The whole point of Enlightenment

The first step is realizing that Enlightenment is possible. Once you realize it is possible to become fully enlightened then you might ask "is it worth all the effort?"

I would like to say that "Yes" it is worth all the effort.

Why?

Because if you can succeed you will find yourself at peace and not struggling like you were before.

I can remember in the 1950s looking around me in Seattle where it is cloudy and rainy a lot (or where it can be cloudy and rainy a lot depending of course upon the year). I remember someone telling me that there were only 7 days of sunshine when she lived there one year. And when she told me this I wasn't surprised.

So, I can easily remember being 2 to 4 years of age and wondering when the sun was going to come out or when it was ever going to stop raining or stop being cloudy. I think this might be where I started to get worried that I made a mistake being born on earth this time.

But, suddenly at age 4 my father decided to move us all to San Diego where basically it's sunny every day (almost). What a change that was!

So, I'm looking around at people wearing shorts or even going swimming in the ocean in the winter time after the previous winter of me in a snowsuit being shoved out the door to go play in the snow by myself when it was dark outside mostly.

When did I realize I wanted to become enlightened in this lifetime.

I decided that this was going to be my career between about ages 15 and 17. I had remembered previous lifetimes of being anything from a banker to a ditch digger to a soldier to a politician to a lawyer or whatever and didn't want to do any of those things in this lifetime because I had already done them before (thank you very much).

I wondered how I could help myself and mankind the most and I realized that I could help more people and myself by getting fully enlightened than doing any other thing I could think of. This to me was genius.

And the end result actually was genius because it worked.

Of course what I thought enlightenment actually was at age 15 and what it actually is are two very very different things.

I'm not even sure I could now describe to you what i thought enlightenment actually was then, simply because that is almost 55 to 60 years ago now because now I'm 73.

So, remembering exactly what I thought enlightenment was then might not be possible for me to think exactly now.

However, I knew that one didn't suffer so much if they were enlightened and that interested me. Because everywhere I turned people were suffering in various ways.

And I knew that even if someone was suffering that they could at the very least pretend they weren't suffering as bad if they were enlightened and that interested me too.

What is enlightenment?

I would have to say that enlightenment is understanding the world and accepting the world and finding peace with the world and oneself.

One might say as a young person, "How is this possible?"

Believe me, this is possible.

And not only is it possible it is probable that you can obtain enlightenment if you put your heart and mind to it.

But, you might not be able to save anyone but yourself. That's the rub.

Or you might be able to save literally anyone and everyone. That's possible too.

But, I think I like the Buddhas way of approaching it best.

He said, "You need to become like a King Buddha and become enlightened so you can share your enlightenment with everyone else."

In other words "If you are not enlightened, you really cannot help anyone else even yourself."

So becoming enlightened you help yourself first to enlightenment so you might help others.

But, here's the rub.

"You can bring a horse to water but you cannot make him drink."

And this is true of human beings too.

So, even if you enlighten yourselves first people might not listen to you but you still have to learn to have peace with that too.

This is one reason I write so much. So, that even if I'm gone someone might find what I have written and become enlightened just reading what I have written about enlightenment.

Is this possible?

Yes. This is possible and even likely. 

By God's Grace