Dear Friends,
Buddha’s message is more relevant today then at any other time in the history of humanity. In order to survive as a species and a planet and participate in the future evolution of the universe, we must realize our interbeingness and our inseparability in a single domain of consciousness. Survival of the wisest must replace survival of the fittest and the evolution of our consciousness must become our highest priority.
I wrote this novel because I felt that that Siddhartha, the prince, was as mortal and as vulnerable as you and I; and yet he had a shift in consciousness that radically influenced human beings for the next 2,500 years. The story of Buddha gives us inspiration that we too can gain perspective, understanding, and insight on how to best live and work together.
On May 1st “Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment” will be released nationwide. I would love for everyone to post an original definition for the word “enlightenment” within my MySpace blog, deepakchopra.com and intent.com websites.
I am going to choose 2 definitions from each site that are creative and unique. If you are chosen you will have the opportunity to attend a reception and lecture while I am on the Buddha book tour. If I am not coming to your city then you can attend a Soul of Healing course in San Diego or New York City. Details will be emailed directly to you.
I look forward to hearing from everyone!
Love,
Deepak
Every souls opportunity to bathe in the beauty of knowingness that it has always been home.
Enlightenment is the gift of choice, choosing what is as what is and what’s not as what’s not without ever leaving the space of joy, love, and compassion.
Hello from Portland, Oregon.
Enlightenment is both the process and the result of getting in, maintaining, and ultimately staying in the Knowledge of our true nature, or who one truely is, the Supreme Source; an ego-less, reference-less Awareness. Free from attachment, and aversion. Beyond cause and effect. Beyond presence inside time.
Enlightenment is the state of all the Realized Beings, the Dharmakaya, and is present in every moment, every activity, and every experience of every being in every dimension at every time and in every place. Awakening is this Awareness becoming Aware of itself.
love!
-d
Darren Littlejohn
http://blacksamba.zaadz.com
spiritual diary/blog/discussions
Enlightment: It means letting the light of the eternal universe into your own mind, spirit and body in the present of your life.
When our individual consciousness merges with the Original and Divine consciousness, we become enlightened. An enlightened being resonates in perfect harmony with Divine consciousness.
Enlightenment to me is discovering the light within and shining it outward to illuminate the way for others.
Enlightenment is the way of letting go all of the unnecessary so much so that focus will automatically take a higher vibration of energy.
The results of this enlightenment will be unimaginably delightful. The path of this enlightenment is necessary and undeniable. Requesting this of yourself is so simple, yet we remain so complex that we become our worst enemy instead of our best friend.
Dear Dr Chopra
Enlightenment – An illumination of wisdom (short version)
Enlightenment – An illumination of wisdom that arises, without effort, empty of ego, bringing a sense of inner knowing and truth within. Wisdom is ever-present to the awakened one. (longer version)
Thank you for the opportunity to share my understanding of enlightenment.
With gratitude,
Gary Jan
I think enlightenment is not fearing death. Enlightenment can be felt inside when you realize that our souls never die. Every day, every minute, every breath is another chance to be enlightened.
Enlightenment to me means to be able to see myself and reality as it all really is
True BLISS!
When joy is found within your being, peace within your mind and love within your heart. When all three
the father, the son and the holy spirit
or
The Creator, the demonstration and the experience
come together as ONE.
What does Enlightenment mean to me? I believe to live an enlightened life means to develop the heart and the mind and use them together, Wisely and Consciously. I do not look for enlightenment, I strive to be the best Soul integrated person I can be. This means if we believe we are too mentally focused then we must allow our hearts to open to the capacity that our minds have already embraced. If we feel we are too emotional then we must develop our minds to the fullness that our heart has already opened to. Sometimes there is a need to be more mentally focused (but not without heart) and at times we need to be more emotionally sensitive (the mind is engaged). To the best of our ability we intuitively discern which is needed at any given moment given the situation and people involved. However one must not repress or suppress one to serve the other but be willing to expand them both equally. This takes Consciousness work. In this way Enlightenment finds us, if we have a need to label it at all. In this way we are servants of Good Will. I do know that when I do the best I can do at applying this practice in my daily life I am at peace with myself and my life feels full.
To KNOW oneself one with the Father or with other words to fully realize I am that I am
Enlightenment is trusting my gut 100% not questioning where, how or why.Acting “as if I know” yet not needing to know the outcome of listerning to and being mindful of the moment present. Whether it’s to get in contact with someone I haven’t heard from in 15 years to making a left turn when my destination requires a right turn. Being eternally grateful for everything that is. Breathing deeply. Knowing we have choice TO EXPERIENCE this stay on earth,AS heaven or hell. Learning the lessons we here to learn.
Thank you
Enlightenment: The realization that what you have come to believe does not have to be what you were told to believe.
Enlightenment is identification with the true immortal and spiritual self, detached from our sense of ego or the self.
Enlightenment is living in the present, being in the present, free from the burden of the past and worries of the future. It is a state of peace and happiness, enjoying life in its purest form, free from judgement.
To me enlightenment is when we TRULY feel One with ALL beings, accepting all as it is and that we are all one and part of each other (when I hurt another, I hurt myself kind of thing). Of course that also extends as well as One with the Universe, Planet Earth and Spirit.
I think Enlightenment means to be awake to our true nature and to our dharma or purpose in life. I, Buddha
En-lighten-ment: Open to the oneness of all that is.
Enlightenment
Enlightenment means that I am one with God; it means that I have fully realized, if even for one second, that God and I are one. That we have never separated; that the thin veil has moved to the side, if only for a moment, and I am, at once, whole, energized, and in the light . . .
Enlightenment is a return to the infinite journey of wholeness and oneness that is beyond the conceptual reality.
Enlightenment is a waking up in the same room with a different eye.
Enlightenment is not defined by words but let me still try Enlightenment is ……… when we realised that the core of my being is the core of every other living being in the middle of this infinite drama of life.
Enlightment
To me; finding peace and harmony within myself from fear, anger, guilt, ego and judgement, on a daily basis, in this fast energy paced society we live in and spreading my calmness and lightness with everyone I come into contact with.
Enlightenment is merely an awareness of perfect oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this oneness, and nothing else within.
Enlightenment is as simple as “No human being left behind”
Enlightenment is to realize that we are joy and happiness, a true unity with the whole, therefore what ever happen in our live we can act with love and understanding. A state of awareness.
I believe that the understanding and experience of ones true nature and the true nature of all is enlightenment.
Embracing the spiritual domain, which is the source and goal of all desires in life, creates the possibility for satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillement independent of the inevitably changing situations, circumstances, and people that surround us. Those fortunate ones who dwell in this domain have achieved what is often called enlightenment (Grow younger, live longer, chapter 1, page 13 ).
Pierre GRUNDMANN
Enlightenment is a state of being where you feel the joy and appreciation your present experience because you understand that there is the divine present in that moment
I FORGOT TO SPEAK OF THE MIDDLE WAY. IF YOU READ ALL MY LONG-WINDED ENTRIES, YOU WILL REMEMBER, I FOUNDED A PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL, HERE IN WEST-CENTRAL FLORIDA. THE SCHOOL IS FOR ALL CHILDREN. IT HIGHLIGHTS THINKING AND CREATIVITY, AND CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING, BUT, I FORGOT TO SPEAK OF THE ESSENTIAL, MIDDLE WAY. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND, CHARTER SCHOOLS LIVE OR DIE, BY SHEER POPULARITY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL THEATER. BUT, BESIDES THE INNOVATIVE MANDATE OF INJECTING CREATIVITY IN GENERAL, WE HAD TO COMPROMISE, BY PUTTING INTO ACTUAL CONTRACT: “YES, WE SHALL STILL TEACH FOR THE TEST.” MANY TOLD ME NOT TO, BUT REALIZING THE MIDDLE WAY AS ESSENTIAL TO ENLIGTENMENT, THE SCHOOL REALLY HAD TO OFFER, TO COMPROMISE. AND, IN FACT, EACH SIDE (CREATIVITY AND TEACHING FOR THE TEST), HONESTLY HAS HELPED EACH OTHER IN A TRUE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP. PLEASE ALLOW ME TO SAY FINALLY, I DEFINITELY BELIEVE, ONLY BY “ENLIGHTENED EDUCATION,” FOR, ALL CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS, CAN WE SAVE, THE WORLD. I DO BELIEVE THEREFORE, EDUCATION MADE GOLDEN, IS THE ONLY TRUE WAY TO STOP TERRORISM, ALL POVERTIES, ALL POLLUTIONS, AND ALL NEUROTIC AND PSYCHOTIC TENDENCIES OF THE MIND, AS THE BEGINNING FOUNDATION, THAT IS. LET ME END BY STATING THIS: PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS, IN MY BOOK HOPEFULLY SOON TO HIT THE PUBLIC BETWEEN THE EYES, I CHALLENGE YOU TEACHERS, ALL: START UP YOUR OWN CHARTER SCHOOLS! PLAN WELL FIRST, THEN, SIMPLY OFFER INTO YOUR RESPECTIVE SCHOOL DISTRICTS, AN APPLICATION ALL FILLED OUT, AND MAKE AN ENLIGHTENED, TRULY DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTION, BUT REMEMBER WELL THE MIDDLE WAY: COMPROMISE! YES, PROMISE IN CONTRACT, TO ALSO TEACH FOR THE TEST. BOTH CAN BE DONE (THINKING AND TEST-TAKING), FOR THE MIDDLE WAY WORKS IN ALL AREAS OF LIFE.
ENLIGHTENMENT: THE STUDY OF THE REAL YOU, REACHING WITHIN INSTEAD OF REACHING OUT TO THE EXTERNAL WORLD.
What if one day your dreams became your reality? What if one day, all of the parts of your life suddenly fit together; perfectly? What if, instead of struggling, life began to push you along? What if synchronicity became ordinary living and the right circumstances seemed to manifest out of nowhere? What if you could know and do anything? What if the normal laws of cause and effect seem not to apply to you anymore? What if good things just kept happening to you in rapid succession? And what if this was happening to you without the slightest effort? That is the experience of Enlightenment.
If this is your present experience, then know full well that it is no accident. You should know that the life of the Divine is now pouring through you and that you have become one with the process of creation. You should know that the “small you”, has unknowingly dissolved into the Cosmic you. Just know that you are no longer the dreamer. You have become the dream. Your destiny is now a Divine destiny and you are forever at peace with it all because you perceive that there is only Divine Oneness everywhere and this Oneness flows through all things. Divine Oneness is pure experience. You are this Oneness. You are all there ever was, is, or will be. You are the birds in the sky. You are this beautiful ocean. You are love. You are light. You cannot be located. You cannot be quantified. You cannot be defined in any way because, you are only Oneness.
Enlightenment is the attainment of the awareness that everything and everyone is a part of the same universe.
Enlightenment:
The internal point self-realized. That being when one has found the centered, right-seeing, and right-knowing holistic perspective -This Oneness perspective from which one humbly manifests life’s dreams with sage-like simplicity.
For me “Enlightenment” is the feeling of connection with my supreme self and the voice inside me, is be myself because I trust my heart and it divine message.
Enlightment-seeing the roses in a garbage can, conversing with the wind, the trees.
Enlightment-
To be drunk with life, entranced with a moving blade of grass. To weep with passion, while reading Rumi, Gibran, Shakyiamuni Buddha. To understand the simplicity of enlightment, my child catching lizards.
Enlightenment – A fully awakened state, which embodies compassion, love, kindness, understanding;creatively realizing how we are connected to all that exists; a state of mindfulness, recognizing your consciousness is behind your thoughts. ~*~
Enlightenment, to me is…sharing silent understanding as water shares the sea.
enlightenment is when you walk on stage, forget your lines, but remember you still have a voice.
ENLIGHTMENT
JOYFULL KNOWING
Beautiful shining soul
embracing infinite energy, infinite joy,
past is present is future.
Pure consciousness explodes
universe expanding, mind expanding,
no matter,
all spirit
is
love.
(love to you Deepak)
Catherine
Enlightenment is the awakening to the true nature of self and the universe to which we belong. It is a conscious awareness of reality. it is peacefulness, truth and love.
“What Does Enlightenment Mean To You?”
(silence-witness-silence)
ha ha :~))
Perhaps the greatest fault of Western Philosophy, is our sweeping away all thoughts, on, HOW TO DIE WELL, AS MUCH SO INDEED AS WE PUT THOUGHTS INTO, HOW TO LIVE WELL. Dying, and thougts on how to die well, are really the balance of all life, in the end, and the new beginning…Make good karma, and good karma will make you too.
Please forgive: To me, the best book on dying well, is by H.H. The Dalai Lama: “ADVICE on DYING,” (ATRIA BOOKS, N.Y., a division of Simon and Schuster, 2002. Jeffrey Hopkins did much help in translating, as he does so well for His Holiness.) It is so simply written, yet of course, so deeply profound. It has given me much courage.
The indescribable, clear luminous state of undifferentiated pure love, free of conceptualization and the simulataneous arising and movement to free all from suffering and awaken them to that natural state.
Form is no different from emptiness,emptiness is no different from form.
Left to our own designs,instinct will be our master.This is potentially dangerous to both ourselves and the environment.
Enlightenment is the raft to take us over the limitations of instinctual existence to a more selfless beingness and existence.
Peace.