Most of us have a clear idea of the goal that we are headed towards. We want to be enlightened. We want to be absent of ego. Most of all, we want to be free of suffering. We have a picture in our heads of what we think that enlightenment looks like; our perfect image of the spiritually enlightened person. But what most people don’t know is that this image we are holding on to, is a lie that we keep telling ourselves. Enlightenment is not like that. Enlightenment is no kind of retirement from life itself. It is no kind of retirement from the ups and downs. We create the illusion of enlightened retirement from the ups and downs when we feel resistant to the ups and downs. We invent the idea that enlightenment means perfect bliss twenty-four hours a day only when we are suffering and we want an end to that suffering. Enlightenment is only the beginning, because after enlightenment you still have to engage with physical life and physical life was designed to be a means for creating expansion.
Physical life is a learning hologram. No one who is alive is exempt from expansion and so, no one is exempt from contrast. And as long as there is contrast, there is the recognition of what is unwanted as well as the recognition of what is wanted present within you. If we were to reach a state where we were magically transformed into a permanent state of bliss, it would mean ended-ness. There could be no further expansion from that place and that would not serve the universe at large. What serves the universe at large is eternal expansion. So even once you have attained enlightenment, you still have to integrate what it has taught you. You still have to integrate the spiritual awareness you have achieved into your day-to-day life. Even though the samsara waves never stop coming, the more enlightened you become, the more your thoughts change. Your perspective changes to match the vibration of source perspective. And so the meaning of your experiences changes. The way you think about and deal with the ups and downs is what changes and so those ups and downs are not experienced the same way that they once were.
There is no shame in struggling. Having problems is not a character flaw. You have not failed if you have a bad day. Buddha had bad days. Jesus had bad days. Muhammad had bad days. You will not meet a single physically manifested being (whether they are an ascended master or not) that is exempt from contrast and so you will not meet a single physically manifested being who is in alignment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. To expect this from anyone is cruelty. To feel embarrassment or shame if you are out of alignment is cruelty. To expect yourself to be in alignment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week is cruelty. And it’s time that we stop perpetuating cruelty in ourselves as well as within this spiritual community that we ourselves are responsible for creating. Spiritual practice is just that… It is a practice. It is still a practice for those who are spiritual masters. Alignment is something that we have to maintain. It is not a prize that we reach and then we are granted alignment forever no matter what we think or do. Alignment and enlightenment is not something that is done to us once we prove ourselves worthy. It is something we constantly maintain. We choose to come into alignment or not in each moment. And denial is no kind of alignment.
So the question is: Are you bypassing yourself?
I love this one. you always seem to have something for me at just the right moments in my life.
could you or anyone from spirit science do an whole episode on SURFING? :)
Hmm. Interesting comments here. Did the Buddha ever have a bad day? Only the Buddha knows. Is it possible to cease suffering? I do not know. We cannot rely on external examples, because we can never know the true nature of other beings. We can only come to know our own true nature.
So I imagine, the only way we can know if enlightenment is a true experience or not is to experience it for ourselves.
Blessings! First comment on here! Lovin’ the spirit science movement!
And with that, I’m actually sharing quite a stiff criticism of this video/article.
I see tons of great advice in this presentation that I hope will impact the world. If we can be accepting of all of our feelings and experiences and authentically engage life, we will grow profoundly, no question.
But all this authoritarian use of the term enlightenment that limits human potential to unending repetitions of suffering… I’m sorry goddess but you have MISSED THE DEFINITION of that word.
“We invent the idea that enlightenment means perfect bliss twenty-four hours a day”
The concept of Enlightenment as far as I am aware derives the majority of its meaning from 3 more ancient terms, NIRVANA, Moksha, and Nirvikalpa Samadhi (I will for simplicity use only the more buddhist term “Nirvana” and neglect the countless billions of hindus, sikhs, sufis, taoists, and others not using that word).
Nirvana, the experience that the buddha arrived at in his 30’s, is usually given a literal translation similar to “blowing out”, and a generalized understandable translation “liberation” or “enlightenment”. But the full definition found in the 4 noble truths, the basic teaching of buddhism, is the 3rd truth “the cessation of suffering is possible”.
The audacity of saying that WE HAVE MADE UP this idea… which COUNTLESS masters have demonstrated to countless seekers both in our lifetimes and in the past… the audacity to say that the billions of buddhists over the last 2000 years very often taught by enlightened beings don’t have any solidity in their core teachings?
AND I’M NOT SAYING you HAVE TO base your life on some possible future state, or that we shouldn’t look carefully at what we call true, or that THIS NOW isn’t the place to do the work… but for this to be on a spiritual growth website, that recently released an openmindedness video, and the basis of the article to be “there is no permanent enlightenment, case closed, so you better learn to love your suffering….”
“If we were to reach a state where we were magically transformed into a permanent state of bliss, it would mean ended-ness.”
First comes the statement that permanent enlightenment isn’t possible (authoritarian and closeminded) and then a declaration of what it would be like. (again authoritarian) Why does it have to be ended-ness… thats like the close minded carnivore saying they could never be vegetarian because they would never get to have a nice meal again. Why is suffering required to have an ever interesting engaging creative experience? This concept is a common argument from people not seeking enlightenment, but I’ve never seen it used by someone denying its existence. Krishnas just say “you don’t want that endedness, better to dance in love for millions of years”, but even they acknowledge Moksha/Nirvana as possible. You’ve really never heard of REALLY enlightened people? In your field? I’m not buddhist, but in my instant attempt to think of a living master I would wager that no one has seend Thich Naht Hanh get upset in verrry many years. One example…and I may be incorrect but I attempt to choose someone you can go talk to in flesh…
(Here comes my authoritarian part now, watch out ;-) )
When we taste our unity with all things, some part of our being will begin striving toward an eternal union with our fullness, YOGA. We may have 1000s of patterned reactions repeating in our experience to unwind and reprogram 1 at a time over what may be a LONGGGG time, and who knows what path we will take, but the farther we go, the brighter our awareness, the more our conviction, and we will eventually ALL be free. May we be effortlessly absorbed in that SAT CHIT ANANDA when the time is right. And many we never forget, PLEASE may we remember, that regardless of Siddhartha Gautama’s varied life experience
THE BUDDHA NEVER had a bad day. (<-period)
Thank you Teal! I really loved this one. Your videos along with all the Spirit Series, it’s tough to even express the gratitude. I love you guys and I’m relieved I am journeying here, now, with you all! Breathe easy, everyone! :]
To deny oneself is silly. But to compare oneself to others is sillier. How does one know that Buddha had bad days? How does one know that Jesus had bad days? One must assume this to be the case. One must go into mind-stuff and extract these ideas in order to animate them in their current reality. It is silly to think this. But sillier to use this as a means of justification for a perceivable “bad” thing.
One does not maintain enlightenment, nor does one achieve it. Enlightenment is a realization of truth, a truth that exists–not in the mind–but in the moment that is now. To have a “bad” anything is to believe that bad things exist when, fundamentally, all bad things are only interpreted as such. To be aware of “badness” is to give it life. All that is bad is simply all that you allow to attach such an awareness to. In reality, there must be a passing of time to relate any event with itself in order to call it “a bad situation”. Doing so is living an illusion! For you would have to imagine the future to relate it to the thing happening “now” in order to call it bad. It is “bad” only in relation to your future image; an image that only exists in mind-stuff and is not real. You waste time thinking of futures and pasts and you miss your life–your being.
There are no ups and downs unless you ascribe a feeling to the terms and give them life. For a negative event is relative. In being, you are not dichotomizing the world into bad or good, everything is simply a joy, for nothing is expected to be anything other than what it is.
It is said here:
“There is no shame in struggling. Having problems is not a character flaw. You have not failed if you have a bad day. Buddha had bad days. Jesus had bad days. Muhammad had bad days. You will not meet a single physically manifested being (whether they are an ascended master or not) that is exempt from contrast and so you will not meet a single physically manifested being who is in alignment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. To expect this from anyone is cruelty. To feel embarrassment or shame if you are out of alignment is cruelty.”
Many will see this message and find solace, but it is illusory. For it ascertains what “is”. Saying “there is no shame in struggling” gives birth to the idea of struggling. It is simpler for one to say “There is no shame. There is no struggle.” For all things bad are relative and cannot exist “now” unless one allows the mind to bring forth ideas and expectations of previously or imagined “badness”.
Do not expect to be ” in alignment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week”; in fact, do not expect anything at all! For doing so does nothing for your being. Be enlightened. Be aligned. Be now, don’t expect a thing, for expectation is the appetite of the mind to answer the question “What is going to happen?”–and you are not the mind.
Want to know how one can know buddha had bad days?
Because he was human.
And Christ was too.
And so are you, so am I, and so is Teal.
And it’s part of our human experiences to acknowledge all of what we experience. It’s okay to admit that we have bad days, in fact, its part of life.
If you get punched in the face and mugged, you shouldn’t pretend that it’s all love and light. It’s okay to feel frustrated, mad or even angry. It’s okay to vent.
FEEL the full range of human emotions, and be honest with yourself.
Part of that means acknowledging when there are things you don’t like.
Even to this extent, what makes you think yourself to be human? Were you told you were human and, as such, given a set of ideas to ascribe your “humanness” to? Or, as a child, did you compare yourself to things that seemed separate from you, yet similar in likeness, and concluded that such similar things must be of the same quality and still separate in existence? In other words, did you become a human when you compared yourself to other human-like things; and, thus, assumed that all qualities another human thing seems to possess must also be true for yourself? Were you to have looked only inward and not sought truth outward, would all these ideas attributed to the statement “because he was human” still be relevant?
You claim that one should FEEL the full range of emotions. Have you ever stopped and felt the emotion of “anger”? Actually felt it? Been aware IN it, not merely of it? The moment you become aware of anger, the feeling disappears, revealing the truth underneath–a sensation. The same goes with fear and all other negative emotions. It is the mind that creates the emotion, not the conscious reality of things. A perception of a future that is in some way perceived as discordant to an aim results in anxiety or fear. Anger is simply an appraisal of a situation in which you overlay previously acquired ideas (or ideas conforming to future expectations) on top of your “now” reality. For example, if you saw a woman and a man kissing at a park bench, you may think nothing of it. However, the moment you realize that the woman is your wife, the anger arises. It is the mental appraisal that elicits the emotion. There are no real emotions, only a sensation of ultimate peace, love, and joy that of which all negative emotions are a lack of said sensations. By removing the mind, or by realizing enlightenment, such sensations of love, peace, and joy become ones nature–it is the natural ecstasy of an ecstatic existence! There is no possibility of having a bad day, because “bad” does not exist; and this is not some ode to loyalty of an ideal tied to ones perception of “enlightenment”, but rather a fundamental reality. To claim that one is playing pretend is only to declare one’s own awareness of missing the target while “seeking” such “enlightenment”.
It is not a question of acknowledging the liking of a thing and the not liking of a thing, it is an act of being in a realm of constant awareness where judgments cannot co-habituate. Without judgments of a thing, how can there can ever be good or bad? One does not cease such acts of judgment merely because of “moral” issues or “ethical” codes, nor to be seen by others as “holier than thou”; but, because, to BE and to JUDGE is to not BE at all!
It is only a question of pretending when you choose to believe that such a state of being is not possible through your own awareness. If such is the case, it is simply because you do not know yourself. Thinking and being aware cannot coexist, for the mind can only function to retrieve or to coalesce information– it cannot understand novelty. Thus, you must dedicate yourself to not thinking OF knowing yourself, and simply see that you knew it before you could even think it!
…and he still does. SOME THINGS CHANGE, AND SOME THINGS DO NOT CHANGE–however, they only seem “bad” from one perspective though. P.S TEAL I LOVE YOU, and everything you do–the whole spirit science really, INFINITE LOVE–ALWAYS!!!
Nice one …and right on time too,i needed that right now.
…and ..WOW you are BEAUTIFUL !! Namaste.
Just realized I have pain emotionally inside and now i am and I will face it!!
Oh grate video by the way. Your very cool teacher. See ya later namaste
Dear. Teal Scott is it okay if i see you and the Spirit science group as spiritual teachers. Because in my book you are. And I see wonderfull teachers here in SS I have learned from you guys to live from the hart and not in fear. I used to live in fear I grew up in a place where fear is all around where people are easily manipulated by the media. And thanks to you guys I learned to truly trust in my self to no longer consume the poison that was for so long was killing me and that poison was fear. So I do mean what I say and mark this you guys are grate leaders and I know the world needs you guys. I learned that with love there’s hope for a peacefull world. Namaste. =)