Our Imperfect Humanity
There are many ideas about what enlightenment, or self-realization, is. Many envision it as some kind of blessed state where there are no more problems, and you experience a constant state of inner bliss, joy, and a profound compassion for all humankind.
Others think only saints can be self-realized, and for it to happen you have to have transcended the desire realm, and be beyond the need for companionship, physical comfort, sex and any personal wants or preferences.
This is why we don’t really like using the term enlightenment. It’s such a loaded word, weighed down by many far-fetched stories. We prefer to speak in terms of freedom, or self-realization.
What we teach is that the more you see (recognise What you really are), the freer you are, and the freer you are, the more you’re simply present wherever you are — present without any story.
The freer you are, the more you know yourself as pure consciousness or aware presence, expressing in this unique body, mind, and personality known as “you”.
You still have a story, but now you know you’re not your story. You still have an ego, an “I”, a “me”, but now you know you’re not your ego. You honor the past, keep an eye on the future, but live right here, now. You feel a tremendous gratitude for the gift of being alive, you’re always, essentially, at peace, one with the flow of life.
We say essentially because no matter how free we are, we are still human, and subject to human flaws and foibles, like illness, disability, mistakes, errors in judgment, and even occasional residues of old egoic patterns. Part of being free, or self-realized, is accepting and being at peace with our imperfect humanity!
Above all, you feel moved to share your good fortune with others. You see that the world needs this, before anything else.
~ by Jim Dreaver
