thus you perceive yourself as enlightened.
The Physical Reality
The hormone balance in our brain influences our energetic flow, emotions, mood, and as such our perception of the world.
All of this influences our behaviour and actions.
Climbing the Mountain
Through physical training we can develop our bodies so that they can sustain energy intake, processing, and output. This state of high flow reduces the accumulation of unspent and trapped energy in the body.
This is about both improving our ability to process, and also about processing via the act of improvements (growth).
i.e., exercise has positive effects but also has a positive affect.
The Mind and Body as One
Training our mind by learning to separate I from me and understanding the traits of our ego is fundamentally just a psychological version of physical training for the body.
The more we can strip away the ego, the more space we create in our minds for our true vitality to flow. The act of reflection and contemplation reduces the accumulation of psychological baggage (trapped energy) while also helping prevent further accumulation of baggage.
A Unified Approach
Combine then both these physical and psychological practices and you start to bring about the optimal internal conditions to connection to our vitality and the vitality of the universe.
The stripping away of stale Qi in both the mind and the body creates a void which is filled with fresh, flowing, unadulterated Qi from the Oneself.
Allowing this Qi to flow through us and embracing its resonance is a state of enlightenment.
Once we have this connection and can consciously feel it, we are able to feel this resonance in other humans, no matter how dull it is.
Steps on The Pathway
This is my guide to the practices I have used, not your guide. It could be the foundations of your guide, but each of our pathways are unique and you must in reality own and discover your path for yourself. I offer this to simply stimulate your curiosity and act as a candle in the dark…
Framing: This guide is quite simply about learning to understand then leverage the body’s (including brains) innate abilities…
- Introspection
- Cutting through the noise of the ego
- Training the ego to be quiet
- Developing the right strategies to deal with the remaining noise
- Physical Cultivation
- Improving our physical flow of energy through diet and lifestyle choices
- Mindfulness Practice
- Connecting with our body so we can feel our energy (yoga, meditation and qi gong), then using this to focus our activities to aid the release of trapped and stale energy
- Understanding how we perform and interact with our Ego as our energy levels vary
- Using all of the above to create a void in the mind by learning to not grasp the noise of the ego
- Awareness and Perception
- Letting go and allowing that void to be filled with pure vitality
- Learning to feel this pure vitality
- Decisiveness and Action
- Practicing putting this vitality in to action
- Living purely and authentically
The Takeaway
Enlightenment, Satori, Equanimity, Awakening, Suchness… call it what you will, but it always exists in the present moment.
All the steps on my pathway lead right back to where I am right now.
The change that matters most is your perception of the present moment.
I will leave you with this:
“Awakening is to know what reality is not.”
-Alan Watts
Enjoy, for now.
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