Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing (The Enlightenment Trilogy Book 1)

by Jed McKenna

The truth, though, is that nothing is really wrong. Nothing is ever wrong and nothing can be wrong. It’s not even wrong to believe that something is wrong.

Wrong is simply not possible. As Alexander Pope wrote, “One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.” Wrongness is in the eye of the beholder and nowhere else.

The fear of no-self is the mother of all fears, the one upon which all others are based. No fear is so small or petty that the fear of no-self isn’t at its heart. All fear is ultimately fear of no-self.

Awakening is the process of deprogramming. Enlightenment is the unprogrammed state.

do it simply because I’m so inclined. I have a built-in urge to express what I find interesting, and the only thing I find interesting is the great journey that culminates in abiding non-dual awareness. I

You observe events and you allow the flow of things to do the steering and you go where you go.

“The wise are impartial,” says the Tao.

The enlightened view life as a dream, so how could they possibly differentiate between right and wrong or good and evil?

Enlightenment is about truth. It’s not about becoming a better or happier person. It’s not about personal growth or spiritual evolution.

the fastest way to reduce otherwise decent people to a state of savagery is by tampering with their belief system.

only way anyone will ever have even the slightest sense of what it means to be a butterfly is to become one.

An easy way to distinguish between caterpillars and butterflies is to remember that the enlightened don’t attach importance to anything, and that enlightenment doesn’t require knowledge.

It’s not about love or compassion or consciousness. It’s about truth.

You are neither holy nor wise, just an ordinary fellow who has completed his work. Layman P’ang

But to someone who wants to get to the truth, who they are is what’s in the way.

All fear is ultimately fear of this inner black hole, and nothing on this side of that hole is true. The process of achieving enlightenment is about breaking through the blockage and stepping through the hole, and anything that’s not about getting to and through the hole is just more rubbish and debris.

“Have you heard the term makyo?” I ask her. “Yes, isn’t it like something to do with…?” “It’s a Zen thing. Very handy term. In Zen, no one is interested in spiritual growth.

There’s no consolation prize, no secondary objective. Full awakening is what they signed up for.

During Zen meditation—zazen—the student might merge into timeless unity consciousness.

“When a Zen master uses the term makyo, he’s telling his students that the precious gems they’re stopping to pick up or the pretty flowers they’re pausing to collect only have value or beauty in the world they’ve chosen to leave behind.

The price of truth is everything. Everything. That’s the rule and it’s inviolable.”

it’s not the vast ocean or the billions of fish in it, but the inability of those fish to find water.

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

By externalizing your thoughts, you can become your own guru; judging yourself, giving feedback, providing a more objective and elevated

perspective.”

you’re just another shipwreck victim floundering in the ocean and all the compassion in the world is of absolutely no use to the other victims floundering around you. Resolve your own situation first, and then maybe your compassion will translate into something of value to others. I

The simple fact is that you are of no use to anyone else if you’re in the same situation they are.”

Use the process of Spiritual Autolysis as a means of expressing your own highest knowledge for someone else’s benefit. And, of course, keep improving it until you’ve stated the truth.”

which so many seek; perfect equanimity.

one, that Andrew himself was a fictional character, and two, that all importance is illusory. But there was another point to touch on while we were in the neighborhood. “And who created your character?” I asked him. “You mean, who made me what I am?”

“Who is the author of you?” “Well, to some degree, I am.” Andrew replied. “Okay, then who is the author of the you that you say is, to some degree, the author of you?” He gave that some thought. “My true self?”

It may be difficult to imagine not taking yourself personally, but it can be done when you see clearly that who you are has little or nothing to do with you.”

To begin with, neither one of us has the slightest idea what the Buddha said because he didn’t write it down and get it notarized.

And since he’s not here to explain, we’re on our own.”

“The Tao says that the sage walks in the world but leaves no footprints.

There’s no point in acting like someone who is already where you want to be, the point is to get there yourself. The way to become a sage isn’t to act like one. Become a sage first and then you pick up all the sagely characteristics free and easy.”

Rammurti S. Mishra’s book Fundamentals of Yoga tucked away in case I find a shady tree to sprawl out under. I don’t get on my bike just yet.

Zen has a very alluring patina to it.

The giver is always the true recipient. It’s one of those universal laws that keeps everything balanced.

I’m a fan of transpersonal psychology in general and Dr. Stanislav Grof in particular.

“Solipsism is defined as the belief that the only thing you can know for sure is that you exist, and that any other true knowledge is impossible. But, like I say, it’s not really a belief, it’s just the way it is.”

they must if they hope to convince a sincere and intelligent audience that the absurd is true and the obvious is false.

they know that seekers will gladly pay to be reassured that, common sense aside, they can wake up and stay asleep; awakening within the dreamstate being a much more marketable solution than waking up from

it. Such

Five words: Ask yourself “Who am I?” Five words that render all other words—including those of Ramana Maharshi—superfluous.

The fundamental conflict in the spiritual quest is that ego desires spiritual enlightenment, but ego can never achieve spiritual enlightenment.

Listen! Here’s all you need to know to become enlightened: Sit down, shut up, and ask yourself what’s true until you know.

possess selfless awareness and you don’t. I know that’s starting to sound like guruspeak, but it’s the simple truth. The truth is identical for both of us. I haven’t achieved a better status than you. When you hear someone say that searching for enlightenment is like fish in the ocean struggling to find water, this is what they mean.

“The shortest and simplest way to address Randy’s question is to say that all belief systems are just the stories we create in order to deal with the void.

“Beliefs are candles that man uses to ward off the surrounding darkness. They are the charms we use