enlightenment now!

Sari Palace Shiva
Originally uploaded by alxindia

the following is from an exchange with someone, online, about the enlightened masters having already shared with humanity so many inside truths about who we are, really, and how this whole illusion layer started, and how we can really get back to the Reality that underlies this temporary world.

Alx: "many enlightened masters have indeed shared how we got into this situation."

Alx's friend online: "Not well enough!
Liberation should be easy.
There should be more liberated people.
How far away is reality? How long should it take to get there?
Reality should only be one step away."


"Reality should only be one step away," wrote my friend online.

& my response is:

according to whom?

I'm a little flip here, but I'm also serious.

just because I think I'm a fine person and merit a total understanding of the underlying reality, mechanisms, origins of this creation, say, by tomorrow -- *grinning* -- doesn't necessarily mean my premises are accurate. I'm saying, just because *I* think I deserve it (and I'm sure that I do, and that we all do, that's not even a question in my mind) doesn't necessarily mean that I'm ready or equipped to handle it, exactly, right this minute.

and therein the rub, as a great master once said.

it comes step by step, systematically, in stages.

like the very beautiful, sincere man who stood in front of Baba Muktananda in the early '70s and asked, heartfully, if Muktananda would please enlighten him on the spot.

Muktananda (a super-top great siddha), looked at the guy rather penetratingly for a moment, and then said, apologetically, "look, it's not that I wouldn't do it -- I'd be happy to enlighten you right now. but you couldn't take it, you would explode."

it's like running WAY too much voltage through a 40-watt light bulb. the structure of the bulb can't handle too much power. it will just pop as its circuits fry.

the good news is that time passes, the consciousness does expand and speed up its purification and clarity in this world, and the stage is set for massive liberation of many many many many souls on this planet.

we're actually exquisitely lucky to be alive right now, as chaotic and painful as the surface world is. it means at the same time, the divine is even more accessible than at other, more peaceful times in this planet's evolution.

what I learned, though, through direct experience in many years of study in India, is that liberation, or enlightenment, doesn't come overnight, or serendipitously, or for just wishing it would be spontaneous and easy.

we have WAY too much, individually and collectively, in the way -- I'd call it karmas, other traditions call it other stuff but however we call the inner obstacles to our liberation, they exist and need to be purified out.

once a soul gets purified, it can hold greater and greater understanding and energy about who it really is, where it really came from, and how to operate from that origin point rather than this relative, temporary, changing world of illusion.

but that's a process. and it means we also have to do our hard work to engage in the process.

and yes, the enlightened masters have really done their maximum best to explain this to humanity, and liberate many souls.

but the explanations are like trying to explain calculus to a five-year-old -- not for our lack of CAPACITY to understand, mind you, but we're five-year-olds in the sense of being a little ignorant in the ways of higher mathematics and maybe need to master some basics like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and algebra, before heading into the calculus waters.

learning anything, including soul mechanisms, means we have to go step by step, systematically, in order to really learn and retain what we've learned.

do you see what I mean?