Jed McKenna - Spiritual Enlightenment the damnedest thing

 Spiritual  enlightenment  sits  next  to  an empty milk  carton 
on  an orange lunch tray  in a gradeschool cafeteria.
It's lying  in  the grass  in a ditch beside a rusting  hubcap. 
It's  on the button holding  closed the left  cuff of a somewhat important  man's  shirt.
 
Enlightenment  can be found  next  to the elevator on the fourth level  of the airport parking  garage. 

You can ask  your dog  for it,  but  he may  not give  it  to you.

Look for  it  next  to the pen  in the pocket of  the checkout girl's  red vest, But  only  on  Wednesdays.

Enlightenment  is in  the trunk,  behind the  jack. 
You  can hear  it  in  the squeak of a hinge at  the  local  library. 
It's  in the  breeze blowing  unheard  through  an  unseen  tree. 
It's  in the  space after the exhale and  before the  inhale. 

You can find enlightenment  in  church,  in  that  scratch  on the back of the pew  in  front  of you.
 
You can find it  in the desert, just  before the wind picks  up again.

Enlightenment  is  nothing. 
Delusion  is  the greatest  wonder. 

Enlightenment  was  in your coffee cup before you poured in the coffee.
Now it's  in your coffee cup.
Two point two billion years before your coffee cup was created, Enlightenment  was  in your coffee cup.
An hour and fifteen minutes after time  swallows the  universe,  Enlightenment will be  in  your coffee cup
.
You've always  known  where  it  is  because it's exactly  where you left  it. 
How can you  not return to a place you  never left?
You  are  dreaming  that  you  are  unenlightened. 
You are  dreaming that  you are  awake.

The question  is:  Why? 
The answer is:  Why  not? 

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Who is Jed McKenna ?

 

Bernadette Roberts - Experiencing the divine

art Yongsung Kim

 One possible way of envisioning the human passage is the following. We think of ourselves as originally emerging from the unknown, from darkness, nothingness or non-existence into the light of consciousness. But as consciousness develops we discover the increasing ability to see in the dark, see into the nothingness or mystery within ourselves and eventually realize that this darkness and nothingness is the divine from which we emerged and with which we are one. Thus we discover that our original darkness IS true light. Midway in this passage, divine light (darkness or unknowing) and the light of consciousness are in balance, with neither outshining the other. But as we move beyond this mid-point, divine light begins to outshine the light of consciousness until, in the end, the light of consciousness goes out and only divine light remains. From this vantage point we look back on the passage and see that although consciousness was the veil that dimmed the light, this dimming was necessary in order to make the human dimension possible. But if consciousness makes human existence possible, it is also not separate from the divine, nor does it completely hide it; on the contrary, consciousness or self is man’s faculty or medium for experiencing the divine — so long as it remains, that is [this is key]. Our passage through consciousness is the gradual return to the divine; we leave the divine unknowingly and in darkness, but we return knowingly and in light.

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