Enlightenment

Enlightenment to me, used to be a search for something outside of myself. As a youngster I debated the merits of the church and rebelled because the various factions seemed to be at odds with one another. I witnessed hypocrisy, and diametrically opposed views facing off against one another with respect to who would be saved, who the infidels were and who would be chosen to enter the kingdom of God. It occurred to me that it was impossible for all of these religious points of view to be true, so I searched even further.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastianism, you name it, I've probably read about it. It was then that I started forming my own hybrid belief systems based on the teachings of everything I had read. I'd pick and choose the best parts of each, or more accurately, the parts that fit the unstructured life that I had chosen for myself. It was only later in life that I realized that handpicking values from a smorgasborg of practices does not a religion make. True enlightenment comes from discipline and introspect.

Enlightenment doesn't come from the outside. It comes from what's inside of us and is revealed through self-education, contemplation, inspiration and meditation. I've recently been reading quite a bit about quantum physics and the Zero-Point field. Dr. Wayne Dyer refers to it as source energy and Yoda refers to it as the force, while still others refer to it as the Holy Spirit. It is the universal energy that connects us all and everything else in the universe. It's pretty spacey, I agree, but the math works out. And there are a great number of serious phycisists who can support these theoretical axioms through their scientific experimentation.

Whether you find true enlightenment through the Bible, the Koran, the teachings of Ghandi or confucious; You must have faith and believe in it with every ounce of conviction in your heart. It isn't something you can turn on and off at will. It becomes a part of who you are. It shows up in your smile, the way you shake hands and the work that you do day in and day out. I cannot say that I am an enlightened individual by any means, but I continue to grow in my faith and I try to live a life more in tune with the harmonistic vibration of the cosmos, yes all at the same time.