By Jonathan Parker, Ph.D.

There are two categories of what is called enlightenment. First, there is enlightenment that comes from the mind. This includes enlightenment of the mental body where people receive a certain amount of illumination that happens through the mind, and it also includes the many ideas of enlightenment”which are Illusions of enlightenment. The word “enlightenment” is used very loosely today to apply to a lot of different spiritual practices and mental states”So, there are many ideas about enlightenment, and even more ideas about the illusions of enlightenment.

The second aspect to enlightenment is of the heart. It is talked about considerably in the Buddhic, Vedantic and Sufi paths, and to a far lesser extent in other paths. Enlightenment of the heart is a different focus from that of the mind, and, in my view, enlightenment of the mind is incomplete without the enlightenment of the heart.

In today’s societies it is fashionable to be in pursuit of enlightenment, but only with half-hearted devotion. People say, "I’d like to be enlightened, and I am on a path of enlightenment, but I'd love that new sports car, and that chateau in the mountains, and more sex and love, and more travel, and I want a lot of other things too numerous to list here." This creates a conflict and confusion on how to integrate the two, or even what enlightenment is.

In order to bring our soul into the physical dimension, we have been clothed in a garment which can live in this degree of density. This garment is our personality which is composed of physical, emotional, mental, and etheric bodies. What happens in the process of life experiences is that our soul becomes caught in the personality, which, in turn, gets caught in the pain and other illusions that are characteristic of the physical dimension. The experiences in this plane which were supposed to be of love, beauty, and fulfillment have become distorted into deep experiences of limitations”and the deepest limitations are pain, suffering and disease.

Every time someone throws their emotions at you it is a test for you to see if you can maintain the love within you that is the core essence of your being, in spite of what the other person’s emotional upset. If your lover or boss comes in screaming at you, can you hold the love? God does. God holds us in love in our darkest moments, and if we want to match the love quality of God, we must do the same for others. If you get hooked by the other person’s emotions, you loose your center and your love, and become entangled with like emotions. This further encases you in the illusions of the lower emotions. Ask yourself why you fell into this trap? Why did you forget? Why did you loose yourself? Go inside yourself and purify that place so you don’t forget the next time it happens.

You must become equal-minded or neutral unaffected by victory or defeat, profit or loss, joy or sorrow, hot or cold, honor or dishonor, or any other pairs of opposites. Be lovingly detached. Everything is a gift from God, given for your own good. When you are equal-minded you will experience joy and feelings of love and satisfaction regardless of outer circumstances. When you reach this state, others can no longer hook you with their emotions or illusions. This is a very high way to live, and brings great freedom with it. If you are not living with that freedom, you are like a cork floating on water in a storm”being pushed around by the projections of everyone around you”letting their illusions rule and create your reality. If you live this way, you are letting the blind leading the blind”letting another person’s illusions create deeper illusions, and you both live in a state of limitation and pain. Be free. Live in God’s truth. When someone throws something at you, you recognize it as an illusion, and say, "I love you, but I’m not interested in loosing my love and leaving my heart." God wants you to live so strongly in your heart, that no one could ever throw you out of it with any illusion.

Somehow humanity has lost track of its Divine essence and God, and became lost in personalities and living according to the desires of the personalities. We are all trying to get out of the limitations we have become ensnared with, and so we pursue multiple paths to relieve the suffering.

What if we were to orient our efforts totally to seeking God and God only? Not God as a concept, not God as a being judging us, but to the Divine truth and intelligence that lives within us all. And what if we were to commit ourselves totally and completely to that? What if we were willing to clear the veils of illusion that cover our hearts from the full experience of our Divinity? This is not a commitment for those only seeking relief of suffering. It is a much deeper and fuller commitment.

Most are confused by their emotions, and so they live in mental worlds of constant thinking, plotting, reasoning, wondering, analyzing, and scheming. But, remember, the mind creates illusions, and that is all it can ever create. The mind creates illusions about who and what you are, and they run very wide and deep. Each person's illusions are then projected on others, and every illusion has a core of followers. So, in life you find a confusing choice of options to distract you from your goal. If you, yourself, live in illusions and not your Divinity, you will be easily distracted by the philosophies and projections of others which can only manifest lack, limitation, pain, and disease.

Your energy field is formed by your thoughts, and your thoughts create energy patterns in your subtle bodies. These energy patterns create and attract conditions and situations based on the character and quality of those thoughts. Those patterns also coalesce into the physical body itself. Depending on the nature of those thoughts a person's life and health will eventually reflect the quality of the thoughts.

Since you have free will, you can choose what to think and how to live. You can play your illusions out for years or decades, but they will eventually show up in your life as physical disease, emotional pain, psychological neuroses, and an overall limitation on the quality of your life. This is the law of life. The solution to dispelling all the illusions of life is to give up all personal desires, wants, and attachments and submit your will to God's will. The path of surrender is the fastest and safest path to enlightenment. It is the fastest because it goes directly to God, and it is the safest because it is not encumbered with dogma, doctrine or masks of religion it is the purest form of spirituality.

The majority of seekers take convoluted paths of lateral movement forever seeking the mysterious hidden alchemical keys to open the gates to the Kingdom. Seeking and searching from the timeless teachings of the mystery schools to modern brain machines; from new age music to mysticism; from Eastern religions to Western religions; from ancient civilizations to aliens, and a whole lot more. Is the seeking fun? Probably. Is there some enrichment? Of course. But at the end of trail, enlightenment is still elusive, and the seeker is left still wondering about life after decades of searching. After a lifetime they discover that they did not experience a celebrated life of ecstasy because they transcended, nor did they experience holiness because they found God, rather they face the grave after a lifetime of searching with a resignation that they lived the best life they could, but never reached what they wanted. They say, 'thank you' and leave. Life was not meant to be this way, and it doesn't have to stay this way.

Why is it so difficult? Because there are so many temptations and illusions along the way. How many of you reading this have studied Native American tradition, Tarot, Astrology, Buddhism, Cabalah, Yoga, Hinduism, Mysticism, Huna, Mythology, Numerology, Psychic Development, Theosophy, World Literature, or Zen? Probably everyone has spent time with several of these studies and others besides. There is an incredible amount of diversity available today, and most seekers are scattered not knowing where to look next, but always searching for the missing key. Of course, it is OK to study all the systems you would like. That is your free will, and there is certainly some value to it, but why not also take the direct non-stop flight to God. That is your goal isn't it? That is the stated underlying goal of nearly all systems, yet they are filled with an obstacle course of mental illusions on the road to enlightenment.

I have already stated that you have a personality (Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Etheric bodies), but you also have within you, your heart center, and within your heart center is your soul, and within your soul is God. To reach through the layers and find God, you must align all the components of who you are, and bring them all back to God. This is done through the constant remembrance of God through meditative practices, which stop the searching and side-to-side movement. Yes, you will move forward, and fall back a little, but your overall movement will be forward and direct. If you invested the same time and energy into directly seeking and remembering God as you have been investing in your side-to-side searching, you would be much, much further ahead than you currently are. Don't waste your life seeking side-to-side anymore. The quickest way to God, is to God. Go directly to God through love, remembrance, and trust. God knows what you need, when you need it, and if your trust is in God completely, all you could ever want will manifest and unfold before you.

On the direct path to God, there are four levels composed of 7 stations each. The first level is composed of The 7 Stations Of The Self. These stations start at the level of the darkest aspects of self, and progress to the fully integrated self. For example, when a person hears an inner voice say, "Lie, cheat, and steal," and that person goes out and does those things, then that person is listening to the lowest station of the Self. When a person hears the inner voice say, "Lie, cheat, and steal," but he responds, "I don't think I should do that. I don't think it is right," he is operating out of the second station. When that same voice comes in and says, "Lie, cheat, and steal" and the person responds "I know that isn't right, I wish to live with God. I won't do it." That person is in the third station. When a person reaches the fourth station that voice is quiet, the temptations go away, and another voice is heard. A person living in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh stations is listening deep inside their heart to the voice of God.

When The Seventh Station Of The Self is completed, that person jumps to the 2nd level, which is composed of The Seven Stations Of The Heart. These are levels of deeper and deeper communion with God. Slowly but surely remembering God, and calling God to you. Many people reaching this level believe they have reached enlightenment. They are no longer living for satisfaction of the personality and what the personality wants. This person is living according to God's desires, and is living with surrender and deeper levels of Divine love. They are merging their heart with God's heart. In time, if they continue on this path, they will come to another quantum jump into the 3rd series of seven levels The Stations Of The Soul where the soul and God merge.

Each person is individualized with unique qualities, colors, purposes, and vibrations. The Seven Stations Of The Soul are about the disappearance and merging of the soul into God. In the levels of The Stations Of The Heart you are listening to the voice of God inside of you and living in submission to that voice, not doing what you want to do. For instance, you might want to go to a movie tonight, and you listen inside and God's voice inside tells you to sit in meditation for two hours instead. You would rather go to the movie, but you do the meditation instead you submit yourself to the will of God. Submission means you listen and you follow what you are told. By this point in your development you will know it is God's voice not your subconscious mind, your spirit guides, your soul, or your Higher Self, but it is beyond your soul, beyond your Higher Self, and comes from the essence of the Divine within you, that is all in all.

Now, in The Seven Stations Of The Soul, the soul begins to disappear, until there is nothing left but complete unity and love which is God. Your soul merges back into the essence of the ocean of all awareness. At this point your soul stops to function as an individualized self, and instead lives in submission and truth, which is the greatest love you can have. This movement is what the Sufi's call the Fina, or extinction of the individualized soul and it's movement back to the unity of God. The Hindu's call this Nirvana. Nirvana means emptiness. This is the state of emptiness that exists before one fills with the Divine Presence. It is the releasing of individuality before one comes into the fullness of God. It is the void before enlightenment. This is a difficult time because it is one thing to say, "I'm going to give up my ego," and another, to be actually willing to really die into God that is, let yourself disappear into God. In Nirvana, or the Fina, there is nobody here. You as the soul are gone. This is a very deep and holy thing, because now you disappear. What is left is a consciousness ready to be filled with the full qualities of God.

At this point you enter the 4th level called The Seven Stations Of The Secret, which are the levels where the qualities of God come in to fill you, until you are completely and totally filled with the presence of love. When you cross into The Seven Stations Of The Secret you enter the world of unity. At this point you can now say you have reached enlightenment. This is the final fina. You have really disappeared now, you are not in the void, but living completely in the nature of God filled with deep love, and it is holding you eternally in the beloved heart of God. The Vedanics call this Nirvikalpa Samadhi. This is the journey of the self to God until you become completely full of the many qualities of God, and this is called complete enlightenment. From the 4th level, The Stations Of The Secret, a person no longer experiences disease, or other problems. But from 3rd level, The Stations Of The Soul, and downward there are disease and problems in increasing amounts the lower you go.

This whole process is called The 28 Stations Of The Heart leading to complete enlightenment. There is The Seven Levels Of The Self, The Seven Levels Of The Heart, The Seven Levels Of The Soul, and The Seven Levels Of The Secret. To follow this path requires a process of (1) remembrance, (2) prayer and, (3) commitment to living a pure and respectful life.

We go through lifetimes of living through our ego which is constantly seeking control. We delude ourselves that we are the powerful and enlightened ones, when in actuality all the power rests with God. Even Jesus said, "Of myself I can do nothing." We have the choice to deny God with our free will, but even that choice is given to us from God. People say, "Aren't I creating my own reality?" Yes, you are creating it, but only through the will of God. When you say, "I want to live my life this way," God says, "I grant you the permission to live that way," and your own energy is reflected back to you. Who is causing existence to manifest? It is God. The entire creation is God's creation. The entire universe is filled with God, it is nothing but God, and the pure energy and intelligence of God. God is in and through everything and everyone. God is in every object, every person, and every thing. God, the ever-luminous light, shines equally in every heart. When you recognize the presence of God dwelling in everyone, you will no longer be able to harbor resentment for anyone Therefore the safest way is to put aside your self and seek God. This is the straight and narrow way - the way directly back to God. Once you make this commitment and surrender yourself totally to God, every day, you will make very rapid progress.

Your insides will become washed with the pure light of God. You will no longer walk around with the pulls of the flesh, negative energy attachments, or emotions. Gone will be anger, pride, greed, lust, attachment, jealousy, fear, resentment, and all the other qualities of the human race and the mass consciousness that we have carried with us for lifetimes. One-by-one they will melt away, because you will be disappearing and you will be returning to your true nature which is God and love. In this state of being there is only love, beauty, and peace. Life takes on a higher, deeper, wider, and more full expression of these qualities far broader and deeper than you could ever imagine. As long as your heart is covered with the veils of illusion you can only know these qualities in small measure. Wanting, desiring, trying, searching, and attachments are all immense levels of suffering. If you can let those veils go and come to God, and dissolve into God's will and the magnificence and radiance of life, there won't be anything left, but the peace, beauty and love of God. There are so many things we must all release, and it often seems like an insurmountable and endless task. Fortunately, there is a way to effect rapid and wide-spread releases so it is not necessary to enumerate or remember every last item to be released. It is all done through the process of surrender and remembrance. To become free from the pain and limitations of life, you must release the past, and meditation coupled with remembrance and surrender is the way. Here is how it is done:

Surrender is the highest and most important practice you can possibly undertake. Go through your life and give up, release and surrender everything you can think of. Every person, every possession, every feeling, every hope, every desire, everything you like and don't like. Include: your body, your need to be right, your dreams, your fears, your gray hair, your fat stomach, your anger, your mind, your mortgage, your mate, your need to be enlightened, your children, your friends, your enemies, your debts, your lacks, your limitations, your impatience, your mind, and your life.

Surrender means having no desires separate from the one desire to fully surrender to God. It means offering up everything you say, think and do to God, as well as what will be done, when it will be done, and how it will be done. It is "taking no thought" and watching as the "Red Sea" of obstacles parts before you. Yes, obstacles melt, and the hand of God goes before you to straighten out all the crooked places. But you must want God more than you want air. It must be the strongest burning desire within you. Then you must have serene patience, and all that you could ever want or desire will be given to you.

Wake up at night in the early morning hours after midnight (this is the best time), and sit and bring your focus to God. You can repeat the names of God, Jehovah, Elohim, Allah, Brahman, Tao,Chu, Atma, Divinity, Paramatma,and others, and the remembrance of God will dissolve the negative traits in your life.

A functional label for the Divine Power is Sat-chit-anand. It means that this power or force that is filling the universe and beyond has three attributes: Sat is the raw material, the substance, the product, the separate and sum forms of the indestructible permanence; chit, awareness, activity (like seeing and hearing), the consciousness, feeling, the willing and doing; and anand, the harmony and melody, the enduring bliss. Just as water is wet, liquid, and transparent at the same time, this power called God is Sat-chit-anand at the same time, and these attributes cannot be separated.

Repeating the name of God for an hour keeps your mind from wandering and keeps you focused on the highest aspects of God. When you start this practice, there will be other voices within you saying things like, "This is crazy." "You don't deserve this." "This will never work." "This is a waste of time." "This is too hard." But as you continue the practice, the lower voices within you will have less and less power over your life, and you will discover some amazing changes beginning. Remembrance is constantly filling your being with the light of God, and as you do, your inner being becomes an incredibly beautiful radiance of love, peace and beauty. Your life can totally change in a matter of hours. This is very powerful and very fast. When the clearing is done with these techniques they are cleared forever.

When you are willing to drop yourself and all your attachments, you fall deeply into the love of God and you are consumed by God. You and God become one and the only thing left is the unity and oneness that is all that is. From that place there will be no disease, no suffering, no lack, no pain, no separation--there will simply be the essence of deep love, deep peace, and deep beauty.

Feel Free to Copy This Article & Distribute It Freely
Comments on this article may be submitted to the author, Jonathan Parker, at Q@QuantumQuests.com. For a complete list of audio programs and workshops by Jonathan Parker as well as other articles on this and related subjects, visit Jonathan's website athttp://www.quantumquests.com

Dear Jonathan,

I have just finished reading your article on "The Two Paths of Enlightenment". For the first time in a long time I felt I had found something that had real meaning for me. I was very excited, and then my analytical mind kicked in. I am still trying to surrender all my desires to God. I am finding this a challenge as what do I have left if I don't think for myself. If I surrender all my thoughts to God, then am I thinking? Do I not want to be thinking? If I can't think then what? I could really use some help on this theory. Could you please explain a little more, or guide me to the right tapes or books.
Thank you,
Donna

Dear Donna,

The fear of losing your identity is a projection of the lower ego consciousness, which is not your true self. You are an individualized energy field housing a lower and higher vibration or consciousness. Your illumined consciousness, which is also called your God Self, your Higher Self, your Master Within, your Christ Consciousness, your True Self, your God Realized Self,etc., is present and living simultaneously with your mortal mind and ego. When you move into higher consciousness you do not lose consciousness and wake up as a stranger in a strange land. You do not trade one mind for another. You do not have a sense of loss because you remain Self aware--in fact, you become more alive and more aware with more understanding, knowledge, and awareness. As your thinking and feeling natures move up to a higher co-ordinate in your energy field, you take on the consciousness of the Higher Self, and the dark energies and fears of the ego are transmuted. While there were two states and consciousness (duality), now there is only one. On this higher frequency you are fully aware of your God Self and you know the reality of yourself.

The subject of surrender takes awhile to understand and a longer time to master. A very good beginning on this subject is A Spiritual Philosophy for the New World' by John Randolph Price. There are degrees of surrender, and it is perhaps the ultimate spiritual path.

Blessings & Love,

Jonathan

Feel Free to Copy This Article & Distribute It Freely
Comments on this article may be submitted to the author, Jonathan Parker, at Q@QuantumQuests.com. For a complete list of audio programs and workshops by Jonathan Parker, as well as other articles on this and related subjects, visit Jonathan’s website at: http://www.quantumquests.com