My spiritual blog & articles - My Spiritual Coach

What does the word "Buddha" mean?

3/7/2025

"Buddha" comes from the Sanskrit root "budh," which means "to know" or "to awaken." To most, Buddha means someone who is free from the sorrows and suffering of life because they see the bigger picture. This may be an unattainable state and could actually be a state of non-compassion if interpreted incorrectly. As if such a being was above it all, diminishing human suffering as something we can all rise above.

In reality, the aim of the Buddhist discipline is to manage and reduce suffering through understanding its cause and its remedies. Yet people have insisted on making idols to the man (Siddhartha Gautama), asking for favors, healings, and any other advantage they want at the time. It takes away from Buddha’s dying statement, “Be a light unto yourself.” It is off the course of his message of doing inner work, rather than depending on an outside agency to bring whatever it is that you think you need.

The way Buddha is portrayed is similar to all the great spiritual masters. It is in large, broad, strokes in which we know nothing about his day-to-day routine or quirks as a human (unless fictionalized as in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha). We hear more of the dramatic events and milestones of his life. This leads people to think they will never be so saintly as to attain the title of “The Awakened One.” They could never sit under the bodhi tree doing inner contemplation for seven weeks in a row as did Buddha. They are full of aches, pains, gripes, bad memories, fear of death. But the unattainable Buddha surpassed all that and seekers may demean themselves about their shortcomings.

Thinking the title of “Buddha” as something to be attained as a mark of the highest spiritual realization is therefore problematic. It postpones permanent inner peace to the future, as a goal after a long journey of moral and devotional practices. The goal is to eliminate suffering and be in eternal bliss (Nirvana) knowing that all is perfect just as it is.

Everyone wants Nirvana, or endless bliss, but they are not finding it as they search through doctrines and religious methods. So they hope Buddhism will bring it to them. Hope is about the future. It is not based on knowledge. Buddha brought awakening through knowledge more than 2,500 years ago. The practice is more about uncovering the inner wisdom and understanding inherent in us all than it is about achieving the illustrious title of “Buddha.”

Do enlightened individuals have a sense of purpose to help humanity become more aware of their spiritual nature and evolution?

3/2/2025

Humanity has a huge uncovered resource of spiritual understanding. The enlightened beings who have achieved world-wide recognition, such as Buddha and Jesus Christ, have brought forward this potential through their communication and presence.

Buddha’s chosen purpose was to find a path to relieve suffering. He focussed on the acute mental anguish that is part of the human condition. He saw that so much suffering is due to our hard-wired fear-based mental patterns and emotional upset over loss, change, death, and physical pain. He saw so much suffering around him and he, himself was so uncomfortable with day-to-day reality, he sought a way to deal with it all. When he found it, he communicated it though his Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path. His purpose was to alleviate suffering and that is also the purpose of Buddhism.

Jesus Christ was also about alleviating suffering, superficially his emphasis looked like it was on physical healing, raising the dead, and other miracles. The masses came to him because they were sick, their loved ones were dying, they themselves were afraid of death, and they were also afraid of possession by demons. Because he could heal them, that became his fame, but he was really here to teach love, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, and integrity, as he communicated in the Sermon on the Mount.

Both of these enlightened beings were driven by the enlightenment process itself, to communicate it. They were willing to pay the price for sharing their revelations. Buddha gave up a life of pampered luxury and Jesus Christ was crucified. Yet they had to set things straight with people who were going on all kinds of paths that were off base when it came to the revelations of divine consciousness.

Buddha told people they didn’t need to do drastic painful penances, live like ascetics, or punish themselves. These people thought they could earn enlightenment through extreme practices. Jesus Christ told the hyper-religious hypocrites that their’s wasn’t the path either. Buddha and Jesus were spiritual coaches. But not everyone wants a spiritual coach or someone who can show them a path to the harmonious laws of the universe.

Therefore, though there are many people who have grasped the deepest aspects of spiritual consciousness, only a few have been recognized globally. Some people live quietly enlightened lives and do not feel compelled to teach or tell anyone about it. Others say they are enlightened, gain huge followings, and show that they are power-hungry—such as John of God, capitalizing on human suffering.

In general, enlightened beings don’t feel or need a purpose. They put aside the anxious human mind and see that all is well just the way it is, as long as we keep an open path to divine energy. They communicate this because they are driven by the higher consciousness that took them over to do so. Their individual needs are set aside. As Jesus Christ said, “I can of mine own self do nothing: because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”

It is why I am writing this now. Since I was four years old my obsession has been awareness of higher consciousness. Every human live human being has the potential to discover this and it came to me at a very young age. The expectations of my family were that I would be arm candy for a wealthy man. If I fulfilled that, then I fulfilled my purpose to them. They were dismayed that I began a lifelong devotion to cosmic consciousness, beyond the day-to-day. I sent away for spiritual classics: Predominantly zen, Hindu, Sufi, and Christian mystics starting at 12 years old.

Never did I think I was here to set people right about their suffering or their mistaken, primitive tribal religious ritualisms. But people started coming to me in boarding school when I was 11 for spiritual counseling and to find their inner light. In that sense, an enlightened being is here for everyone but not everyone wants an enlightened being. Therefore, I am not here to help people just because it’s nice to help. Yet I am compelled to alleviate the suffering of those who come to me and are willing to work it out, just like a coach.

What factors contribute to people becoming more "spiritual" as they age? Is it a result of maturity or other influences?

12/2/2024

On one level, age has nothing to do with spirituality. I have met very evolved spiritual beings who were young children. My understanding is that we are all born with an inherent spiritual sense and cosmic consciousness. Then life experiences and the development of our ego minds cause us to cover over this light like a lightbulb covered with masking tape.

We lose our way to the Soul within and think we must survive at all costs as time goes by. People hurt us, we are in unavoidably painful situations. This causes many to form protective callouses that surround our inner light. If these callouses grow too thick, age only forms a greater barrier to spiritual understanding as we pile them on through the years. Then we are amazed that a person has lived so long and is nothing but an old grouchy, self-righteous, bitter, and regretful person who envies the young and puts them down for their ideas while they are still growing.

But if we maintain our connection to the inner light that is a reflection of the Source of All, then age is definitely a plus. Older people have a chance to experience more and see how it all turns out. We see that things we worried about never happened. We know we are capable of handling whatever comes up. We see life as a huge adventure, with moments of joy, moments of pain and that they alll pass. We are emotionally mature and don’t have tantrums because the world doesn’t bend to our wishes.

We have enough experience to see that things clear up over time. Or we accept them. Or we walk away from them. It’s not a big emotional rollercoaster and drama production. We know that we don’t have that much time left in the body so striving to fix things that are beyond our control or trying to create a spectacular life that fulfills our fantasies is really pointless. We can relax and let life unfold and take delight in all the manifestations of physical reality.

Society, as usual, has it backwards. Being older is the best time of life—as long as we are fit and maintain contact with our inner light, or Soul. Otherwise, we are a mass of aches and pains, stiffness, insomnia, poor digestion, facing some horrible form of death. If we don’t know we are more than the body—that we have a body but are Eternal Soul watching the show—then age is no advantage at all. Thus the time-worn expression, “There’s no fool like an old fool.”

Would you rely on science or spirituality to control important elements of the universe and life?

10/12/2024

The Universe controls us. Very little is actually under our control. Our circulatory system, our beating heart, our digestion, almost anything inside us is beyond our control. If I asked my pancreas to stop secreting pancreatin right now, what would be the result? It is beyond my control.

The only thing inside us that we can control is our thinking (sometimes our breathing to a certain extent). And even our thinking runs wild most of the time. What we can do is rely on spirituality to give us techniques and methods to manage our thoughts and feelings.

If we have no control over most of what goes on inside our body, do we presume to be able to control the fundamental laws of the universe outside of us? They are just as ungovernable as our gall bladders. In truth, Universal laws control us. It’s not, and never will be, the other way around.

Science can provide answers to question about how physical laws, such as thermodynamics and gravity work. It can provide psychology, which discovers how the mind works. But when it comes to the Soul, only spirituality gives us access. And spirituality is not about fighting or controlling the way things are. It is peacefully accepting that we are in the hands of forces much greater than our minds. We go with it in awe and wonder and don’t try to control it.

Can a person with a low IQ still achieve spiritual development and enlightenment? If so, what are some ways in which they can achieve this?

9/16/2024

Intellect and cognitive development have nothing to do with the enlightened state. Thinking that we are highly evolved intellectuals can actually be an impediment to spiritual understanding. We think we are so smart and have all the answers, or at least educate ourselves to be cerebral and worthy of self-esteem and the admiration of others. But the intellect comes from the brain. Enlightenment comes from the heart and gut.

A low IQ person may have a highly-developed heart center. This may come from a state of grace. They may be gifted in the inclinations of the heart, which is the center of love, peace, and trust in the Universe. Heart-centered people do not have to go through exercises, practices, and meditations to achieve spiritual development. They are already there. It is just a matter of discovering it and letting it flow. They don’t offer as much resistance to the inspiration of Divine Intelligence. They don’t examine it. They go with it.

I once had a trainer in the gym who had Down Syndrome. He used his intuition and spiritual perception to design the perfect exercises for me. He was also an athlete in the Special Olympics. He was in peak condition and inspired me to new heights and fun in working out. It was never a struggle with him. Even though it was about physical achievement, it was also a current that passed from his heart to mine, making a lasting impression. I still use his techniques. The total experience stays with me to this day.

Low IQ doesn’t mean that a person doesn’t have natural intelligence that comes from channeling the underlying intelligence of at the core of all creation.
Not standing in the way of the abundant flow of the Source Energy of the Universe is a more effective way to receive enlightenment that packing our brains with book-learning and cleverness of thought, meditating for hours in uncomfortable positions, or any other activity that people do in search of enlightenment.

I am not diminishing the wonders of the developed mind and its manifestations. But if we look around us, we will see that our high IQs have not led to happiness or to the health of the planet. So let’s not put too much stock in intellectual development as a path to enlightenment.

Is it possible to return to a "normal" life after having a spiritual awakening, or does it permanently change your life?

9/15/2024

After my spiritual awakening dawned on me, I dropped out of society. All the things people strove for to “make it,” to find relief from the constant turmoil of the human ego-mind, were meaningless to me. I didn’t want what other people wanted. I wanted the “Peace of God that passeth understanding.” And I wanted to explore the spaciousness of the background instead of being focussed solely on the foreground.

I owned nothing for 5 years, including the clothes I wore, which I borrowed. The only money I had was from odd jobs for the moment. Most of the food I ate, I grew. I devoted myself to living in the light of the Divine Consciousness of the Universe. I studied the great spiritual masters and lived in inspiration. That isn’t to say I didn’t experience physical difficulties but I felt courageous and free.

Yet certain necessities of survival and family matters propelled me back into the “normal” life. Circumstances made having a regular income a must at that time. Though dropping out was appropriate for me before, now it was appropriate for me to bring the context of enlightenment into the regular workaday world. It brings to mind the old Zen Buddhist saying, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

The meaning of the quote is that:

Enlightenment does not change your life. Life will still go on being life, with pain, sorrow, loss, suffering, with happiness and good times too. You just view it in a different context and don’t take it personally. You are not its puppet. You are the observer.
Enlightenment is not about fireworks and wild ecstasy. It is simple and has to do with performing simple things mindfully. You are living in the now and not doing everything because you think the future will bring you salvation from your present unease. You are not putting yourself on display as a paragon of anything.
Before enlightenment, you still needed to chop wood for the fire. Now most of us don’t chop wood on a daily basis, but when this proverb came out, that is what we did if we wanted a fire. The fire didn’t appear magically when we wanted it. It’s the spirit in which we do any task that is the underlying hallmark of enlightenment. Also, even if we don’t go down to the river now to fetch a bucket of water, our bodies would perish if we didn’t get the water for ourselves from the faucet or the grocery store.

No, I never returned to “normal” after enlightenment swept me away. Yet I still look and behave life a normal person. I am by no means a perfect saint. I laugh at my weaknesses and laugh at my strengths as well. And I don’t take credit for any of it. I am grateful for the gift!

Can someone who was previously mentally ill become enlightened through meditation or other methods? Are there any examples of this happening?

7/30/2024

Mental illness is a large topic. Some pundits, such as R.D. Laing, see mental illness as a sane adaptation to an insane world. But if you have been around the mentally ill who exhibit the inner torment that most of us hide, you will recognize that they are being run by a maladaptation that disconnects them to the reality and behavioral norms we have agreed upon.

Enlightenment is precisely not being run by the smaller mind, which is subject to all kinds of injuries, chemical imbalances, and diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Enlightenment is alignment with a higher, more transcendent, organizing Intelligence that is far beyond the capacity of the human brain and its hard wired propensities.

To contact this higher Intelligence, we must clear the static of the obsessive human mind. We can use it but not let it use us. Meditation has shown through the centuries that it is a viable path to observing our disturbing thoughts and rise above them like a balloon. Then we can get into that alpha brain wave state that clears out the dust balls of memory and fears about the future. Scientists have studied the brain waves of consistently meditating monks and have found beneficial changes in the structure of the brain itself.

But the first step, regardless of meditation or any other method, is the burning desire for enlightenment. The burning desire to rise above the chattering mind and its desperate need to survive at all costs is a must. If a previously mentally ill person needs, with all their being, to find inner peace and live an orderly, joyful life, it’s of primary importance to make the effort.

Enlightenment isn’t for everybody. It is not democratic. If it happened for everyone, this planet would not be in the state it’s in, with crimes against humanity and malignant disruption of the environment. Yet everyone is capable of it too, if they deeply desire it with a sincere longing that is like a passionate love affair. The Universe will find a way to bring them the answers they are looking for.

Extremely self-absorbed people who have to deal with personality disorders such as Narcissism often do not have the insight into their behavior and thinking patterns that cause so much grief to them and all around them. But enlightenment is open to everyone who shows the slightest bit of passionate effort. It has to come from a sense of responsibility for our lives. We don’t let the insane mind put us in a place where others need to care for us or put us away and structure our days. However, if there are structural and chemical diseases involved, the prognosis for enlightenment is that it won’t happen this time around.

Not everyone is equipped to climb Mt. Everest. Not everyone is capable of being an international chess master, regardless of the amount of training. Enlightenment is like that too. You have to be ready for it. It is not attainable through magic formulas or wishful thinking, or a step-by-step process. You have to know what it is to be drawn to it. Unfortunately, mental illness, because of its centeredness on the little me and its fearful, disorganized mind, presents a large roadblock to enlightenment in this lifetime.

What is the purpose of spirituality if there is no tangible outcome after reaching enlightenment?

7/21/2024

Spiritual enlightenment is a way of looking at and experiencing life. It is not goal-oriented about achieving anything in the physical world. It is about going deeper into our consciousness to acknowledge the background of our lives instead of the activities that consume our days.

Humans think that achieving tangible outcomes matters. Or we may think spirituality will ensure our comfortable place in the afterlife. Spiritual enlightenment has nothing to do with our getting things, getting things done, or ensuring our survival.

Humans have been producing tangible outcomes for centuries. In the process of all this activity and getting things done, we have destroyed each other and huge sections of the planet. We think getting things done is progress and it will be profitable too. For example, the highway systems that cross the world now. They are great conveniences for getting things done. But what has happened to all the forests and farmlands, mountains that had been blasted through? They will never be the same again as we continue to pave the land and use it to get things done.

The byproducts of these progressive highways are pileups, traffic jams, gruesome fatalities, shredded nerves, road rage, self righteousness and condemnation of other drivers.
Enlightenment does no harm. It does not transform matter into other forms of matter. It acknowledges the background that is always there from which all the physical manifestations emerge and into which they disappear. It is a peaceful state that remains, even if on the surface our emotions have been ruffled.

The only purpose of enlightenment is to relieve human suffering. That is how the Buddha defined enlightenment: The end of suffering. If we want to go through life kicking and screaming, resisting what is and being ungrateful for its multifaceted magnificence, be my guest. But if we need to enjoy life, spiritual enlightenment is the way to go because it is based on eternity. It cannot be destroyed while all else passes away.

How does a person's spiritual enlightenment appear to others, such as their friends and family?

4/24/2024

For friends and family, it depends on the level of their own enlightenment. For they will not recognize it if they do not have the capacity for enlightenment themselves.

They will have to understand that enlightenment doesn’t mean that you are a saint that never makes mistakes and lives a faultless life. They will know that enlightenment is a context in which we view life as a manifestation of Eternal Energy creatively interacting in an endless network of magnificence. It is a state of awe and worship and complete trust that everything is perfect just the way it is. And they will know that you know this.

I was very fortunate, because my mother recognized my spiritual awakening when I was a small child and nurtured my mystic’s path. Though she taught me practical things, she also admitted that she had not attained the level of where I was in grasping the nature of the cosmos. Otherwise, I acted just like a normal child—getting into mischief and rough play.

Yet it soon became obvious, when I went to boarding school at age 11, that other children sought me out for comfort and advice. They would come into my room at night (after lights out). They were frightened, feeling alone and unloved (for there are no parents in boarding school to tuck you in and read you a story at night) and I would talk to them about life and just help them feel at peace.

This continued on into other boarding schools through high school (and college). The students made appointments with me after school to talk over their problems. These were the people who recognized enlightenment and it struck a note in their Soul. This recognition was not because I was a well-behaved girl. I had been expelled, suspended, and routinely punished for my antics. So it was not because I was an exemplary model of perfect behavior.

But if people are not on the wavelength or are just not interested in answering the deeper questions of life—if they just want to survive and have no curiosity about why—they will not acknowledge or even notice enlightenment. Often they will fall for flamboyant and false spiritual “leaders” who are more interested in self-aggrandizement than worshipping the power and glory of Life. They want the enlightened being to wear special costumes and do all kinds of entertaining rituals.

If they see a person like me, they won’t tune in. Because I am not trying to be anybody special. I don’t want to form large groups around me and have people kiss my feet (as happened often when I walked through India). Yet, regardless of their relationship to me: Family, friends, or just someone in line at the grocery store, if there is a spark of enlightenment within them, they will see it in me.

Does a person's past lives become irrelevant during a spiritual awakening?

2/16/2024

The significance of knowing about our past lives lies in our understanding of ourselves as Eternal Souls. Whether we were beggars or royalty is not as significant as how much of the loving energy we expressed. More important. in terms of karma, is if we inflicted intentional cruelty on anyone or anything. For the Universe is perfectly balanced and no one gets away with anything.

It can be useful to know the patterns of our past lives because they often shape our choices, likes, loves, and which people we attract into our lives this time around. These are our individual colorations, quirks, and talents—illustrated by Mozart composing perfectly complex symphonies at age 5. But in terms of our Eternal Soul, all these talents and abilities are like the individual grains of sand on the beach. Fascinating and unique, yet part of the whole mass of sand.

Spiritual awakening includes the deep feeling in our guts and hearts that we have passed this way before and encountered some of the same people. And therefore knowing about our past lives is a key to figuring out why certain patterns keep occurring or what impels the choices that we make. Yet, after all of these many lives our Souls have cycled through, we remain the One Eternal Soul.

So it is not irrelevant to acknowledge that we lived before in a different body when we live the awakened life. It is just part of the process of awareness that this body is not who we are and we have had many of them before this. In the case of Twin Souls, the same Soul resides in two different bodies in the same lifetime. Our Souls are eternal and do not perish when the body goes away.