My spiritual blog & articles - My Spiritual Coach

Can atheists achieve enlightenment? If yes, what is the prescribed path for such people?

2/25/2022

Atheists can be among the most enlightened beings on this earth. They are not following any organized religious dogma and prefer to think things through. If they are good people, it is because they choose to be good. Not because some God in the sky is looking down on them, ready to dole out punishments for every infraction and every “sin.”

If they are good, it is because they reasoned it out that it feels better to be a good person and not intentionally inflict harm on others. Not because they bribe “God” with promises and sacrifices to gain favor and possibly go to heaven. An atheist might even think the standardized view of heaven is boring. Besides, all this heaven and hell business is putting things off into the future, while the enlightened life is living totally in the Now.

It might even be argued that organized religions are a deterrent to enlightenment, especially if they discourage followers from arriving at their own conclusions and encourage them to rely on the leadership to tell them what’s right, what’s wrong, and why they are going to hell after they die, according to some book created by people long ago.

Atheists have allowed themselves to be individual thinkers and can achieve deep, inner peace thereby. Besides, jails are full of violent criminals tattooed with all kinds of religious symbols who swear they are whatever religion. And, of course, the greatest brutalities in the world have been perpetrated by religions for centuries (including human sacrifice, torture during the Inquisition, “holy wars,” and other events too numerous to mention that are going on right now).

Enlightenment requires deep, inner mining of our Souls. It is arriving at our own world view based on inner experience and contemplation. It is the stilling of the ego-mind and allowing other faculties to come forward, which bring an underlying peace, regardless of outer circumstances. Whether we belong to some group or another, has nothing to do with enlightenment. It has nothing to do with being a good person. For if we are good only because we fear the wrath of God, we are just covering all our bases out of fear. Living a fearful life and worrying about the future is not enlightenment.

How does Eckart Tolle's "Power of Now" help people who live in countries which are a failed state with the lack of basic everything and not a glimmer of hope for improvements?

10/1/2021

All of us, no matter how wealthy or well-fed have found ourselves in terrible circumstances beyond our physical control. Eckart Tolle teaches methods for finding the peace within, from which we can solve whatever problem presents itself. We cannot solve any problem from a position of upset, anger, want, lack, need, and distress. Those emotions only cloud our problem-solving ability.

We cannot solve the problem of a failed state from a position of greed of the elite, torture, imposed hunger, and terrorism. Those are all the results of the lesser, human ego mind that seeks to entrench its position through domination and control. Only an enlightened understanding of the peace that dwells within the soul produces cooperation, preservation of resources, and the overall happiness of all in any society.

Eckhart Tolle’s books are not a magic bullet for all of a sudden getting rid of the human greed and cruelty that fuels world hunger and other human-caused disasters.

Eckart Tolle’s work has helped people who are in prison, on death row, and other circumstances that are beyond the individual’s control. He explains that you can be in the worst of circumstances and still find that peace within. From that standpoint, you can then work to embrace your life, and understand that you are more than a survival machine that eats, procreates, and dies.

But first, we must clear our minds of all the garbage and fear that it automatically generates. Then we must find a path to where our inner peace lives. After that, no matter what the circumstances, they do not affect our inner happiness or peace.

Tolle uses the example of being stuck in the mud or quicksand. It would do no good whatsoever to kick and scream in fear and upset until you wear yourself out and get taken under. Better to acknowledge, “This is where I am right now. What is my next step to get out of this?” Thinking clearly and calmly will bring much better results. That is all Eckart Tolle is about. Get rid of the little, fear-filled human mind and tune into the rich territory of the Soul.

The Soul is connected to all the natural intelligence of the Universe. And when people tune into it, problems get solved. Even if you do get taken under, you will not die in an agonized state of resistance, but will surrender to the larger forces that work within and are much larger than the individual ego.
Tolle is very clear that anything in the physical state is unstable. We cannot expect anything in the physical to last. But he points the way to what does last: The Eternal Soul.

As part of the divine consciousness, do we already know everything?

7/13/2021

As part of the divine consciousness, we really don’t know anything from the standpoint of our limited brains. We think we know things because we have accumulated many facts and educated ourselves so we can gain some measure of control over our lives. We believe that “knowledge is power” and on one level it is. It is better to have skills and understanding than to be completely clueless, especially when performing tasks.

But when we talk about divine consciousness, we are talking about something that is so large, we are simply not equipped to know about it fully. We may be able to see pieces of it, like an ant looking at an elephant. The ant may see just the toenail and think it is a huge mountain. It could never even see the whole elephant.

That is how we are in the realm of divine consciousness. We can get glimpses of it and live in it. We can experience it. But it is difficult to put words to what the experiences are. We can only hint at it. We can only talk about sensations but we can never pin it down. We aren’t meant to. It is arrogance to think that one day we will know everything.

The human race knows a lot already and it still hasn’t increased in happiness or peace. It has not taken itself into higher levels of consciousness and continues to chase after things that do not last. Knowing a lot does not provide much consolation on a cold and stormy night.

Is the noble eightfold path of Buddhism intelligible?

6/23/2021

Like the Ten Commandments, Buddha’s Nobel Eightfold Path, is simple to understand but not really easy to accomplish. These eight attitudes are not moral precepts about specifically what not to do, though. They are a simple list of how to behave if you want to live a life with a minimum of suffering for yourself and others.

Buddha does use the word “right” but it is not in the sense that you are damned by God if you don’t take his recommendations. It is more in the sense of what is most appropriate for the moment. Here is the Noble Eighfold Path:

Right understanding
Right thought
Right speech
Right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right concentration

Because they are so simple, people can interpret these concepts in different ways. Huge volumes have been written on the subject. My interpretation, in short, is approach everything with a free, pure, unattached heart. This ensures that we say the appropriate words as well as perform appropriate actions. We consciously put our efforts towards meaningful goals while remaining grounded in what is eternal about ourselves.

Four of the ideas in The Noble Eightfold Path concern themselves with our inner selves: Understanding, thought, mindfulness, and concentration. This is different from the Ten Commandments, which do not concern themselves with a person’s inner life and more with their relationship to Jehovah and with each other.

Four of the items on the Path are action-oriented: Speech, action, livelihood, and effort. The Buddha did not leave anything out. And by not defining precisely what each “right” thought or action is, he left a lot of room for interpretation. But the final test is, by living this way do you alleviate suffering? Thousands of years after he delivered his insights, they are still alive and bringing people and understanding of life, so they have stood the test of time.

What were Eckhart Tolle's fears and anxieties of his life situation before Enlightenment?

6/9/2021

Eckart Tolle’s fears and anxieties, that he reports on in his books, were very much like all of our fears and anxieties: We’re not enough. We need to do something to make ourselves enough but we never do enough, we’re not good-looking enough, we’re not smart enough, we will be on the street with nothing, we’re not loved or appreciated enough, we’re not (fill in the blank).

Those are just a few fears that plagued him, along with an unhappy childhood with quarreling parents, not fitting in at school, and just the low-level non-stop terror that the mind inflicts on everyone who doesn’t know how it operates.

When he discovered how the ego-mind and its negative bias runs our lives instead of us running it, he was able to get out from under its tyranny and start to control and master it. Now he could use it as a tool, instead of letting it using him as its tool. This brought him freedom from the never-ending emphasis on lack that is the focus of the ego-mind, which always wants more, more, more and is never satisfied with what is.

The books by Eckhart Tolle were very popular because they had the answer that if you are totally in the present (now), you are totally happy. But are people now disappointed because he had no way to get there, since he got there by accident?

6/9/2021

It’s delusional to think that anyone can be totally happy all the time by following a simple formula. It is a popular concept, of course, that if you are always in the present you have found the way to total happiness. It is a great selling point with people who are looking for instant enlightenment and a life of endless fun without the discipline, watchfulness, and work it takes to get there.

Such ideas can also make a reader feel that if it is so easy, why doesn’t it work for them? They must be deficient in some way. They then add that to the list of negatives that keep them stuck in a depressive world view.

I don’t interpret Eckart Tolle’s present moment awareness as being totally happy, anyway. I interpret it as being at peace with the underlying understanding that all lis right with the Universe, regardless of what my emotional reaction is to the circumstances. Sometimes being totally happy is not appropriate and shows a shallowness and lack of sensitivity that borders on the fake and annoying. Sometimes, being truly sad and feeling it deeply, is the appropriate emotion and shows compassion and empathy for other sufferers.

As F. Scott Peck says in the first line of The Road Not Taken, “Life is difficult.” Because people don’t want to face that, they are outraged, angry, disappointed, upset, unhappy, feel entitled to their piece of the pie, and every other negative emotion. If we accept that life is difficult and that it requires spiritual work and discipline to achieve inner peace, lots of our problems would clear up naturally.

With Eckart Tolle, it wasn’t really an accident that brought his breakthrough into the world of spiritual peace. It was that his mind broke. He had taken the ego-mind to the limit and saw the absurdity of its claims on him. He saw that he wasn’t two beings, his nagging ego-mind and his eternal, harmonious soul. It wasn’t an accident at all. It was the result seeing clearly, for the first time, that if he went with the repetitive, automatic, and negative path of this mind, his life would continue to be hell.

Many mystics have arrived at this realization the same way. Often it is the result of The Dark Night of the Soul. But it is never an accident. Part of it is by grace as well. But it is never because someone read a book and got “instant karma” as a result. It always takes some form of work.

Why are a lot of enlightenment answers unintelligible and why do people upvote them anyway?

5/23/2021

Answers about consciousness and enlightenment seem meaningless to people who think that they are only their ego-minds, with their never-ending demands for everything to make sense. They also think they are their bodies, with their endless round of physical needs and cravings.

They want to tie all the mysteries of life up in a neat package that can be proved under laboratory conditions, and therefore that would be the Truth for them. This would give them a sense of security, though any thinking person can see that life merely in the physical is an endless cycle of eating, sleeping, procreating, and working so we can get up then next day and do the same thing again until we die.

Then we will be replaced by other organisms, all with their same wants and desires—mainly to survive with a few little meaningless perks thrown in, such as entertainment and fleeting pleasures.

Yet some people are beyond this. They know within their hearts that this survival-at- all-costs approach to life shows meaninglessness on the level of the insects. Reproducing in swarms and filling their bellies so they can excrete later. Only if we are on a path of enlightenment, to bypass the endless whirl of the physical and its dis-satisfactions, will any underlying happiness, gratitude, or sense of purpose be possible.

The other problem with the language of enlightenment is that we don’t really have a precise vocabulary to define the different states of consciousness attained by an enlightened being. These states are beyond mere feelings and emotions. Eventually their descriptions end up sounds like cliches. “I was lost in the bliss of One-ness with all life and all death. We are all one.”

People don’t feel this in everyday life and it becomes tiresome to hear this kind of imprecise language over and over again. It becomes lost in a blur. The states of consciousness that go beyond the mere everyday survival thoughts, rehashing of old events and jumping with anxiety into the future, don’t sound possible the way they are described.

Yet, when we are on the Spiritual Path we can detect the soul behind what is written and therefore respond to the being who put themselves out there enough to at least try to describe enlightenment.

Do all enlightened beings renounce their worldly possessions?

4/29/2021

It’s not that enlightened beings renounce their worldly possession, it’s just that they don’t cling to them. They understand the everlastingness of their spiritual identity and therefore do not place a significant value on things that can be stolen, lost, or destroyed.

Enlightened beings may enjoy beautiful objects but they do not place high emotional value on them either. They don’t even have to own them to enjoy them. They can appreciate objects and experiences for what they are: Transitory and ephemeral, not lasting and eternal. Like a gorgeous butterfly that settles nearby and then flies away. The enlightened being does not need to place a pin in the butterfly and frame it to keep it for all time.

Enlightened beings do not put great importance on anything that comes and goes, or can disappear or be taken away. They focus their attention and energy on what is lasting and deep. Therefore, enlightened beings may even be extraordinarily wealthy, but they would be just as happy if they had nothing. With enlightened beings, it is never about the external manifestations of reality and more about the internal discoveries.

We don’t need to make a big fanfare of giving up everything that makes life comfortable to show that we are enlightened. We can just hold what is really valuable and enduring in our hearts and souls. Then we can be thankful for whatever good comes our way but not depend on physical items for our happiness and peace of mind.

What is a possible criticism to Eckhart Tolle thoughts?

3/5/2021

I admire Eckhart Tolle and his conclusions about why humans can find only brief moments of happiness with ego-minds dominated by fear. Perhaps my one hesitation relates to savoring the rich memories of past joys as well as learning from past mistakes.

I agree with Tolle, that the past is gone, the future doesn’t exist, and all we have is now. But I want to cherish beautiful memories as a way of managing my thoughts. For example, if I am going through a painful time, it is useful for me to reflect back on a moment of beauty, such as a peaceful walk in the forest with someone I love. This enables me to steer my thoughts in a more positive and healing direction in the present moment.

Also, reflecting on, without obsessing about, some red flag behaviors and situations in our past can help us make decisions that will bring peace and joy into our lives. Therefore, the trick is to preserve these important memories without being terrorized by them every time they come up.

Daydreaming and reveries play an important role in our creative lives. Spartan insistence on paying close attention to every moment of the Now may not be a light and breezy as it seems as an ideal. For example, it is great to be mindful while we are performing routine and repetitive tasks but it can also be fun to think back on an amusing time or something funny from the past, while we are scrubbing the toilet.

Therefore, perhaps the element of exuberant fun may be lacking in Tolle because of his own painful memories that exert an unrecognized influence on his thinking. The future also can be very pleasing to think about when we remove the attendant anxiety about the unknown. So I am not ready to completely throw out the past and future as useless for complete happiness.

Is the law of attraction/manifestation simply a way for people to just believe in themselves, and therefore take action, or is it more than that?

1/25/2021

The Law of Attraction, which is “like attracts like,” makes a lot of sense when we see it in nature. Geese don’t hang out with skunks, they attract other geese. It is also about the energy that we put out there. It is invisible, but is comes back to us as we magnetically attract it.

However, I take issue with people thinking that they can sit on their sofa all day long and pet their cat and all the goodies they ever wanted in life will magically appear. My experience is that you have to meet the Universe at least half way, through action, to manifest anything you want in your life.

It is the lazy way out to think that you can lose weight, for example, by just thinking thoughts that you are thinner. You have to put in the work and the discipline. You must take some form of action. That is what sets the whole Universal ball rolling. If you just sit there and indulge in magical thinking that just because you are a good person and think nice thoughts everything good will come to you, I’m sorry, it won’t work.

Unfortunately, the Law of Attraction has been so commercialized, it has lost its original meaning. It is all about the energy forces of the Universe, which are unseen but can be harnessed by our own energy fields. It is not about brining in all the stuff money can buy and everyone lives happily ever after.

The physical plane is not easy and we a driven by the media to believe we need so many things to be happy. The Law of Attraction appeals to people who want lots of things. And therefore, it has become tarnished from misuse. We believe all these things lead to a happy, successful life. But they don’t. Inner peace, joy, love, bliss—our minds need to be all of those first things to attract them.

But we cannot be a huge SUV, a McMansion, a $1,000 pizza, and those things all go away or get digested and turn to excrement or dust. So, using the Law of Attraction for such things may be amusing, but it is not fulfilling and often doesn’t work. We are coming from an energy level of need and want, rather than fulfillment and that is the flaw. Law of attraction, without the necessary energetic work to supplement it, will not work.