Enlightenment is a state of wholeness, of being "at one" and therefore at peace. Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering, as Buddha put it, but also the end to the continuous conflict within and without, and the end of the dreadful enslavement to the incessant thinking that goes on in our minds. - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now. A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.

* Notice the word "being" in the above definition of enlightenment. Being is central to many teachers theme when it comes to enlightenment. We are human beings, not human doings, as Dr. Wayne Dyer is fond of saying. Zen masters speak of the duality of Being and Not-Being. Often we are so busy doing while our minds are constantly thinking/worrying/criticizing that we forget about just being and living in the present. Remember that the present is a gift, the past is history and the future is not yet reality. Where does that leave us? Right here and now, of course. Thus it is easy to understand how important meditation, prayer, zazen, yoga, quiet time, etc has been to those "enlightened" individuals that have preceded us. Buddha, Jesus & Muhammed all spent time "meditating" before they started sharing their wisdom with the rest of the world. Buddha spent time under a tree, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness and Muhammed meditated in a cave. Fortunately for us they found a way to share their wisdom with the rest of the world. It is the "recent" understanding of "how" they attained wisdom and enlightenment that may help the human race to reach a higher level of human development. We were not put on this earth to suffer and flounder in confusion but rather to live in happiness, love, peace and understanding. We were meant to discover our higher selves. Thus, we were meant to be.

* If you need proof that living in the here and now is the key to enlightenment just think back to moments in your life where you experienced complete joy, bliss, peace and contentment. We know that during those moments you were living in the "now". Your mind was not worrying about the past or fretting over the future, you were just living in that moment. Maslow called them "peak experiences" but we can begin to have many more of them if we learn to live in the present and start to appreciate all the blessings that have been bestowed upon us. We're sure you can identify people you know that are stuck living in the past and others that are living for the future but try to think of those you know that are happily living in the present. Hopefully you'll become one of them someday.

* Some see difficulties as catastrophes while others see them as challenges and opportunities. In fact, difficulties are necessary steps in the process of attaining enlightenment. How different life can be when you see "bad luck" as an education instead of viewing it as a major calamity. When we finally learn to see our difficulties as part of our "life experience" then we have the opportunity to learn from them and possibly attain enlightenment. Of course we also need to combine other enlightenment skills such as meditation, prayer, continuous education / reading, left & right brain usage (whole brain thinking) and reliance on enlightened people throughout history.

* Personal Enlightenment is not only about coming up with "Genius Thoughts / Eureka Moments" but also the ability to remember these insights when you bounce back to left brain control of the mind. You see, it's usually the right/intuitive/knowing brain that comes up with such thoughts but it's the left/logical/knowledge brain that is used to record them on paper or in the memory center of the brain. Any distraction (the phone ringing, someone talking to you, etc.) before the "epiphany" can be memorized can cause the insight to be lost forever. The "knowing" must become "knowledge" before it can become wisdom. In other words, right must combine with left before we can discover our higher being, a level above the ego of the east and west.

* In any journey we choose to undertake we must take the first step and shortly thereafter the next steps become obvious. Without the first step, the tenth and twentieth steps never become reality and we have no possibility of reaching our destination. Take this world peace website for example. If we hadn't started writing the first page (and re-writing the first page over and over again) then we never would have gotten to the insights we are posting today. We kept postponing the newsletter until we had more time, more money and more wisdom. Finally we just decided to start it, even though it wasn't really ready (in our minds). But looking back, it was exactly the right way to start it! One page, one sentence at a time until it took shape and the next changes, additions and revisions became amazingly obvious. Yes, sometimes the first steps may lead nowhere but as Thomas Edison wrote, "I learned 99 ways not to make a light bulb". He understood that both difficulty and perseverence were necessary components in the effort to reach a worthwhile goal.

How to give birth to the awakened state of mind? (Quotes from the book, "Chop Wood, Carry Water" by Rick Fields)

* "There is always great uncertainty when you don't know how to begin and you seem perpetually caught up in the stream of life. If you speak in terms of the person on the street they don't seem to have a chance because they are never really able to look inwards; unless perhaps they read books on the subject." "In fact, no one is excluded and all beings are candidates for Bodhisattvahood, anyone can become an awakened person." - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

* "Having a proper attitude towards journey is essential. If we make a journey properly, then everything we encounter is considered part of it. We are fully involved in the process of journeying rather than being fixated on our destination. We are not looking for quick solutions, but are willing to be open, precise and thorough in relating with ourselves as well as all the facets of our environment - the weather, the scenery, the landmarks, and the obstacles or sidetracks along the way. In entering the path to enlightenment, we are beginning the process of transforming confusion into wisdom. But in order to make this journey, we must first acknowledge that we are confused and that our environment is chaotic. Beyond that, we must understand that chaos and confusion are perpetuated because we do not have the training to see things as they are." - Osel Tendzin

* "Modern education is competitive, nationalistic and separative. It has trained the child to regard material values as of major importance, to believe that his nation is also of major importance and superior to other nations and peoples. The general level of world information is high but usually biased, influenced by national predudices, serving to make us citizens of our nation but not of the world." - Albert Einstein

* "Without an integrated understanding of life, our individual and collective problems will only deepen and extend. The purpose of education is not to produce mere scholars, technicians and job hunters, but integrated men and women who are free of fear; For only between such human beings can there be enduring peace." - J. Krishnamurti

* "When a man and women with significant spiritual and psychological affinities encounter each other and fall in love, if they have evolved beyond the level of problems and difficulties, if they are beyond the level of merely struggling to make their relationship 'work' then romantic love becomes the pathway not onlt to sexual and emotional happiness but also to the higher reaches of human growth. It becomes a context for a continuing encounter with the self, through the process of interaction with another self. Two consciousnesses, each dedicated to personal evolution, can provide an extraordinary stimulus and challenge to the other. Then ecstasy can become a way of life. Romantic love is not a myth waiting to be discarded, but, for most of us, a discovery waiting to be born." - Nathaniel Branden

* "I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nuturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." - M. Scott Peck

* "Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one object of love. . . . If I truly love one person I love all persons, I love the world, I love life. If I can say to somebody else 'I love you,' I must be able to say, 'I love in you everybody, I love through you the world, I love in you also myself." - Erich Fromm

* "The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." - Henry David Thoreau

* "Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, or even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor." - Paul Hawken

* "Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want." - Margaret Young

* "Intuition is one of the four basic psychological functions along with thinking, feeling,and sensing." - Carl Jung

* "It might seem that some people have more intuition than others but it is potentially available to everyone. Some people choose to develop it, others do not." - Francis Vaughan, Awakening Intuition

* "Almost anything you do will seem insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. Our actions in the world are the greatest test of our insights and growth. If we can apply our spiritual insights to helping the world around us