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.
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.
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