How to Reach Enlightenment

You eat and drink too much. You smoke too much. And your girlfriend kicked you to the curb for another guy, one who claims to read and write lots of poetry (while drinking herbal tea and wearing an affected scarf, of course). Your life is a sinkhole and depression is the broken down station wagon that found a home in it. So what do you do now? Find a length of rope and a shower rod? Perish the thought. What you really need is to find peace within yourself, and you're in luck--I'm handing out free lessons today. In all seriousness, taking a few simple steps toward enlightenment can do wonders for you. If you possess the courage, this article has the potential to help your wounded soul.

Instructions

1. Love and respect yourself. Whitney Houston doesn't call it the "greatest love of all" for nothing (let's leave her personal decisions out of this and focus on the lyrics). You really need to be on top of this one, brah. Don't worry about what others say or think about you. You are an individual born unto this world (whatever this world is), and thusly, you have every bit as much right to live, breathe and exist as anyone or anything else. You have the absolute same intrinsic value as every other organism. Recognize that this means you are a valuable piece of the cosmic puzzle. Without your energy, this world would cease to exist. Go ahead and marinate on that one for a minute or two.

2. Drop your defenses and stave off the innate drive to compete. While it's true that competition may have some positive effects on your life, insofar as it allows you to overcome primal obstacles, too much competition reflects an over-valuing of the ego and excessive concern with power. Consistent defensiveness, similarly, represents insecurity and a tendency toward justifying your position as a creature of equal footing. You need not rationalize your worth. And you need not dedicate yourself to beating your opponent. After all, you cannot destroy or create matter, whether spiritual, emotional or physical, and therefore, winning is a relative term created to boost a fragile psyche. Enjoy yourself and push yourself to achieve whatever it is that you want. But accept that you will never truly win or lose anything, and that your ethereal nature cannot be undone.

3. Acknowledge complete ignorance. At the end of the day, or in biblical speak, the aeon, nothing you learn will ever lead you to complete wisdom. You can trust in the search for truth, but never trust anyone who claims to have the answers. Remember, it's your journey, man, and your journey will always involve searching. But no living soul knows the final destination. We know not whether we will be judged, or whether we will transmogrify. It is a being at peace that recognizes this simple maxim: you will never know everything, nor will you know very much at all. Accept and embrace this. Enjoy the process of existing, and be content with the fact that you have a unique, beautiful energy. This is good enough. After all, what could possibly be better?

4. Ask lots of questions. The act of questioning is the root of philosophy. And philosophy lies at the foundation of humankind's never-ceasing drive to better understand itself, its condition and its role in the grand scheme. Many people shudder at the thought of a great and endless universe, where time and space lose their meaning and the individual man or woman is reduced to an insignificant, ephemeral speck of relative nothingness. If there are potentially billions of solar systems in the Milky Way galaxy, and potentially billions more galaxies of varying sizes beyond our own, it can strain the mind, and even hurt the pride, to contemplate the vastness of it all. Rather than giving in to feelings of powerlessness, open your mind to the beauty of uncertainty. Quoth Joseph Campbell, "Nothing is exciting if you already know the outcome." You may find that curiosity and a thirst to continually ask BIG questions will fuel your sense of wonder and add value to everything you do. There may not be a divine plan, but there is definitely something bigger than what we know. Think about it. Think about it as often as possible.

5. Enjoy your body. Your body is the greatest tool you have in hard reality. Whether your physical presence is anything more than a computer simulation, or merely the conscious perception of what amounts to energy floating in a soup of subatomic particles, it is your outlet for action in this plane of existence. Treat it with respect, but experiment with it. Do not listen to staunch moralists or others who attempt to dictate how your body should or should not be utilized. Instead, trust your own level of comfort and health, and be aware that, for now, this is the only body you have. It is your vessel. Pilot it with passion and love.

6. Be kind. According to the Dalai Lama, kindness is in many ways an important key to spiritual enlightenment. One of the many Lamas was quoted thus: "This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." Personally, I don't know what that means. But I'd like to think it reflects the notion of treating everything on your world's movie screen with respect, kindness and compassion. Even an insect should not be killed wantonly. Sure, mistakes will be made, tempers will flare. You are bound to lose your cool and mistreat someone or something at some point. But you can overcome this. Money, race, status: these are arbitrary, fleeting constructs of the superficial social spectrum that men have contrived and assigned values. Please, if you do anything in these steps, forget and forgive these vagaries of human interaction. They mean nothing. This is not a Bob Marley song, but we are all one, one heart, one love. Be cool. Be kind.

7. Recognize the interrelatedness of all things. When one begins to study philosophy, religion, biology, quantum physics and other sciences and pseudo-sciences, she will inexorably notice the emergence and reemergence of common themes, common questions and common threads of logic and reason. We might call them coincidences. We also might be way off. The likelihood is, whether we believe in the Force, the Secret or the Celestine Prophecy, we will never escape the repetitive nature of everything. Out of body experiences, past-live fantasies, DMT-induced trips that put you vicariously into the thoughts of a prehistoric amphibian--they all share the same substantial basis. Energy is connected in some way. We may discover some explanations for this. Or, we may dawdle on in spiritual darkness. Perhaps the great philosophical discipline of the holographic paradigm, where our reality is nothing more than a three-dimensional projection of all energy past, present and future, has some validity. No one is likely to shed much light on this anytime soon. Irrespective of any knowledge we gain through trial and error, open your mind to the possibility that we are all connected in some way. You won't be the first to do so. The Japanese believe in the way of the kami, a collective of every spirit of everything that ever was. Some people talk about the butterfly effect, the tipping point and chaos theory--all of which posit that one thought, action, feeling, emotion, event or instant begets another. If the scientific record holds merit, we all evolved from one-celled organisms. Could it be that everything is part of everything? I don't know. Perhaps you are thinking what I'm typing. Either way, you can't disprove it. Instead, respect it. Take Popeye's advice: "I am what I am." And so, too, are you.

8. Let it be. Really, it's that easy. Allow yourself to accept that nothing is truly under your control. Sure, you can make decisions on a daily basis that will affect your happiness level, and you should. But there are an infinite number of factors playing on everything at all times for which you can never compensate. And that is okay. Love yourself, love your neighbor. Remember the preceding steps. Nearly every major religion throughout our history has maintained that the material world is illusory, or at the very least, a front for a great and glorious kingdom beyond. While the veracity of such theistic hokum is certainly debatable, your best bet is to perceive these tenets as metaphor. In fact, most of the great revolutionary thinkers of human history can be highly appreciated when viewed through a symbolic lens. In the East, the superficial waking world is Maya, a projection, or a phantasm, if you will. You do not know what lies behind the curtain. You never will. But whatever it is, you are indisputably a part of it.

Tips & Warnings

• Be open minded at every juncture. Free yourself from the bounds of media programming and implements of control. Most religions and governments exist fundamentally to dictate your actions and centralize control in the hands of a sinister few. Despite this cynicism, it's okay to work with institutions toward better, humanitarian ends, but strive to maintain intellectual, emotional and spiritual independence.

• Owe nothing. You did not choose yourself. You did not choose your life. Your only debt is to yourself. Through these lessons, you can live a kind, generous, happy and peaceful life without ever feeling strapped by guilt, debt or chauvinism to false conventions.

• Read. Nothing further need be said. Just keep your mind active. Cherish your brain. Stimulate it.

• Appreciate nature. Immerse yourself in the natural world as often as possible. Man made structures and social designs are cursory and opaque. They hold very little deeper value, as they were born of political, economic and other inherently valueless agendas.

• Beware of those guaranteeing quick or easy routes to truth, wisdom or enlightenment. Nothing is guaranteed after all. And nothing comes without deep reflection and focus.