topdown_enlightenment

Enlightenment can happen in different ways, such as through a conversion process or a sudden change in beliefs. Top-down enlightenment starts with opening the mind chakra, which can lead to understanding and changes in other aspects of life. However, it can also be overwhelming and cause people to feel crazy. It's important to put enlightenment into context and have proper preparation to make sense of it. Sometimes, experiences from one path can resonate with another, leading to a change in understanding. It's all a matter of perspective, and views can change over time. Hi everyone, I thought I'd talk today about top-down enlightenment and different forms of enlightenment because they do happen in different ways. For example, you get some people who go through a conversion process and this can be from extreme forms of theism where people believe absolutely wholeheartedly in a system that they've adopted or that they've been brought up with and they then become disenamored, disappointed and suddenly realize this is all nonsense or they feel it's all nonsense and they give up. And the reverse can happen as well. People can be atheists and all of a sudden they find religion. They find something within it that begins to make sense and they have a turnaround. So it's no use saying to people, oh this is the truth, this is reality, because reality itself is something that is flexible and changes. But let's get back to the idea of top-down enlightenment, starting with the head, if you like, the opening in yogic terms or Buddhist terms, it's the opening of the mind chakra. So it's the opening of the wisdom, the top chakra. And this, to a degree, opens the other chakras as well. If you're based around, let's say, a chanting system, you may all of a sudden realize that the words have no meaning, have no point, or the reverse, you may find a deep level of meaning. And one of the problems with this is that this will open up aspects of the other centers but it will not necessarily do it completely. And this is why people quite often go a little crazy, because it's too much for them. It's all of a sudden something has happened. So let's start with the head, the enlightenment, the flowering, if you like, of the lotus, the unfolding of the wisdom chakra. This will allow you to understand that all the meditation, all the deprivations that you were doing were of no actual use, and you had to just relax. And there's a relaxing. And that relaxing will allow you to understand other aspects of what is happening. And this is why they say in the Theravadan tradition, what used to be called the Hinyana, the small wheel, is that if you gain enlightenment and you don't join the Sangha and actually put it into some kind of context, you go crazy. And it's not like, oh, it's too much or it's so much that I can't cope with it. You can cope with it, but the methodology of coping will be dependent on the preparations that you've made. And this is why, in terms of spirituality, if you've done preparation, it's very much easier to put it into some context that makes sense, and you can draw on that, and you can take all the advice and all the rest of it that has happened to you, and you can make some use of it. So this can happen as well. You can be involved in one path and gain some wisdom or some unfolding, and it makes sense to you from another perspective. So, for example, you may be on the Sufi path, which is heart-based or it's wisdom-based, maybe through study, maybe through travel, and all of a sudden you have what seems to you not a Sufi thing, but something more akin to a Buddhist experience. So you convert from one understanding to another, and then you have to travel that path for a little while. If you have no experiences and you just think, well, this is all a waste of time, you know, I've been searching, I've been doing whatever it is, I've been doing Tai Chi and yoga, and I've been following Taoism and this wisdom master and this guru and that, and everything I try, this esoteric school, that esoteric school, and they're all teaching more or less the same thing in different ways, but it's not getting me anywhere. And if it's not getting you anywhere, you give up, and then you sort of say, well, it's all nonsense, it's all rubbish, and there's no point to it. That is just a point of view. Everything is a point of view, and these points of view can change. So that's my message for today. Okay, bye now.