Enlightened Beings

Enlightened Beings  

Recently, I was asked to participate in a study called "What Is An Enlightened Being?" As I reviewed the questions in the study I realized how much my opinions  on the topic have changed. Thirty years ago, without hesitation, I would have answered that an enlightened being is a Bodhisattva, one who has reached the ultimate state of purity yet delays that passage in order to alleviate the suffering of humanity. But now, many years and many miles on the journey, I answered the questions quite differently.

Everyone on the spiritual journey aspires to become "enlightened" some day. It seems to always be "the goal." For surely, if we achieve enlightenment it will change everything about ourselves and about the world we live in. Once we start walking the path of a spiritually attuned life, we attend classes and seminars that satisfy our need to become "enlightened." We read books devoted to mysticism; we learn about the value of meditation; and we practice diligently. The esoteric teachings support us by saying that if we do those things and apply ourselves to the noble path, we too can become a Bodhisattva - or at the very least an Arhat. Teachers say it could happen instantly (rare) or it could happen after several thousand incarnations (much more likely.)

As I explored the questions posed in the study I focused on my personal journey. I'd followed a spiritual path for more than 40 years. In that time I studied with some very well-known and some not so well-known mystical teachers. The not so well-known teachers had as much influence (sometimes more so) in my development as some of the very well-known ones. A not so well-known teacher told me what I'd be doing with my life at ages 40, 50, 60 and 70. She was right for the first three decades. (I haven't reached the last one yet.)  So, I wondered, was she enlightened? Or, did she plant a seed that caused me to do what she said in the time-frame she'd indicated. This much I know!  She kindled a blaze a long time ago that allowed me seek the answers that I was now trying to decipher about enlightened beings.

Some self-realized masters said they were enlightened. There's probably little disagreement that Buddha, Paramahansa Yogananda, and Jesus were enlightened beings. But what if I toss in a few others that might alter your belief systems. Does Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Einstein, Darwin, Saladin, DaVinci, Gandhi, Akbar the Great, Nikola Tesla, Mao Zedong, and King Darius of Persia to name a few, qualify? They were warriors and conquerors, scientists and peacemakers, but should they be considered enlightened beings? I now think so because they had purpose, conviction, and a focus on their life's goal. And, they had a global impact on their fellow humans.

But what about normal people who don't have a global impact? I realized my current beliefs had changed and those changes caused these questions to rise to the top. Is anyone I know enlightened? Or, is everyone I know enlightened? I shelved the first one after a few hours of review. But the second question stayed, creating even more questions. Why wouldn't everyone be enlightened? After all, each person is a spark of the pure 'ultimate reality' we refer to as "God." If "It" is the ultimate in enlightenment then each of us must also be enlightened. Except in the vastness of consciousness, each of us is in differing states of realizing it. Therefore, I concluded, everyone is enlightened to varying degrees.  And that enlightenment affects the whole.

So, "What is an enlightened being?" When I got to the summary question on the survey I answered it this way. Today, I believe an "enlightened being" is one who lives a conscious life daily. These individuals have great awareness of their fellow humans. They are conscious of their words and actions and how it affects those fellow humans.  They are conscious of the food they eat and how it affects their spirit and their bodies. They are conscious of the individuals they associate with and wisely choose to be among those who uplift their spirits.  They make daily time for meditation and reflection.  They are more in tune with silence and nature.  And they choose to walk their path with ethical dignity and perseverance.

These individuals, no matter how great or small their circle of influence, travel their chosen path with focused consciousness and full awareness. They are "beings of enlightenment" who live a conscious, purpose-driven life. They hold a brilliant beacon of light that illumines the way for all of us who are also walking up to the top of mountain. To them we are indebted.    

Jo Mooy - June 2014

Illness - It's Not Your Fault

Illness - It's Not Your Fault! 

At some point in our lives, we'll get sick. It may be a simple cold or something moredire. After a month in India, I came home with a severe upper respiratory infection that felled me for six weeks. I wrote an article about that experience called The Zen of an Illness

 published in the August 2013 issue of Drunvalo Melchizidek's Spirit of Maat

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I tried to figure out the cause of that illness and why it had happened to me. After lots of soul-searching I stopped the investigation, gave myself permission to not work, and allowed myself the freedom and time to heal from the illness. I did nothing but molt in the house. Then came this insight - "It's Not Your Fault!" That phrase allowed me to be at peace in the best therapeutic healing I've ever done!

But illness surfaced again this month, when Patricia suffered a retinal detachment requiring emergency hospital surgery. The questions about what caused this to happen and why did it happen, began again. But this time it was different. The 'new age' community and especially the self-appointed 'spiritual experts' assessed the "blame-shame-game." These well-intentioned 'experts' state that whatever happens is because "You obviously manifested it!" Then they follow up with the question,"What are you not seeing?"

Those tired and worn out expressions of what can happen to good people are useless - especially in this time of consciousness waking up. It serves no purpose to blame the victim for carrying the message. And illness is a message. With the metaphor of eyesight, we decided to "see" what's happening with new eyes?  We realized it's not what you don't see - it's what you DO see! For there is always something much greater transpiring behind all mundane physical appearances. And those committed to the spiritual path are in the vanguard of a new consciousness that begs us to see and disseminate the more expansive messages.

In the case of Patricia, she has never seen images in meditation. She gets feelings or impressions. But after the retina detached she had to remain immobile for hours and sleep upright for six weeks.. With one eye bandaged and the other one constrained, her third eye opened up. Suddenly she was seeing imagery and colors in ways she'd never experienced before. She began to receive insights that would not have come prior to the retina detaching. And great teachings were impressed upon her from those insights. Then just as remarkable, she immediately received confirmation on the insights from the most unusual sources.

We quickly understood that illness or adversity must be looked at from a different perspective. A friend saw the detached retina from 'the new perspective.' She posted on Facebook that Patricia was a "Visionary who was seeing in a new way." This prompted well-known channel Gail Swanson to deliver a Valentine's Day message to us. While personally meaningful, this message needed to be directed to all those with physical illnesses or challenges. 

 

In an altered state, Gail was shown what physical challenges really mean and it's big. Those who carry a great light are here as spiritual warriors and alchemical masters. She said, "Any process of suffering carries within it the opportunity for an initiation of the highest order." She continued, "All is happening at the highest level and in a divine way. Though circumstances take these physical warriors to the brink of what they can bear, they use their will to rise up. This is their sacred, holy, and magnificent alchemical power acting selflessly on behalf of all of us."

To set the holiness of that revelation, I published the channel's insight with others. My inbox lit up like the fourth of July. One friend wrote about her father's journey in a nursing home and rehab center. She explained that she "has no control over anything except how she chooses to allow the events with her father to affect her." She's gone through the experience with him for three months and she now sees how he helps the workers who are caring for him. Some of them told her that "because of your father I want to get up and go to work because I see the difference I make in someone's life." Her father Al, an alchemical spiritual master in the end days of his life, (though as he says not planning to leave anytime soon) reminds us that the work we do (in illness) is good, is meaningful, and is valuable to someone.

Others validated the new insights. One saw "the connectedness of all within the Cosmic Mind and the symbolic sacrifices on behalf of all." Another said "reading it brought tears to my eyes as, relieved of blame, I witnessed a great initiation regarding illness." Still another said, "We can't see the big picture as we collectively release fear and guilt. Grace to those who carry the light as they missed 'the bullet of illness' and prayers for those who are ill so that they will carry the illness without fear, without blame and without guilt." These revelations and insights are the universal gifts bestowed by the spiritual alchemists!

With those words, remember this! It's Not Your Fault when illness strikes. Rather, it is your divinely chosen path as an alchemical master. What you are experiencing is being done on the highest levels of service. And from that illness, you and others in your circle of influence, will express release, redemption, and thanksgiving for the experience. For the work the alchemists do frees all of us to look at adversity with new eyes. What better insight is there?

Jo Mooy - March 2014