My spiritual blog & articles - My Spiritual Coach

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.

What does it feel like to be without a mind or ego?

12/18/2023

A student once asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama, how does he handle his ego. The Dalai Lama asked him to explain what the ego is. After the student explained that it was a level of consciousness that we must be special. That we must survive no matter what. That we must make ourselves better, especially better than others. This ego—tendency is hard-wired into the human mind. It causes unrest, unease, discomfort, and a lot of anxiety about the past and the future.

The Dalai Lama’s response was they didn’t have that concept in his practice. He really didn’t know what the ego was because he never felt he was someone special. He didn’t feel the overpowering need for his physical presence to survive. He said in The Book of Joy:

“I always consider myself personally one of seven billion human beings. Nothing special. So, on that level, I have tried to make people aware that the ultimate source of happiness is simply a healthy body and a warm heart.”

When he said this, the statistics were at seven billion. But now it is more like 8.5 billion people on the planet—all thinking they are special, with their dreams, ambitions, and goals to make something out of themselves and make the world a better place. The Dalai Lama doesn’t have such lofty aspirations. He’s very simple. Alleviate suffering in yourself and others as much as you can. That’s it. You don’t have the be the holiest, most self-sacrificing monk in the world either. Or come here to fix the world that was doing fine before we meddled in it.

Imagine that you are a cat curled up by the fire, or a fish swimming smoothly through water. Do you have the kind of mind to create worry and upset? No. All animals are without the ego mind. So if you want to know what it feels like not to have an ego-mind, picture yourself as any animal, plant, or rock in nature—living harmoniously, dying or dissolving when the time has come, with no struggle involved.

The azalea isn’t saying, “I hate that yellow daisy over there. Yellow should be banned in nature. And look at how fresh and young that daisy is too, while I’m on my way out. It’s not fair. I should live forever. Because I’m special and above all others. Maybe, in my next life, I’ll reincarnate as an orchid.”

The deer isn’t saying, “When will I get married? I don’t want to be the one deer left behind in the thousands of herds.” The street mutt isn’t envying the pampered lapdog and planning a rebellion against the forces of nature that landed her in the streets. The snake isn’t protesting about not having legs and demanding compensation.

Imagine yourself as part of nature (which you actually are), with forces acting on you beyond your control, and you will know what it feels like to be without an ego mind. It is the only time, as a human, that you will feel free.

What is the difference between Buddhists who believe that there is no end to enlightenment and those who say that everyone eventually becomes enlightened?

11/5/2023

The way the human mind interprets “enlightenment” is that it is an end point. Like the end of a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Once we are enlightened, then all life is solved. We won't have any problems, there will be eternal peace of mind (an oxymoron), and we will never experience suffering again.

But enlightenment is not an end point. It is a context in which we view all of life and death. It is a space from which we perceive all the manifestations of life. It is not a state of perpetual bliss and ecstasy of escape. It is ability to be in the present moment no matter what is happening or what we are doing. That is what enlightenment was to Buddha and that is what he revealed.

He also taught how to live so the present moment reveals itself to us in profound ways that enriches our inner being, our Souls. He understood that our Soul is always and eternally Here and Now. The future, or enlightenment in the future, is not going to bring us anything. It is all about the Now because the Soul is ageless and doesn’t have anything to do with time, or any of the other human ways of measuring experience.

Let’s look at the word “believe.” “Believe” means we are willing to follow because we are not sure but it makes sense to us. “I believe it to be true,” is different from “I know it to be true.” We believed in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy when we were kids. Then, when we grow up, we know that Santa was a wonderful invention to make kids happy at Christmas. We don’t “believe” in him anymore.

Buddhism is not about following beliefs. It is about a proven method of alleviating suffering, both mental and physical.
Believing that everyone will eventually become enlightened is just one more statement saying, “I’m not sure but this guy sounds good so I’ll go with what he says.” That time is necessary to be enlightened.

The Soul is already enlightened, for it is not time-bound. It is eternal and doesn’t have a beginning, a middle, and an end. That is what defines the Soul, as opposed to all the other things that come and go, including our bodies. Finding our way back to our Soul and deep inner peace has nothing to do with hoping (believing) that someone is right because it makes us feel better about where humanity is going.

There is no end to enlightenment, as there is no end to Source Energy of the Universe. It is always Now. It’s not like we have to work our way into heaven. Our Souls are already there. So to “believe” that everyone will go to a heaven of enlightenment is a nice fairy tale to adhere to, but enlightenment has nothing to do with believing what other people say or any religious system that will supposedly get us there.

What is enlightenment? Is it just a myth or can it be achieved by meditating deeply?

6/27/2023

Enlightenment is not living in a fireworks display of ecstasy and spectacular mystical experiences. It is freedom from the constant onrush of fearful thoughts and feelings that disturb our peace and make our lives miserable. It is being in tune with the underlying energy and harmony of the Universe and it is directly experienced through the soul, heart, and gut—-not the mind.

Our need to survive has caused us to evolve into anxious, fearful creatures. The happy, unwary human contemplating the sunset was quickly consumed by the sabertooth tiger. The paranoid, wary human, who was startled by the rustling in the bushes and was constantly on the lookout for possible predators, lived another day. And so, through time, our minds enabled us to rise to the top of the food chain. Our nervousness and planning for all possible dangerous outcomes allowed us to dominate the planet but also not be happy while doing it.

Our minds, though brilliant problem-solvers and repositories of knowledge, create an enormous amount of distress and resultant physical ailments. Part of the problem is that the mind either abides in the past, thinking over hurts, bad experiences, and times of emotional turmoil. Or it rushes into the future, generating cascades of fear about what might or might not happen. Only the Soul, the inner connection to the perfect harmony of universal Source Energy is the gateway to the underlying peace of the eternal Now.

Enlightenment is finding our path to our Soul and abiding in it regardless of the changing circumstances of our lives. It is the direct experience of the eternal Now.

Many people think that enlightenment is some sort of mystical trance that allows us to be numb to all the difficulties of life. And that for the enlightened person, everything cooperates to create perfect physical comfort. They think that only a few people with spotless karma can reach it. Or that they need to take some mind-altering drug to get there. Or that they need to meditate for many hours a day in excruciating positions to achieve it. All this comes from a mistaken idea that enlightenment is “out there” and we have to go through the paces to “get there.”

It’s not “out there.” It is within—but few people can sit quietly enough to find it. As Pascal said, "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." We need a constant onrush of companionship, input from social media, the news, whatever. Anything but be alone with ourselves. We can’t abide it. We can’t endure it. Yet being alone within ourselves is the gateway to inner peace, or enlightenment.

Enlightenment is not the result of a recipe for the “perfect life” with all the physical comforts taken care of for the duration. It is a context in which we experience our lives—no matter what comes our way. And it is our capacity to live in and appreciate the present moment—instead of thinking it is somewhere else—just not here and now.

It is simple but not easy.

Not easy, because the mind is automatic, repetitive, and thinks it’s helping us with its constant stream of “what ifs” from the moment we wake up. It justifies itself, wants to prove it's right all the time, and is looking out for “what’s wrong with this picture?”. It can be brilliant, but it does not know the way to happiness because it can’t live in the Now. Only the Soul abides in that eternal Now state. So enlightenment is finding our path to the Soul and then staying there. That is my definition of meditation, however we get there—mantras, music, being in nature, mandalas—it is the solitary contemplation of the Infinite.

It doesn’t come through any major activities or accumulation of knowledge. It comes first through a recognition of the human time-bound mental obsessions. Then it comes from finding that pathway to your inner heart, where all is still, at peace, and wise. The way I do this is to sit quietly, pay attention to my breath, open my palms upward on my lap, and say, “I am open and receptive to all vibrational levels of eternal joy and harmony.” I watch my thoughts as they cavort around but I realize that I am not my thoughts. They are just being generated by the automatic mind. They are not me.

Enlightenment does not mean that life is solved once and for all. Or that the mind won’t continue with its acrobatics. These activities are hard-wired into our minds and bodies. It also doesn’t mean that we have turned into perfect saints. We will still feel anger and all the unpleasant emotions—but we notice that these upsets will diminish as we practice abiding in inner peace.

Earthquakes, fires, and illness will still happen. The death of loved ones, cruelty, and war will still happen on this planet. This is the endless activity of physical existence and no amount of enlightenment will stop a tsunami. But if we are caught up in the inevitable, we can view it from the standpoint of the Eternal Soul and therefore not live and die in agony and terror. We understand instead, the eternal aspect of us, which is not separate from the unchanging and immortal Energy of the Universe, which has no beginning or ending.

Finally, enlightenment is being in touch with eternity. We don’t fear physical death. We don’t fear the end of this collection of memories and conditioning that we call our personality. It is a state of emotional freedom and it has nothing to do with being a devotee of a particular set of religious beliefs. It is the way out of suffering that all the great beings with spiritual insight have discovered. They have pointed the way but we must find our own path.

What are the pros and cons of a woman joining an ashram and staying there for her entire life?

6/8/2023

The pros and cons for a woman joining an ashram and staying there for the rest of her life are slightly different from those for men who choose to join a monastic path. Both want to accelerate their understanding of the unseen, powerful world of the spirit and manifest it in a way that erases their individual egos.

The pros:

---Less emphasis on physical appearance, especially according to cultural norms of beauty.---

Women all over the world spend a huge amount of time and money on making themselves look good so they will fit in, or receive praise and validation, or to just not be rejected. This is all a function of the frightened ego-mind, which is constantly chasing after fixing things and appearing to have it all “made” so someone will love you. If you are in an ashram, simple hygiene is all you need and your inner light provides the rest.

You are not concerned with shopping and accumulating fashionable or fabulous clothes because you wear a simple habit, uniform, or have a way of dressing that does not emphasize the external. Therefore, you have time to devote to long contemplation; serving others to eliminate suffering, and keeping inner peace without distractions.

---No need to continually be at the beck and call of husbands and children.---

For centuries, women’s biology has been their destiny. That is why we didn’t have many great female composers, mathematicians, painters or even writers until the 19th century. Up to that point the majority of women were engaged in the endless tasks of looking after children, cooking, tending to the men, and keeping house. Even if they had servants, their time was taken up by traditional household and social maintenance. The great female writers of the 19th century such as the Brontes and Jane Austen, were not married and thus had time for intellectual pursuits, spiritual development, and self-expression.

Now we have birth control and are not forced into the endless sacrifices of motherhood time every time our husbands need to fulfill their urges (or we need to fulfill ours). But still, with all the information overload and being bombarded by our attention-seeking society, it is more demanding than ever to rear children. And it may be a thankless job, if the Souls are not in alignment with ours and they may leave us after all the love and passion we put into them.

And so a woman might want to opt out of all of this compulsion and just live simply and in peace. If you want to surround yourself with women who are sincerely on the path to Soul and Spirit, this could be just the right place. The rest of the world does not encourage spirituality and even laughs at it if you bring it up as a topic at a party. In general the world thinks that there’s something weird about you. If you are in an ashram, everyone is on the same page of finding their inner joy through praise and service.

---No need to be appealing to men to bolster validity or to fulfill sexual needs.---

Again, we are biological creatures, driven by certain compulsions that can be beyond our control. Sexual needs can cause us to be in relationships that are far from spiritually nourishing. It might be best for some women to just opt out of the whole dance. These women feel best when they bypass their bodily needs and pour all their passion into the radiant beauty of the Perfect Universe.

---De-emphasizing a life of tasks and material maintenance---

Most people’s jobs are repetitive and are dedicated to making the rich, richer. Or, if you are an entrepreneur, you will be spending 18-hours a day to keep your business viable. Taking care of a house is exhausting and it just gets dirty quickly anyway. And it is all for the narrow needs of just one family. In the ashram, you are still doing tasks, but they are dedicated to a higher good and it feels like it is worth the effort.

Cons:

---You don’t need to be away from the world to do things with mindfulness, grace, and praise.---

Just changing location or venue is no guarantee that the ego-mind won’t find another way to act up. As a spiritually grounded being, you can be in the midst of screaming babies and find that place of peace within. You don’t need to go anywhere to find the Heart of the Universe.

Sometimes an ashram can be filled with spiritual one-upmanship, as in: “You’re just a novice. I’ve been doing this for 20 years.” The hierarchical structure may be just as restricting as being in regular society and just as snobby.

Even if the surroundings are different, the ego mind and its fearful tricks can pipe up in fresh, new ways that leave us stewing and wondering if we made a really wrong choice. Being in the ashram and burning all your financial bridges so you can’t back out of the commitment, forces you to eradicate the ego and even find others who can assist you. For your back will once again, be up against the wall.

---It can be a form of escape from jobs, household maintenance, and financial concerns.---

Getting a job and performing repetitive, boring tasks for the sake of making the rich get richer is not emotionally or spiritually fulfilling. Facing piles of laundry after a day at the job to be able to pay for housing is one example of the treadmill of material maintenance that can block our access to peace of mind. And so some women want to opt out of all of it.

At the ashram, most of the decisions are made for you. You follow a certain protocol. You, as an individual ego, are being erased. You are like a raindrop that has merged with the pond. And you don’t have to bother with all the concerns that grown-ups have to face. You don’t have to worry about money and all your food is provided for you. It is like being a kid again in some ways. Is this a pro or a con? It depends on how you look at it.