IF you can understand your traumas in life you can understand yourself and if you can understand yourself you can also understand the world around you

 When I was studying Tibetan Buddhism the most it was during the 1980s in the U.S. and India and Nepal during those years. The most important thing I began to understand starting in the late 1970s was that compassion for myself, my family and my friends and the whole world and all life upon it was where enlightenment begins.

What is enlightenment?

When I was young I believed that becoming enlightened was what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn't sure how I would accomplish this but I knew that most professions I had already had in other lifetimes. So, by age 15 I realized that becoming enlightened would be my profession in this lifetime. Whatever else I did for work would be okay but becoming enlightened for my self and all life in the universe would be my real goal.

By understanding yourself and forgiving yourself and moving on in life you can more easily forgive your children when they make mistakes too. Generally speaking, I found the biggest problem with growing up in the 1950s was simply asking too much of everyone as a child. The amount of pressure put on children then caused so very many to self destruct some before 10 and some before 20 and some before 30. Before I could self destruct I began to study psychology and this saved me. Because I realized that mostly what kills people is stuff from ancestors that could be 100, 200, 300 or 1000 years back. So, the unrealistic expectations of thousands of years of ancestors tended to kill people I knew the most.

When I discovered this I realized in order to stay alive through my 20s I had to let go of all of this stuff from ancestors that was killing everyone I knew in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s especially.

Then I moved forward and recreated myself into the person I needed to be to survive this world and to be happy here.

And enlightenment was my path to both peace and enlightenment and I succeeded in both along the way.

For me, my path was "Family Yoga" or raising a family. Not everyone is cut out for this to be there Yoga but this worked great for me.

So, as I had to learn how to start businesses to feed and clothe and house my family to educated my children as they grew up I also moved towards peace and enlightenment myself.

However, enlightenment isn't a once size fits all kind of thing. 

Because: "The way that can be thought of or spoken of is NOT the truth path or the true way."

And this is especially true regarding enlightenment.

Because each person's path to enlightenment is different.

However, what they all have in common is developing compassion for yourself and all other beings in the past, present and future o the entire universe.

This one set of qualities is necessary if you want to ever become fully enlightened.

By God's Grace