Spiritual Enlightenment - Articles, videos, interviews, experiences and much more.
A wisdom archive for Spiritual Enlightenment with articles, interviews and personal experiences of enlightenment. Spiritual Enlightenment and Spiritual Awakening is the primary goal of almost all spiritual practices, traditions and religions and for any spiritual seeker. There are many names for this awakened state of Consciousness depending on what culture and tradition we belong to.
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
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Wisdom Archives on Spiritual Enlightement
Spiritual Enlightenment - Sri Ananda Giri
This is an excerpt from an interview with Sri Ananda Giri:
What is the message and main teachings that you are bringing today to the spiritual seekers of America? I have come to bring neither a new teaching nor a new philosophy of life; we already have received a huge number of teachings from different Saints, Sages, Mystics, Philosophers and great thinkers from different schools of thought. The world is full of philosophies, religions, esoteric teachings (revealed to the world), spiritual practices, techniques of self development, etc., that set forth beautiful theories and ideas of how we should live or what do we have to do, to find true "Happiness" in our lives. The question that I ask you is that after so much reading and listening to different teachings, is there any real change in our lives? Or, are we just changing techniques and philosophies, that keep us in rapture for a period of time, and after a while we find them impossible to follow and practice? Giving up finally the possibility to attain a real and deep change in our lives?
If you are not giving us a new teaching or technique, what should we expect from The Golden Age Foundation?
We, as a spiritual movement, ask you two questions:
1. Are you suffering? And, 2. Do you want to be free from this suffering?
If your answer is affirmative to both questions, we embrace you, and then our Foundation can help you.
What do you mean by "suffering"?
In many moments of our lives we found ourselves experiencing feelings of boredom, loneliness, depression, pain and conflict in our human relationships, lack of motivation, and sometimes meaninglessness in many of our daily activities.
These feelings make us suffer, because they come generally with anxiety and uncertainty, and we don't know if we will ever be free from these emotions and feelings.
Inside of us questions arise like: Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Will I find happiness and love in my life or is it just a dream? Where am I going? Is there any hope for a change or do I have to give up? What is living? Do I do what I really want, or do I feel like a slave of the impositions of society? Will I ever experience the real psychological and spiritual freedom? And so on and so forth...
What would happen if somebody comes and tells you that he has none of these questions, because he feels happy and in peace and that he has found everything he has searched for? Not everybody is a spiritual seeker in this world. The truth is that only a selected group of people are in a real search in their lives. We as human beings are suffering from a severe illness, which is not necessarily lack of love, hatredness, pride, greed, envy, covetousness or egoism, but we are suffering with an even greater illness, which is "lack of awareness" of what is happening inside us. Most of us walk in the streets without knowing, why we are going to our jobs, from where comes our urge to success, why should I go to the shopping malls every weekend, what makes me buy the latest car model that just appeared in the market, what is it that moves me everyday to action, why should I keep myself constantly busy, etc. If everything is fine and if I were really happy, for sure I would not have the necessity of keeping my mind constantly busy with ideas and projects for the future. If we contemplate for a moment we will see that real happiness and joy is only found in the present, but constantly we keep ourselves busy doing things for acquiring happiness and peace in the future, we are running after a moving train, which we can never catch.
The sincere spiritual seeker, first of all, is aware of this issue and feels the urge to find a way out of this stressing and anguishing situation. He has begun to see the lack of love and peace in his life, the lack of harmony in his family and personal relationships, and the lack of truthfulness because he is always involved in lies and hypocrisies in order to be accepted in this society. In the beginning, a spiritual seeker feels disgusted and sick of everything, and this is what really transforms him into a real and deep seeker of meaning, into a "Spiritual Seeker".
Related articles:
Interview with Sri Ananda Giri Interview with Sri Samadarshini Presentation of The Golden Age Foundation The Rural Mission of The Golden Age Foundation Services of The Golden Age Foundation
Spiritual Enlightenment in Hindu and Buddhist traditions
To find specific information from the Hindu and Buddhist traditions on enlightenment, please see:
This is an excerpt from an interview with Sri Samadarshini:
Question:. What is exactly Enlightenment in your teachings?
Samadarshini: ”Enlightenment in Bhagavad Dharma is spoken at 3 levels.
At first level it is experiencing reality as it is. That is where the Mind doesn’t interfere with your experience. What is happening within you is a lot of ceaseless chatter going on. Continuous talk, interference from the past, day dreaming about the future; Very rarely are you looking at the birds as it is, looking at the face of the child as it is. People do not experience reality as it is. So at the first stage, Enlightenment is where the interference of the mind stops and the senses are alive.
At the second stage Enlightenment is to feel a tremendous sense of connectedness with the world around you. You feel connectedness with the plant, with the human being in front of you, with the animal, with the mat on which you are sitting, to the sky, you feel connected to every thing around you. You don’t feel that you are alone and don’t feel the sense of separate existence, which basically is the curse of man.
At the third stage Enlightenment is where you experience oneness with the universe. It is no more a sense of connectedness instead you experience a complete union with the universe. You experience Cosmic Consciousness. This is what the Ancient sears would call it Aham Bramhasmin. That is “I am this whole process called the Universe”.
In Bhagavad Dharma, Bhagavan gives people these different kinds of states and these states that the people land into is not because of a psychological gimmick that they do with themselves, not a game that they play with their mind, not another kind of perception that they would have with which they view the world. It has no effort but just has to happen to them. And this happening, Bhagavan says, can take place only when something fundamentally different happens to you in your brain cells.
Now we know that there are 2 hemispheres in the brain, left & the right. Not all people are mystical. If somebody has to be a mystic, then a different kind of electricity has to flow in his brain cells in a particular pattern. Only such of these people have mystical experiences and not others. Now Bhagavan says when he performs a psychic surgery to you and do something to you psychically, electrical impulses are sent into a certain small part in your left hemisphere of the brain and when these electric currents go to that part of the brain then naturally the way you experience reality would be different. That is how it has happened to all the previous sages and saints and mystics of the past, though some people were unaware of it. Now Bhagavan is making it happen to anybody that is serious and seeking for it. And before this they are taken through a process and finally when their consciousness gets connected to Bhagavan’s consciousness then this is what happens to people. This is how all people land into this state.”
Meet Kiara Windrider, a wonderfully warm being with an ability to explain and portray the mind, spiritual awakening and enlightenment from many different angles.
Kiara Windrider, MA, is a psychotherapist, and author of “Doorway to Eternity: A Guide to Planetary Ascension”. Along with his wife, Grace, he is dedicated to sharing the endless possibilities for personal and planetary enlightenment.
Among many other articles, Kiara has shared his personal experiences in a series of articles. The first one “Journey to Enlightenment” was written just two week after he got enlightened. The others are from his coming book ”Enlightenment 2012: Kalki and the Golden Age”.
The video was recorded at The Oneness Festival August 2003.
Spiritual Enlightenment - Mayan Calendar: Carl Johan Calleman
Carl Johan Calleman is one of the foremost authoritatives on the Mayan Calendar. In his latest book Enlightenment: The Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future he is investigating the prediction of the fortcoming golden age and the subsequent transition of the human counsciousness.
“…This also makes Dr. Carl J. Calleman's new book, Enlightenment, the Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future, a land mark piece of literature. Besides presenting scientific evidence of a "Divine Plan" and factually establishing where we are in that plan, this book creates the unification of 100's of thousands of Mayan calendar students and practioners all over the world. “
The foreword to Enlightenment: The Mayan Calendar as Our Guide to the Future:
In the series, Evolving Towards Enlightenment I-V, Carl Johan Calleman explains the links between the Mayan Calendar, Enlightenment and the significance of the year 2012:
Listen to a very interesting interview in Earth Changes TV with Carl Johan Calleman regarding The Mayan Calendar, Kalki and The Golden Age Foundation. Click here (AUDIO MP3 format):
enlightenment: For Saiva monists, Self Realization, samadhi without seed (nirvikalpa samadhi); the ultimate attainment, sometimes referred to as Paramatma darshana, or as atma darshana, "Self vision" (a term which appears in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras).
Enlightenment is the experience-nonexperience resulting in the realization of one's transcendent Self-Parasiva -which exists beyond time, form and space. Each tradition has its own understanding of enlightenment, often indicated by unique terms.
See: God Realization, kundalini, nirvikalpa samadhi, Self Realization, jivanmukta, jnana..
(See
also: Enlightenment ,
Hinduism,
Body Mind and Soul)
This is the introduction to Kiara Windriders new book; “Enlightenment 2012: Kalki and the Golden Age” and we are very happy to say that we will be able to publish many of its chapters on a regular basis. It will be truly exciting reading for anyone being on the path towards spiritual awakening. We start off with the Introduction.
In this article, Kiara Windrider, author of “A doorway to Eternity” share his experiences with the teachings of Golden Age Foundation headed by Kalki in India. Kiara Windrider was one of the teachers at the first Oneness Festival that took place August 2-8 2003.
The Oneness Festival is a collaboration between the Golden Age Foundation in India and the Experience Foundation in Sweden.
Kiara got enlightened finally! This is his letter from him less than two weeks after the process. Read it and you will get an almost first hand insight into what enlightenment is all about, or at least how it is perceived by one human that actually reached the state.
Mayan Calendar: In the series, Evolving Towards Enlightenment I-V, Carl Johan Calleman explains the links between the Mayan Calendar Enlightenment and the significance of the year 2012.
In this first chapter of Kiara Windriders new book; “Enlightenment 2012: Kalki and the Golden Age”, Kiara is giving the background and characteristics of his own spiritual search. Described in a personal way from a personal perspective, it becomes even more universal. The search for inner harmony is probably a trait of all human beings, the exact path is however always individual.
An in-depth article presenting enlightenment from the personal view of Anette Carlström as well as from other sources and scientific research on the brains function. The article has been published in the Swedish magazine Sökaren (The Searcher).
In this fourth chapter of Kiara Windriders new book; “Enlightenment 2012: Kalki and the Golden Age”, Kiara is gives an explanation to what enlightenment is.
Enlightenment has nothing to do with how long you have been on a spiritual path, nor with what your religious beliefs are. You do not even need to believe in God or have any concepts about the soul. Enlightenment does not depend on knowing the right teachings or mantras. It has nothing to do with how many lifetimes you have meditated, or even with how ‘good’ a person you are. There is nothing you can ‘do’ to get enlightened. Enlightenment cannot be achieved through your own efforts any more than a drowning person can yank himself out by his own hair. The mind cannot deactivate itself. It can only happen by grace.
It came a mail from Carol who did the enlightenment process in Golden City just recently. Her mail is not only inspiring but it will also give you an in-depth understanding of how the process it self, and, the state of enlightenment can be perceived.
Dear friends
I have had an overwhelming response from people to my article on Kalki and enlightenment, and I thought that rather than respond individually I would respond to some of these questions collectively in a stream of consciousness kind of way.
Olivia Mathis from Australia describes her experiences from attending Samskarashuddhi and Mukti 3 at The World University of Consciousness after The Oneness Festival August 2003. Olivia also received a diksha for Enlightenment from Kalki, The Founder of The Golden Age Foundation.
In this article Carl Johan Calleman predicts a unification of the modern expressions of some of the most advanced ancient traditions of the West and the East; the Mayan and the Vedic. In this unification it seems that it is the West, the Maya and some other Native American peoples, that is providing the calendrical knowledge about the cosmic plan, while it is the East, the Vedic and Buddhist traditions that is carrying the time-less wisdom of the Self. The practical unification of these thought systems and traditions is then brought about by all those that are taking a path towards Enlightenment And according to the Mayan calendar, the time for this is now.
Here is a schedule for enlightenment processes conducted in Golden City (outside Chennai, India) The timings for each group (21 and 10 days processes) from June 2004 until March 2005 are included. Note that the dates for the 21 day process are changed but the times for the 10 days process are as they where from the beginning. Minor changes can always occur. (updated from 24-03-2004)
