Chapter 33 Beginning of Enlightenment

Krishna said to Arjuna, “Friend, if you want to realize me, you will not succeed if you have even one of the eight occult powers.” This is the truth. Occult power is sure to beget pride, and pride makes one forget God. An egotistic person cannot realize God. Do you know what egotism is like? It is like a high mound, where rain-water cannot collect; the water runs off. Water collects on low land. There seeds sprout and grow into trees. Then the trees bear fruit. “Therefore I say, Never think that you alone have true understanding and that others are fools. One must love all. No one is a stranger. It is God alone who dwells in all beings. Nothing exists without Him” Sri Ramakrishna on Occult Powers

I enjoyed this little story. It answers many questions, and deals with a lot of issues, about our desire for powers and attainment that relates to Spiritual Life. In our culture so

driven by individuality and self-seeking, our awareness is often blocked from the realization that spiritual growth is contingent upon setting self, with all of its desires to attain, aside.

To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing.
To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing.
To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. 

St. John of the Cross

So if we look at “enlightenment” as something to be attained, particularly by our own efforts or for self-gain, then we are setting up the conditions that prevent its very attainment. Why? Because self-attainment is the product of the ego, and what we are trying to do is bypass or diminish ego involvement.

To surrender to the silence, stillness, and simplicity of

meditation is the only means I know of setting ego aside. There is little value in fighting ego involvement. This is like an alcoholic trying to convince him/herself not to take that next drink. Will power has never been very successful in dealing with our obsessions. The twelve-step program of alcoholics anonymous has proven that it is the acceptance of ones condition, and the surrendering of ones willfulness to the higher power "within" that will provide the pathless path through the maze of addiction to the discovery of a place that is beyond willfulness and obsessiveness.

In meditation, we are not trying to attain anything. We are merely saying our mantra or focusing on our breath, or concentrating on an object. If we practice the discipline of meditation with some consistency, then we begin to discover the “inner witness”, the observer of passing thoughts and

feelings. The “inner witness” learns to see all of these thoughts and feelings as coming and going, passing through. We discover that we are not our thoughts, our feelings, our obsessions. So we learn to let them go and return to the stillness and silence of the “inner witness”. And through the miracle of silence and stillness, allowing the “inner witness” to grow, we begin to see that the “inner witness” is also what is being witnessed. The “seeker” becomes the “sought”, which cannot be understood at the intellectual level, but understood from experience.

This is the beginning of “enlightenment”.  Enlightenment is not

something we earn, like money, or learn like a university degree.  It is something we discover we already possess as we let go of all desire to possess anything.