Part of being “Enlightened” or shall I say…
Along the Path towards Enlightenment
Each step deepens the characteristics of Enlightenment.
Like Thich Nhat Hanh says and of which Craig Hamilton states often
You don’t have to wait until fully Enlightened
to experience the many perspectives of Enlightenment.
In Buddhism, it is realized that:
Our happiness is not dependent on material thing…
Happiness, Love, Joy, Bliss
These are NOT materialist things!
So,
They can’t be affected by any of the materialistic things in this world.
If you are on the first few steps of the Path
And you driving along all happy and smiling
Then,
The light turns red
For a moment,
The smile might vanish, and a small curse might be silently uttered
But,
Once the surprise of the sucker punch fades
The smile and happiness return.
To a fully enlightened person
The smile never fades.
Equanimity becomes the ground of your Being.
This is liberating.
This is Liberation.
These daze, in aughMerichaugh
It’s a challenge to want to be happy when each day
millions of americans and millions all around the world
become victims of our once reasonable country.
I’m not fully Enlightened, but I’ve been on this Path most of my life.
I find that I can allow my rage to bubble up and
use that energy to help fight the good fight.
As a natural part of my ‘Practice
I seem to naturally keep my rage on the outside
I don’t allow it inside where it could disrupt my good nature.
Once I’ve done my due diligence to help bring awareness
to the dire situation that’s unfolding all around us to what must be
a staggering amount of willful ignorance
Most people just don’t pay attention to what’s going on in real time
to millions of people each day
Although it’s frustrating,
The moment I move on to the rest of my day
I’m smiling, I’m content, I’m abiding in Equanimity.
It is important to have Love, compassion, and empathy
for the unnecessary pain and suffering that our country is
bringing down upon a growing number of people each day
But,
If those virtues are not balanced by non-attachment and Equanimity
One is likely to become crippled with compassion.
When that happens,
We become helpless to help
As we become as crippled as the direct victims are.
It sure would be nice if we lived in a perfect world
Heck!
It’d be great to live in a somewhat reasonable world.
But
The reality is,
In this materialistic world, pain and suffering is inherent
That’s life.
But realize
If everything was perfect,
We’d never have learned any hard-won lessons.
It’s easy to smile when everything is going our way.
It takes a true Enlightened quality
to smile in the face of a heavy challenge.
Be the Evolutionary… as Craig Hamilton puts it.
A Truly Enlightened person knows, from the ground of their Being
That,
In this life,
nothing suffers but the ego… and the story our ego creates.
Once we flat line out of here
Everything is Always Already Alright.
This is a knowing
It is far and beyond the naive belief systems.
This is a strong perspective that allows our True Nature of
Happiness, Love, Selflessness and compassion
to naturally keep that smile on our face.
Namaste
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