What is Enlightenment?
My long awaited Handbook for Enlightenment and Ascension explores what is enlightenment in depth. It follows The Soul Solution, which contains explorations into the transformative power of the soul with many self-guided meditations. For over 40 years I have been refining techniques and teachings presented in this book so you can delve the depth of spiritual realizations with techniques to have your own ascension shifts in consciousness.
Enlightenment and ascension refer to the raising of your consciousness. They are the most natural and interesting topics to pursue because they pertain to how you experience life and how you evolve.
To understand what is enlightenment means discarding everything you’ve heard about it and everything you think it is. I assure you it won’t be that simply because what is enlightenment will not be what your analytical mind thinks it is. It is not a psychological state or a spiritual fantasy, but the actual realization of who and what you are, the nature of realty, and the key to the freedoms you are searching for.
Enlightenment refers to a higher level of awareness that affects all that you think, feel, and believe. Your consciousness is reflected in your every experience because it determines how your lifeforce is directed to create and attract everything and everyone to your life. What you hold in your consciousness influences your health, relationships, career, and happiness.
Enlightenment is not easy to define, but it is possible to describe the effects. For instance, some of the more commonly reported effects are (not in any particular order): deep peacefulness, happiness, mind expansion, oneness, freedom, mindfulness, fulfillment, satisfaction, compassion, and total acceptance. In addition, the mind becomes very still and quiet, and there is a sense of being complete and happy all the time. You will also be in the present moment or “Now” all the time, automatically, and without effort.
Enlightenment also entails spiritually defined realizations such as a sustained awareness of being one with the Source of all. This is referred to as “Unity Consciousness,” and some also have the realization of not just being one with the Source of all, but of being non-conceptual awareness out of which all creation arises.
All of this can sound far-fetched to the everyday thinking mind that is usually distracted with making a living, struggling with relationships, and facing other challenges. For those who have experienced the enlightenment shift in consciousness, their lives are forever changed. As you read on you will discover why.
What Exactly is Enlightenment?
Enlightenment is a word with many different interpretations. Interestingly, there is a period of European history in the 1700’s known as the “Age of Enlightenment,” but it has little to do with enlightenment in a spiritual context today. That period of history was characterized by the belief in the power of human reason, but spiritual enlightenment transcends the analytical mind.
To understand what is enlightenment requires recognizing enlightened consciousness is actually a continuum of evolving awareness that reaches far beyond the blissful and mind-expanding experiences that are often described when a person first experiences a spiritual awakening.
There are limitations to the view that enlightenment is the conclusion of one’s spiritual quest. For one thing, many people who have enlightening experiences do not maintain the awareness of their enlightenment, but often express a feeling of being unable to sustain it, or they even describe loosing it completely as they revert back to a former state.
It is not unusual for people to feel a great sense of ease, lightness, and grace pervading their lives for days or even weeks after an awakening experience. However, eventually, and often to their great dismay and disappointment, they begin to experience a return to ordinariness and the resurfacing of conditions they thought had been left behind. When this happens, they may believe they are losing their enlightenment.
This is a common experience. One factor affecting them is that they have had beautiful and transcendent experiences, but did not release and clear their underlying beliefs and programming. Your deep beliefs and programming are much more than ideas in your mind. They also have subtle-energy components in your physical body, your aura, your subconscious, your chakras, and other places of which you may be unaware. In addition, you are influenced, if not controlled, by karmic forces that create and attract the experiences in your life. These components exist as thoughtforms.
Thoughtforms are composed of memories, beliefs, and emotions, and you carry many thousands of them around with you and you usually have little idea of how they filter and influence every thought, feeling, and experience you have. As these patterns rise to the surface, they can trigger reactions that can sometimes be quite discouraging if you do not understand what is happening or what to do about them.
As you evolve in realizations of what is enlightenment you’ll have consciousness shifts that are often referred to as Ascension. This means your consciousness ascends to higher levels of realization which leads to freedom from struggles and suffering.
Spiritual awakening, ascension, and enlightenment are within reach for everyone and they are, in fact, your destiny. By clearing away the distorted ideas about what is enlightenment and dedicating yourself to attaining the highest clearing and realizations, you’ll soon notice you are not the same person you thought you were. You will discover a freer and happier person emerging.
Beyond What I Imagined
Some people consider enlightened states of consciousness to be fantasies, delusions, or hallucinations, probably because they have not experienced them for themselves and therefore do not believe they are real. They may have no internal reference for how such a person feels and responds to life. The enlightened state is only known by experiencing it. Until then all one can do is try to imagine what it is like.
For me, every shift in consciousness was always different and beyond anything I imagined it might be. At first, some of these qualities were transitory, but in time, they evolved into a continuous state. They are far more than momentary altered states, fantasies, mind projections, channeled information, inspirations, visions, or meditative insights; they totally transformed me, as they will you.
Enlightenment is an Ongoing Process
Enlightenment is an ongoing process not a destination, and others have echoed this observation. For instance, in the integral approach to human development described by Ken Wilbur levels of consciousness are divided into major tiers along a rising spectrum. In Power vs Force, David Hawkins describes consciousness as progressing along a scale from zero to one thousand with enlightenment starting at six hundred.
At each level of consciousness the experience of life changes. For example, a person can feel love in many ways and to various depths. Each experience is love, but the way in which it is experienced can be significantly different for each person depending on the person’s consciousness level. The same holds true for emotions, beliefs, and reactions as people move from level to level. At each level perceptions and experiences are significantly different.
Some qualities associated with enlightenment are likely to be temporary prior to permanent enlightenment. They may seem to come and go but they eventually deepen and become continuous and sustained. For instance, some people have a quiet mind and feel peaceful when they meditate, but they do not necessarily have their thoughts completely stop or have all negative emotions eliminated all the time; these states may become permanent with future shifts. I have personally worked with thousands of people in workshops, meditation retreats, and one-on-one sessions and have seen people make shifts at all levels, so I know what is possible for everyone.
Isn’t it About Time You Started Living an Enlightened Life?
Today more than ever, there are many people searching high and low for detailed explanations and guidance on how to find relief from their struggles and find lasting happiness and peace. Whether they know it or not, what they are searching for is understanding what is enlightenment, and what they can do to attain it.
My book, Handbook for Enlightenment & Ascension gives you the answers you have been searching for and you’ll come away with a deep understanding of enlightenment and ascension, as well as techniques to accelerate attaining both. This book is now available only on Amazon.
I also have an audio program on enlightenment titled Quest for Enlightenment. Awaken to your higher consciousness and ascension frequencies. This program cuts through the mystery of ancient metaphysics, Eastern and Western Philosophy, and modern quantum science to accelerate your clearing and consciousness evolution.
