CHAPTER 1
Lesson 1
You Are Already Enlightened
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Every human being is like a lamp that is plugged into a great power source. But it's a relative few who ever look for a switch to turn on the light. You are one of those people! Acknowledge the light you have brought into your life and the lives of others. I want to start this book and this very first lesson by asking you to pat yourself on the back for the work you've done.
Your story is already a story of enlightenment. Over the past months, years, and maybe decades, you have begun to access the power that you've been connected to since you took your first breath on earth — the power of your soul and of life itself.
You have experienced times of change and challenge. Instead of withdrawing and backing down, you invested in your connection to your own power. You have learned how to help yourself in tough times. And if you're reading this, I would bet that you have more faith and spirituality than the person you were five, ten, or twenty years ago. In short, you have already become a better version of yourself!
Journalist and comedian Mandy Stadtmiller tells with tender humor how a divorce at age thirty served as a catalyst for her to help herself. In her article, "30 Self-Help Books That Permanently Changed My Life," Mandy writes:
If you met me in high school or college, you would not recognize me as the self-assured chick I am today. ... I think that investment in your own personal development is one of the best investments you can ever make in your own life and happiness, even if it isn't cool to admit to doing so.
My progress from a weepy, self-hating, paralytically over-apologetic, constantly worrying shy chick, to a person who is quite the opposite, is absolute testament to that, I believe.
I bet at this point in your life you also have a list of thirty (or more) books you would recommend to others as you tell them your story. Yet while you've learned and done a lot, you find yourself asking, "What now?"
The journey of self-discovery covers varied terrain. Sometimes it's a soft, steady incline, sometimes a mountain so steep it requires you to deploy all the "gear" you've acquired. And sometimes you reach a plateau and are unsure where to head next.
But you haven't been alone on this journey. You've probably sensed a companion along the way, nudging you in this direction or that, offering encouragement. That traveling companion is your soul.
While we in the consciousness community frequently use the word soul, we don't always stop to focus on our soul and its role in who we are and why we're here. Sometimes we take our soul for granted as that companion who's just along for the ride.
I believe the next step towards enlightenment is to develop an intimate relationship with your soul; to learn to harness what I call your creative magic by learning how it is you got here, what it is your soul hopes to experience through you, and how you can use your newfound understanding to give your soul the adventure of your life.
The good news is the adventure has already begun! This book will show you how a more intentional and directed relationship with your soul will result in a "brighter" life for both of you and illuminate your path as you journey into enlightenment.
The Circuitry of Modern Enlightenment
Somewhere in the room in which you are sitting right now, you probably see a lamp or some other kind of lighting. If the lamp is plugged in, it's able to conduct electrical power. When you turn on the switch, light shines because the power can now move through the electric cable to the light bulb.
The process of enlightenment is like turning on lights in your life and discovering what is there. All humans are "enlightenment-enabled." We are all plugged into the power currents of our soul and All-That-Is. But as you can see by looking at your own life or the lives of others around you, being plugged in does not mean the light is on.
In order to turn on the light, we must take action. We must hit the switch. Only then can the energy of your aliveness flow to and through you.
The Energy of Enlightenment
What exactly is the power of enlightenment — this energy that flows through us? Where does it come from?
There are many words for this force or power: the divine, consciousness, the universe, All-That-Is, and of course, God. In my own studies, I like to refer to it as the divine. If you prefer another term, I welcome you to substitute it as you read. I will also use the terms spirit, source energy,creativity, and consciousness as nuanced aspects of the divine. When I do, I'll explain their meanings in the context of the topic.
The divine fuels your soul with aliveness. In turn, the power of your soul enlightens you and guides you to your personal expression of enlightenment. What is your soul, then? It is the power that sparked the creation of you, personally. Your soul's force embodies you and can act through you, if you allow it to.
A Note about "Power"
Before going further, I want to clarify what I mean when I refer to "power." There are two kinds of power: "power over" and "power through." I am not talking about "power over" something or someone; I am talking about a "power through" kind of power. Just as the electricity flows through a lamp so that the light bulb can shine, the passion of your soul to exist as you flows through you so that you can shine. You turn on the "switch" of your soul, but it does not have power over you. You invite the force of enlightenment to be present in you and you choose how to apply it.
A "power over" kind of power covers your light. I know many people who grew up in the authoritarian regimes of Eastern Europe. I have also met people who have fled from their country of origin for religious freedom. In these cases, their livelihood was threatened by a real "power over" them in their everyday lives.
If you are like me, you did not grow up in an authoritarian or religiously oppressive state. So what has power over us? Beliefs we have about ourselves that are untrue and limiting have power over us. False beliefs about yourself, your roles, and life in general mask the infinite possibilities of your own creativity and separate you from the love of the divine and your soul. "Power over" can have many faces, some of which we will explore later in this book.
You know from your own experience that disproving false beliefs frees you from their power over you. When a false belief disintegrates, then — "lights on!" Your soul shines through you. When you experience your soul's power flowing through you, its joy lights you up from the inside out.
The "power through" quality of enlightenment is tender yet expansive, magical and miraculous, but not aggressive and dominant. In contrast, you recognize the force of "power over" when you sense constriction, a lack of creativity, and a loss of personal freedom. As you continue your journey, notice the sensations that arise in you as you experience and interact with various forms of power, both internal and external. These feelings are strong indicators of whether you're experiencing power over or power through, and can help guide your decision-making.
The power you want to connect with and let run through you is the energy of aliveness.
The Energy of Aliveness
Martha Beck says in her book Steering by Starlight that "enlightenment always tastes of freedom." I would add to that, "And freedom tastes like aliveness." When I sense aliveness in me, I feel free, and when I feel free, I sense aliveness. Therefore: Enlightenment = Freedom = Aliveness.
We dwell in a wellspring of aliveness. Wouldn't it be great if you could take as many bubble baths or long hot showers as you'd like without worrying about conservation? Living in a physical world that has finite natural resources makes it challenging to imagine an endless energy source inside you, but it's true — your aliveness is unlimited.
You might be thinking, "I do not have unlimited energy. I constantly feel like I need a nap!" I'm not referring to the energy you need for physical exertion, nor the energy you expend through mental/emotional activities. Instead, I'm talking about the unlimited energy of life itself — the energy of aliveness.
I first became aware of this energy by watching our family pets. I noticed that as our dogs got physically older, many of them still remained "young" mentally and emotionally. The retired hunting beagles never knew they had retired. At the scent of a rabbit they would still perk up, howl, and run the best they could, following their passion. At the age of fifteen, although she could barely stand, our favorite Labrador, Abby, insisted on trying to catch a ball.
Watching these dogs stay connected to their desire regardless of their physical state, I realized that it was because the energy of aliveness still moved through them.
The reason why this energy is both endless and ageless is that its source is your soul. Your soul is always excited to "be" you, even in the later phases of your physical life. Your soul always wants to create, experience, and evolve. (You'll learn more about this in Lesson 2.)
You Are Someone's Dalai Lama
You are part of a worldwide movement. If you don't think so, the economy sure does — the self-improvement industry is estimated to be worth $11 billion in the United States alone.
But you are more than just a market — you are a change maker. And when you create change in yourself, you create change on the planet.
Like the thirty books that changed Mandy's life, there are teachers, books, scripture, and other resources that changed yours, too. And there was someone who changed the life of that author whose book you read, or the teacher whose workshop you loved, and on and on. You can now continue the lineage by showing up for the people who will follow.
When you think of enlightened people, perhaps you picture the Dalai Lama, the inspiring saints of the world religions, or your amazing neighbor who has a twinkle of enlightenment in her eye at the ripe age of ninety-nine. I am convinced that for someone in this world (or perhaps many people), you are the Dalai Lama. You are a light bulb illuminating the space around you, making the whole world that much brighter.
Watching you turn on your lights by learning to channel the energy of your aliveness inspires others to do the same.
Your Strengths and Challenges
When I said that you are someone's Dalai Lama, did you think, No way, not me? Did you maybe sink your head a little, shamefully admitting that you feel like you're still in the dark, perhaps a lot?
Walking the path of enlightenment does not mean being a perfectly enlightened master. Rather, you find yourself in a continuous process of becoming more and more enlightened. Even the Dalai Lama is still learning.
Sometimes your yearning to develop yourself keeps you from seeing how far you've already come. Let's discuss three skills you've already learned, probably without realizing it. I call these skills, which you can count among your strengths, the "Three Rs."
The Three Rs
These Three Rs are not reading, writing, and arithmetic (or "'rithmetic"). They are responsibility, recognition, and receiving.
Responsibility: You take action to help yourself.
Recognition: You see your true self.
Receiving: You benefit from your recognition.
Responsibility is about engaging. You choose to help yourself when life confronts you with challenges and change. You look for your inner power switch, and when you find it, you turn it on. Responsibility means showing up, again and again, for yourself and the soul force that wants to live through you.
Recognition refers to taking the time to look at what you see when the lights go on inside you. You ask yourself, Who am I? You explore the new landscape and make discoveries. You become more vulnerable moving into this space of the unknown, but you also become stronger as your inner truth reveals itself to you.
As you take responsibility and recognize who you are, the force of aliveness flows stronger. Your light burns brighter. You no longer search for answers, but rather the answers you are looking for start to come to you. You open to receive transmissions of knowledge and truth from inside yourself that enlighten you even more. You become your own power source.
The Three Rs are tools that help you address your challenges.
The Four Challenges
You and I live in a period of great political and religious freedom compared to other times in history. We are free to seek enlightenment outside any particular societal framework. We can go to India, Massachusetts, or our own backyard to pursue our growth.
Through my work as a teacher and life coach, I have identified four primary challenges on today's path to enlightenment: regret, doubt, guilt, and reluctance. We perceive these challenges as personal, but they are also collective. I am among those who believe that when you heal them for yourself, you also contribute to the healing of the collective.
Regret comes to play when you cannot forgive your past; it weighs upon your freedom and creativity. Regret is associated with major losses we can't seem to get over. Something was imposed upon you that you did not want — an unexpected loss, for example, left you feeling powerless. You may carry a suitcase of pain from the past and question why you are even alive. This questioning leads to what I call the "pain of incarnation."
Regret relates to victimhood. You arrive on earth and are helplessly exposed to your environment. In your childhood years, you may have experienced a sense of powerlessness against your circumstances. As an adult, the pattern of powerlessness may have shown up in relationships — in a bad marriage, with difficulty parenting, or at work. Or you may have experienced loss through the death of a loved one from which you cannot recover.
A main goal of self-help and self-development is to find a point of personal power that goes beyond your victimhood, enabling you to reach the other side of regret and become open to aliveness. The practices of acceptance, compassion, and forgiveness for oneself, others, and circumstance are the key. Such practices free you from regret and victimhood. When you accept and forgive circumstances, developing compassion for yourself and others, regret dissolves and aliveness flows.
Are practices like forgiveness a form of taking responsibility? You bet. If you are like me, you may find that forgiving takes effort. You are responsible for finding tools that help you forgive circumstances and the actions of others. You are responsible for applying them. Depending on your situation, responsibility may mean receiving proper counseling to work through past trauma as you move towards forgiveness.
One of my preferred tools for forgiving is Byron Katie's "The Work" (a method of self-inquiry and perspective shifting). I also find support for healing regret in the teachings of Pema Chödrön and Tara Brach. When I sense a bout of victimhood overcoming me, I remind myself to grab one of these tools and help myself. When I take responsibility, I always sense more space for aliveness and joy. Doubt is the denial of your personal power. While regret allows the past to shadow your happiness in the present, doubt allows the present to constrict your creativity and freedom. For example, imagine that you would like to change careers, but you have a long list of doubts, such as I'm too old, I'm not qualified, or I won't make enough money. And then you do nothing. Doubt took away your personal power.
You dismantle doubt by taking responsibility — the first of the Three Rs. You commit to taking action on your own behalf. You can then become the experimental scientist of your own life.
For example, if you want to change your job, what action would you need to take? You might start by creating a vision board, by taking a course at a local college on how to change fields late in your career — whatever suits your personality and needs. As you take action, you then can acknowledge and recognize what you are creating (for example know-how, contacts, and opportunities) and receive the benefits of your creativity.
Another challenge we commonly face is guilt. Guilt strikes when you experience the joy of living your personal power as wrong: In the present moment, you look at the good you have created, expressed, and received with a sense of shame instead of joy. Guilt results from the false individual and collective belief that your light should not shine.
