I’d be interested to know how many trillions are spent each year on the search for enlightenment. And out of all those good folk forking out for it with various gurus, swamis, pilgrimages and courses, how many know what it is they are actually seeking when they say they want enlightenment, or whether they would even be able to recognise this so-called enlightenment if it jumped up and bit them on the bum?
It’s a good grift, I’ll grant you that … one in which you can take whole crowds of lost and desperate people on a merry dance in which each one is absolutely determined that the other sitting cross-legged next to them, in the ashram, is seeking the exact same thing … despite neither of them being able to describe what enlightenment actually is.
“Oh that’s because this ineffable and holy state is indescribable, beyond words?” they might reply.
In fact, they probably would reply. I’ve sat cross-legged on enough floors of mandirs, and satsang and meditation rooms to be sure of that. And that they then would look down their noses at the questioner for not having that understanding.
But surely, the first step to finding something is being able to describe exactly what it is we’re looking for?
We are told by the gurus that to take incarnation into a human body is a rare privilege… but they don’t tell us why that is so. Why we take on all the pain and suffering of the human condition, other than that pain and suffering is “enobling”. Enobling for what? Of what royal court am I aspiring to become a knight or earl? Oh, Heaven… I see. Well, Heaven can wait.
For me, now firmly in the sunset years of this journey of the spirit in a human body, enlightenment comes down to what I want. And I’ll tell you what I want… what I really really want… I want to find out how to enjoy the human journey without my spaceship being weighed down with illness, depression and “incurable diseases”.
I want to know what this vehicle of the human body is really capable of. I want to discover every single knob on its dashboard and go on all the rides in its fairground, to discover how this amazing, multi-dimensional rocket can shoot me to the Moon, to the Sun, to the planets and much further than that, to journey into other dimensions, other lifetimes, other ways of being.
I want to join in the dance of the spheres, swim in the waves of the celestial symphonies and sing in the perpetual choirs of the harmonies of light.
I want to discover how to thoroughly enjoy this ride and then post Wish You Were Here postcards to others, so they can discover how to enjoy it too.
Otherwise, what was the point of coming here?
Annie Dieu-Le-Veut 