STEPHEN FOSTER…STATE PARK, WHITE SPRINGS, FL–It’s funny how much the mind wants to control things. Why is control, why is knowing, why is being right so important to the mind?

Life is so much easier when you let go. When you stop trying to bend Her to fit into your plans.

As you let go and relax into Her–as you stop fighting what She’s trying to show you–it’s amazing how helpful She becomes.

It’s amazing how beautiful She is–how beautiful She’s always been.

Every photo I take, I take of Her.

PALM BAY, FL–I don’t know why I had such a hard time getting this meditation out–either I’d screw up the sound quality or I’d over explain the instructions–but I finally got it right. This is the meditation that I used to stabilize my “enlightenment consciousness” during those precarious three weeks of my awakening. I first mentioned it the September 21st entry, Waking Yourself Up. Part IV: The Practice.

You can download the meditation here.

SILVER RIVER STATE PARK, OUTSIDE OCALA, FL–I’ve made and uploaded a new video today. Shot from inside a canoe as I drifted down the Silver River outside Ocala, FL. Another example of the one-take-push-record-talk-push-stop technique complete with all the expected unexpected interruptions of real life. Sadly, I didn’t capsize or knock the camera into the water as that would have sent the video soaring up the YouTube viewer ratings. Oh well, maybe next time.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Holiday!

LAKE CATHERINE STATE PARK, AR–What is this “Divine Within” that I keep talking about? Why do I keep bringing it up? Why is it so hard to grasp? Is it real?

Imagine that you woke up from a deep sleep and you had complete amnesia. You couldn’t remember anything. No memories of your past, of your family, of your friends. You couldn’t remember your native language–you couldn’t talk or communicate. You could see objects, but you don’t know their names or even what they were used for. The amnesia runs so deep that you don’t even remember how to move your limbs. They just seem to move on their own.

You would be aware of the objects around you. You would be aware of sounds and smells and the sense of touch. You would be aware of breathing, but not why it was happening, or even that it was happening to your body.

With your complete amnesia, there is no personal story. No ego gorilla. There is only awareness of stuff around you.

You would be, in essence, pure Awareness.

With this awareness is a sense of being. A sense of an invisible, but alive, movement.

This is what I mean by your true nature, by the Divine Within, by your Life Force. Really, there is nothing mystical to it at all. It is just your sense of being.

From the Enlightenment of Oneness, it is “felt” as Life/Love living.

From the Enlightenment of Stillness, it is felt as Life/Love radiating.

From the Enlightenment of Passion, it is felt as Life/Love moving.

To the mind’s eye, this being, this Awareness, is seen as Light. From Oneness: Light within a Sea of Light. From Stillness: Light softly glowing. And from Passion: the Light of a brightly burning flame.

I stress this concept–this Life Force–because I want you to learn to feel it and to see it. I want you to become aware of your deeper, spiritual nature because the more you experience this felt sense of You, the easier it will be for you to see the thoughts, the stories, the drama, and the selfish emotions that block that feeling–that block your realization of your true nature.

I call my “flavor” of teaching, Passionate Enlightenment, because I want you to feel it. Not just consider it. I want you to live it, not just contemplate it. I want you to feel the passion of Life living unrestrained and unbound through you.

I want you to wake up and be free.

In my last post, I mentioned how “quiet” motivation now is. Yesterday, while sitting in Stillness, a direction–my next steps–became clear.

The desire to “make things happen” rarely appears anymore and, when it does, I feel clunky and disingenuous. Sometimes though, as I rest in Stillness, Life will softly whisper–like a lover murmuring a sweet secret–and my path will become crystal clear.

This whisper–this revelation–stimulates the Passion. A powerful welling of energy rises in my chest and I feel excited and alert and in harmony with my surroundings as Life starts to awaken and stir and live through me.

Wayne Wirs would have tried to control and bend and manipulate this power (as have countless spiritual seekers before him). But to control it is to kill it, for Life cannot flow through an ego.

If you want Life to live through you, you must surrender to it. You must stop swimming, stop struggling, stop trying. You must give up and allow yourself to drown in it. Give up and give in. It is by surrendering, by complete supplication to Life, that you will find joy, and bliss, and harmony as Life lives as Life was meant to live… unhindered.

Stillness. Thoughts drop away. Movement ceases. Time no longer has meaning.

The eye rests on a flower–the colors, the textures, the subtle shape and softness. A raven caws in the distance and the sound, like music, rises then drops away into nothingness. A breath is drawn, held momentarily, and a faint lightness is felt as Life celebrates another moment in the body.

Stillness. This is the Eternal Now. The past is seen as a collection of ancient and dusty thoughts. The future as fantasies and imagination. In this moment, there can be no ego, not personal story. In the Moment, there is only Reality.

Stillness is a release. It is a letting go. It is surrender.

In Stillness there is no trying, no manipulating, no doing.

In Stillness, there is only being, only total acceptance.

—

Tomorrow: The Enlightenment of Oneness.

Though there are many aspects to enlightenment, my “center” seems to shift and flow primarily through these three states:

• Passion (Love)
• Stillness (Presence)
• Oneness (Clarity)

The Enlightenment of Passion is Yang (Active), the Enlightenment of Stillness is Yin (Passive), and beyond both–arising from the merging of the two–is the Enlightenment of Oneness.

Update November 17, 2009: Download a guided meditation to help you experience The Three Enlightenments.

—

Tomorrow: The Enlightenment of Passion.

Unbeknownst to most, on the far side of the Pit of Doom, lies the Plateau of the Serene Witness. Most will only arrive here after their body has expired, the Darkness engulfs them, and the Light – a soothing and beckoning Presence – guides them to the other side.

Some though, a very rare few, will find their way here during this lifetime. From the Plateau, all the illusions of the Mind are seen through – evaporating like morning mist in the sunlight of day.

Having bodies, physical Pleasure and Pain are still felt, but having seen through the mental, artificial images of the mind, the roller-coaster of Joy and Sorrow gently comes to a halt.

For the residents of the Plateau – both the Living and the Dead – Bliss and Happiness prevail.

What is enlightenment?

Enlightenment is when you no longer identify with your thoughts.

Since the story of your life, what you think about yourself, and positions you hold dear, are all thoughts, when you “wake up,” these thoughts stop feeling like you. They don’t necessarily go away, but they do lose their power over you – you stop identifying with them. You stop identifying with the ego story.

(more…)