Saturday, August 24, 2013

Becoming Enlightened – Entering the Kingdom of Heaven


James Need, Contributor
Waking Times
The ego, your personality, your sense of self surrenders…
You become totally at one with the present moment…
You start to feel as though you are at one with the breath…
You become the breath…
You can feel the sensation of the breath flowing in and out with every cell of your mouth and every cell of your body…
An indescribable joy arises from within, a deep peace, a sheer unconditional love…
Your sense of self detaches from thought, thought seizes and slows down, you become pure awareness…
You feel as though you have expanded out of your body…
You can feel and sense the aliveness of the space around you…
You become the space around you…
You feel full of pure lightness, an indescribable deep peace fills you up from within…
There is no effort, no trying, no YOU…
You feel at total oneness with everything in existence…
You look around and feel sheer joy to be here experiencing right now in this moment…
You look at another person and feel an indescribable and very deep unconditional love. You become them. You can powerfully sense that place in them in which we are all one and the same…
You feel so connected, so at home inside yourself and the world…
There are no questions, no mysteries, just a powerful sense of knowing…
Sounds no longer feel outside of you. They feel in you. You can feel the sensation of them vibrating through your brain…
There is no separation, no duality, no ‘me’ and ‘the world’…
You are the universe and the universe is you…
There is just a powerful indescribable unconditional love that is far beyond anything I can begin to describe with these words…
You know longer try to seek answers through more and more thought…
You feel, you sense, you realise, you know that place in which we are all one and interconnected…
You have gone beyond trying to understand enlightenment with thought- you become it, right now, in this moment…
You can feel it with every cell of your body…
You feel so alive, so present…
You feel such joy, such pure love…
You feel totally at peace, totally at home in yourself…
You let go of all boundaries…
Your sense of self as a separate entity has completely surrendered…
There is no effort, no trying…
Just a powerful realisation of who you really are…
You have become enlightened- you have entered the kingdom of heaven…


This state of mind or state of being is what we are all searching and craving for. In reality, it is our natural state of mind, our natural state of being, but unfortunately people have gotten so lost in a false sense of self thinking that they are something that they are not. They think they are ‘human body’, when in reality the human body is merely an expression of who we really are.
A few people get blasted into this state, usually when they have reached such despair, the absolute bottom depths of depression, that all of a sudden the intelligence of who they really are kicks in and forces them into a state of complete surrender. This is rare; few people get blasted straight into a state of enlightenment.
Most others have to work at it. They have to want to change. They have to feel that there is another way of living. They have to want to create no more suffering and pain for themselves. Some then take and get lost in a form of religion or some spiritual practice. Their ego, their sense of self gets absorbed into it and seeks salvation through it. Eventually their practice no longer works for them and they seek salvation through some other means.
So, how do you work towards enlightenment? How do you start to allow your mind to transcend towards the kingdom of heaven?
Well, it’s simple – meditate every day and keep returning your mind to the present moment throughout your day.
Make it your way of life to meditate for at least 15 minutes twice a day, morning and evening. Then start to have little meditations throughout your day, a few minutes as many times a day as possible to stop and dive within. Keep returning to the present moment. Keep going beyond thought, beyond ‘thinking’, and hold your awareness.
Keep practicing acceptance and surrender to everything that arises into your daily life. Keep letting go. Keep letting go of your opinions. Keep letting go of the need to judge yourself and others. Keep letting go of the need to evaluate and analyse every aspect of life. Keep letting go of the need to make right or wrong. And keep practicing accepting and surrendering to everything that arises in the present moment.
Gradually this will merge into your natural state of mind, your natural state of being. Your mind will gradually start to transcend to higher and higher states of awareness. Now and again you may get glimpses of enlightenment, glimpses of the kingdom of heaven. For a few moments the egoic ‘‘you’’ may totally surrender, and you enter into the present moment, you become totally at one with the moment, totally here and now. Enjoy these moments; they will continue to get deeper and deeper way beyond your expectation. DO NOT get mad at yourself for slipping back out of them. This is an essential part of the process of transformation to a state of pure self-realisation. Do not be hard on yourself, only the false self is hard on itself and it is this that you are trying to transcend. Just keep practicing acceptance and surrender to everything that arises in the present moment.
This state of mind, this state of being, is what Jesus was pointing too, as well as Buddha, and many other great sages throughout time who found alignment with who we really are. They did not intent for their teachings to become rigid belief systems, or ‘‘religions’’ for people to worship and follow. They were trying to point people within so that they too could access the kingdom of heaven by finding alignment with who we really are.
The kingdom of heaven is not a place outside of you or even a place to be reached at some point in the future. The same is true with enlightenment. Enlightenment is not separate from who you are.
Remember; the kingdom of heaven, or enlightenment, is your natural state of being when you are in harmony with who we really are. Therefore you can only find enlightenment right now in this moment. The kingdom of heaven can only be accessed right now in this moment. They cannot be found in the future, they can only be found NOW.
So relax and dive within. You already are everything you are searching for.
Just let go…
Surrender completely to the present moment right now as it is, and keep doing it…
Resist nothing.
About the Author
James Need is a full time thinker, philosopher, author and blogger about the nature of life and reality. He specialises in writing about oneness, enlightenment, reaching higher states of mind, how we are creating reality, and helping people to implement changes into their daily life. The main focus of his writing is to keep it as simple and as direct as possible. Please check out his ground breaking new book called The Truth about Life and Who You Really Are. You can find all information via his blog at: http://www.jamesneed.wordpress.com/
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

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