Non-Western Religion Prof.

Oliver 10/25/12 Enlightenment

Eric Gilston

To start in answering the question, let me start with a story, although academically unorthodox approach, I feel that the following story may offer some insight. One summer, at about 16 years of age, I attended a mediation retreat with my school, for their summer program. Now we spent about a week of meditating, practicing yoga, and relaxing with friends. But something happened to me that week, which I have never told anyone or really been able to even begin to explain, until I started reading eastern religious texts and becoming more interested in my spiritual journey. One day while meditating, the instructor told us to imagine a vertical stream of light passing through the top of your head down through your spine extending down through the floor. In any meditation, one cultivates a mindfulness that becomes a state of awareness that animates his/her individual personality. It is a process or rather feeling that is quite difficult to capture in words. If it is done correctly one is able to see another persons aura that is a specific color that animates or surrounds that person. As I was imagining this beam of light passing through my body, I began to have this feeling of love for G-d. It soon became apparent that this longing for G-d began permeating every molecule and atom throughout my body, such that it brought a euphoria I had never experienced before. A couple minutes later I began to be notice eyelids were rapidly having muscle spasms, to which I paid little attention to, and returned to the breath. It had to have been only a minute more then I found myself having an out of body experience. I found that my soul or spirit was rising through this immense darkness until, suddenly. I was surrounded by this overwhelming light that bathed me with a feeling of euphoria and perfection that I have never felt before, and am completely unable to explain in words- to this very day. This was no ordinary light which can be found anywhere on earth. The light was so bright, so warm, so loving, so omniscient that I knew instantly that G-ds love for myself, and everyone living on planet earth is so vastly incomprehensible, but for some reason he had revealed it to me. This all happened so quickly that it was no longer than 2-5 seconds, if not less. The light was actually so overwhelming that I had to let go of it as soon as I had found myself immersed in its perfection. I found my soul, just as Chris Farley in the movie Beverly Hills Ninja, plunging back down through the darkness into my body. I took a second, my eyelids stopped their spasms, and I opened by eyes and starting shed a couple tears of joy that I quickly wiped away as others were beginning to open their eyes. I never told anyone what happened that day, except for the leader of the mediation retreat who asked me if I had ever taken acid before. I looked at him disappointingly and replied, no, of course not. If anyone has ever had an out of body experience, one will describe particularly those on the verge of death one very similar to the above story. I also remember that week, I was able to see peoples auras, especially this one lady who also attended the retreat. Her aura was beautiful, and I thought at first that I might be hallucinating because this pink/reddish light was completely surrounding her. After this juncture, I felt a deep longing passion to be with G-d, and on the night before we left the Maine wilderness. I was sitting with my friend on a log looking up at the beautiful display of stars in the heavenly abode, and I asked myself, If there is a G-d, show me a sign. And no less than a moments later a shooting star came shredding across the nights sky, and I felt a deep sense of

euphoria that somebody up there loves me and is watching me. As Malachi Constant a character in the novel Sirens of Titan, would say, I guess somebody up there likes me. For I can tell you that my whole life has been a struggle with temptation and doubt, and I am to this very day a great sinner indeed. This is to say I am far from perfection, and only able to convey some moments of brilliance ever so rarely. I do not claim to have any abilities that the great prophets and sages of antiquity have been endowed with. Only that their have been instances in which certain experiences in my life have been so out of the ordinary, as the one I have described above, that possibly for brief second in my life, I am able to glimpse just a fraction of the truth of human beings existence. I believe it might have something to do with my special needs, academically speaking, Attention Deficit Disorder. Possibly even schizophrenia, although that usually develops in the late twenties, and I have not reached that age, and G-d willing this is not the case. I can only claim that somebody up there likes me, and that although I am far away from G-d, metaphysically speaking, I long for him all of my days and nights. This longing brings me into a state of severe depression, denial of myself, and my innate goodness. But my faith in G-d will never be shaken, even if I succumb to my own desires. I cannot even claim to have reached enlightenment through this experience, because I am sure that it is different for every person, and the path to it is up to each individuals spiritual path. All I am going to claim is that, my experience with the divine, showed how much G-d loves every single human being on earth, and that we are not human-beings but rather spiritual beings on a quest to find truth to our existence. I will also claim that right now, in this very moment, the earth is undergoing an immense transformation in spiritual consciousness, where now people are slowly beginning to wake up from their slumber. There was a time, long ago, when people were directly connected to the divine, just read any sacred text of any world religion and you will find that these men of renown had direct physical and metaphysical experiences with the divine from Ezekiel to Buddha. Humanity is at this juncture where now we must take hold of our Dharma; fight for one anothers justice with a zealous spiritual understanding, fight against the forces of oppression; and realize that our lives are but a moment in time, and what we do from here on out will determine the projection of the emerging new world consciousness. This is truly an amazing time to live, and it is quite overwhelming, as for me I become quite depressed that I will never amount to anything. But I go back to my breath and take pleasure in the fact I am able to make a difference, even if it is not grandiose. Just by holding a door open for another or by making someone smile who is having a bad day. Such is the way of Dharma, and such is the way to the path of enlightenment. So what is enlightenment, I believe that it is the realization that G-ds love for humanity is omnipotent, and that we must love each other in the same way that G-d loves us. But enlightenment comes in two phases, according the Buddhist texts, where it is the death of the individual (pairinirvana) that enlightenment is fully reached. Of course I have not died yet, and my experience is most likely just reaching the peak of the mountain to have a glimpse of the truth. With this said, I feel that it is my Dharma to help others reach that peak as well, even if in the most minimalistic sense possible.