The Enlightenment Journey
The enlightenment journey is long and arduous and it’s been said that’s it’s only necessary once in our lives, or once in our many incarnations. When we arrive at that place of understanding or knowing, that is when the goal has been realized.
This theory has been the catalyst for countless seekers to travel to all corners of the earth, to sit at the feet of different masters and to diligently follow sometimes difficult practices to fulfill their goal of enlightenment. I include myself among those throngs of seekers.
The part that I find most interesting is the fact that 99.9% of those aiming for enlightenment will not achieve it in this lifetime, but the very process of trying and not reaching it will help many thousands of people around the world. Once again, I must put myself into that category. I cannot by any measure say I have reached ‘enlightenment” but I can say for certain that I have helped well over a thousand and more people in their journey to peace and happiness.
My coaching clients’ success is testimony to this and I offer a 25 minute Free coaching session for you to identify how I can help you on your journey to happiness.
The Shamanic Way of Healing and Enlightenment
Traditionally the shamanic way has not been for enlightenment but instead to heal and help others in the areas of body, mind and spirit. However many Shamans have found themselves “enlightened” as a result of their trance state and their work with spirit.
After doing a bit of research on Shamanism and Sorcery it seems as if the goal is the same as the basic meta physical / spiritual path that I have followed for enlightenment. That goal is a shift of perception. Only the means is a bit different. For example they may engage in various processes and techniques to incite a trance state. It could be singing, dancing, taking entheogens, 1)An entheogen (“generating the divine within”) is a chemical substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context that may be synthesized or obtained from natural species drumming and we often hear of shamans using the sweat lodge.
In the sweat lodge you close your eyes and use your spiritual eyes to see. Your daily self did not perceive the light flashes you observed there. People only realize afterward that they left their material body and were in a completely different place. Realization means the movement of the Self outside the material body.
Personally I find the idea of entering different realms of reality mysterious and compelling. Click to tweet
Although I’ve never had the sweat lodge experience, I have joined other shamanic types of ceremonies and rituals and each time came back changed in subtle and not so subtle ways.
It does take a bit of courage to put yourself in the position to see what we normally don’t. Click to tweet
After all, once you do “see” these alternate realities you can never, ever go back to that once sheltered mental place you lived in. You can try but you do know there is something else and you’ve glimpsed it. When I’ve asked friends to join me in these ceremonies I’ve been turned down multiple times by the recipients of my invitation with words such as “I don’t want to know!” I find that interesting because I do want to know, I really do!
Other views of enlightenment
Daniel Pinchbeck’s wrote a book called “Breaking Open the Head” a journey into the shaman experience
Through direct experience, Pinchbeck learned that Shamanism was a real phenomenon, that direct access to the spiritual world is available to anybody who is willing to explore for themselves and escape the prevailing orthodoxies, the “irrational rationality” of the current system. He supports the perspective of Christ in the Gnostic “Gospel of Thomas,” who said: “Open the door for yourself, so you will know what is.”
http://fractalenlightenment.com/709/spirituality/bending-time-and-space-with-shamanism
My favorite, Carl Gustav Jung, Master Spiritual Psychologist, whose insight into the nature of the psyche is one of the great legacies of our time said:
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
Carl Jung taught that the psyche has three components the ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. If you’ve studied Jungian psychology or had the good fortune to undergo Jungian analysis as I have you know the Archetypes that are constantly referred to represent the collective unconscious.
Another of his quotes that rings so true in all manners of spiritual and psychic discipline is
We cannot change anything if we do not first accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.
Acceptance is hard for many, yet a crucial part of your journey if you want to move forward in enlightenment.
Jung, as many other mystic masters, believed that in order to transform we must hear our inner voice. We must embrace that which we don’t particularly like about ourselves as, to do anything less, keeps enlightenment at bay. As a matter of fact it does just the opposite and creates a splitting off of the personality and therefore pathology. So in other words in order to rise to the heights of “one who sees” we first must see that which is dark within us and we must accept it.
If this man’s amazing understanding and teachings appeal to you I highly recommend Jung a Journey of Transformation by Vivian Crowley
Enlightenment from Shaman to Jung
My radio guest Shamanic Healer and Jungian Analyst Dr. Carl Greer helps bridge the worlds of the Shaman and the Jungian philosophy in a way that makes it clear how they go hand in hand. Listen as he tells of the ceremonies he participated in for transformation and how he can help you.
Are you on a journey of enlightenment? Let me know in the comment box below.
References
| 1. | ↑ | An entheogen (“generating the divine within”) is a chemical substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context that may be synthesized or obtained from natural species |
Love your information on enlightenment!!!! I look forward to your wonderful posts. I always learn something new or you remind me to live the way I know I should with each post. Peace and love Lorane, Michele.