If enlightenment were just this seeing or having insight, it would not be so spiritually enlightening as to bring about a complete riddance of evil passions and the sense of perfect freedom. Intuitions could not go so penetratingly into the source of life and set all doubts at rest and sever all bonds of attachment unless one’s consciousness were thoroughly prepared to take in the All in its wholeness as well as its suchness. Our sense and ordinary consciousness are only too apt to be disturbed and turn away from the realization of truth.
D.T. Suzuki in his 1926 essay Enlightenment and Ignorance explains something about consciousness that were are not trained to recognize. There is an aspect of our consciousness that is always flowing in the stream of awareness where all physical experiences develop. We ignore this stream or we label it as something outside of ourselves. Our beliefs are rooted in separation not in wholeness.
The belief in separation alters the main line of probabilities. Christian theology teaches the end of the world in certain terms with a grand God coming to reward the good and punish the evil-doers. That system allows for no other probability. Others see the world as a great disaster and man finally ruining the planet. There are others that see peace and expansion. The interesting fact about those thoughts is they all exist somewhere in reality.’ But, there’s another group that believes another dimension of selfhood exists where consciousness is fully explored, and the potential of each soul is uncovered and experienced. That is a facet of some sort of reality as well.
All these beliefs hint at the degree of separation that exists in ordinary consciousness. We have been taught to focus and believe in one self. The huge differences we see in the beliefs of others are rooted in the fact that we are meant to judge our physical reality. We are meant to realize that our experiences are the materialization of our thoughts, feelings, and images that the inner self forms and then manifests.
In order to experience other dimensions we must sense the greater power of our objective feelings and thoughts. We think we destroy, but we don’t destroy anything. We might imagine we can annihilate a reality, but we only assault it as we know it. All realities continue to exist in some form, but our ordinary consciousness is conditioned to be disturbed. We turn away from inner truth and feel the end of something is coming based on our beliefs, which are influenced by objective associations. We still have a partial awareness of a greater self or religion would not exist in this reality.
Hal Manogue
Bio
Born in Philadelphia, Howard (Hal) (Howie) Thomas Manogue spent the first twenty-one years of his life conforming to logical beliefs and rituals. He spent the next twenty-six years of his life rebelling against those beliefs and rituals in one way or another. For the last twelve years he has devoted his life to dissecting beliefs and that journey has taken him through the history of religious thought and the intricacies of philosophy.
Retiring from the shoe industry after 35 years of “sole” searching, Hal discovered his real soul when he started writing poetry in 1996. His first book, Short Sleeves A Book For Friends, was self-published in 2003. His second book, Short Sleeves A Book For Friends 2006 Collection, was released in May 2006. His third book, Short Sleeves A Book For Friends 2007 Collection, was released in January 2007. Short Sleeves Spirit Songs was published in July 2008. Spirit Songs Echoes of Silence will be released in 2011. Essays from the book, Short Sleeves Insights: Live An Ordinary Life In A Non-Ordinary Way (published in May 2008) have been republished in other books and newsletters around the globe. All these books are available on his Web site: http://www.shortsleeves.net/.
Hal’s poems have been published by Mystic Pop Magazine, Children of the New Earth Magazine, New Age Tribune, Seasons of the Soul Newsletters, The Ascension Network, Lightship News, and Writers in the Sky E-zine. On his blog, he has published over a thousand essays on consciousness.
His new novel living Behind the Beauty Shop is available online and in bookstores or visit: www.livingbehindthebeautyshop.com
He works as a free-lance writer and is published all over the world. Hal currently lives in Brentwood, Tennessee with his wife, Joanie.
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