"Spiritual Enlightenment" and The Quest for Ultimate Reality
"If the doors of perception were cleansed
every thing would appear to man as it is,
Infinite."
- William Blake
There is appearance, and there is "Reality." And behind the curtain of Illusion, there is...
- well, we aren't sure, exactly. So if you know this girl above, get in touch with us.
Article by LiveReal Agents Thomas and Kevin
We've heard legends, tales, whispers and rumors of something shrouded in mystery, clothed in riddles and wrapped in secrecy...
- something said to be more valuable than all the wealth in the world, more precious than a newborn to a mother, more desired, either consciously or not, than life itself...
- at least, that's the rumor. Who really knows when it comes to rumors?
Anyway, this "something" we'll call "spiritual enlightenment."
The idea of "spiritual enlightenment" today is shrouded and smothered in confusion, mystery, secrecy, and just plain, old-fashioned nonsense and misunderstanding. The whole landscape of spiritual enlightenment is covered in pitfalls, mindfields, and avalanches of rumor, speculation, hearsay (not to mention heresy) and insanity.
- yet sometimes, whether we're exploring the "spiritual scene" or not, we get brief glimpses of something incredibly powerful, something utterly different, during moments of awe or intimacy, or love, or when we experience "God", or think we've found "IT"...
- and on rare occasion, something profound and immensely beautiful is described by folks who seem to actually know what they're talking about.
For example, some folks say that we humans, in our normal state, are like starving beggars who are sitting on top of a box of gold, but don't know that we're sitting on a box of gold . . . or that we are like folks who think they are characters in a dream, but who have actually just fallen asleep, have forgotten that they've fallen asleep, and don't know they are characters in a dream - and don't know how to wake up . . . some say it even more plainly, like this:
"My final word
on this particular subject is:
I sought a Goal the existence of which
I had become convinced was highly probable.
I succeeded in finding this Goal,
and now I KNOW,
and can also say to all others:
"It is absolutely worth anything that it may cost,
and immeasurably more."
- Franklin Merrill-Wolff
It seemed that there was a need for someone to delve into these treacherous mindfields and sort out fact from fiction, sense from nonsense, what is rumor, speculation and wishful thinking from what is real about the whole matter.
In other words,
it seemed
like a job
for LiveReal . . .