Applied Enlightenment

Category Enlightenment, Exercises

One Finger Enlightenment. It’s basically your vibration raising up to the point where your consciousness has a broad enough perspective to realize that everything is “connected,” that everything is One.

It’s like progressively taking off the blinders of limitation.

Now, along with the realization of Oneness comes a natural application of actions stemming from Oneness. We could say that these actions operate on a higher level of consciousness than actions which stem from the illusion of separation.

Typically, though, the actions feel quite ordinary. They’re common, natural, and plain. It’s not about walking on water or anything, but simply being yourself, your true self. As the saying goes: Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

There are many many ways to apply the principles of Oneness in our everyday lives. Keep in mind that there is no right way, no correct way, no guaranteed way, and no definitively proper way of acting that can be turned into an external set of rules, guidelines, or laws to be followed. It must all come from within, arise spontaneously, and be a natural expression of the Oneness that you are.

That Sneaky Ego

Any external rule, when it’s not backed up by the consciousness from within, can be turned around to be used by the ego.

You tell people “Thou shall not kill” and their egos will turn it around, find a way to justify the exact opposite idea, and engage in holy wars.

Face-palm.

You tell people to Love one another and the ego jumps in trying to own others, bringing in energies of neediness and lust, totally missing the true meaning of Love. Perhaps they try to control others and override their free will because “they know better.”

Whenever you have an external mental “rule” to follow, the creative ego is ALWAYS able to spin and misinterpret something for its own selfish purposes.

From Beyond the Ego

With that said, can you think of some heart-centered actions you could take that might be representative of actions that stem from Oneness?

Off the top of my head, there’s:

Loving others as yourself
Uplifting yourself and uplifting others
Being yourself to the fullest extent possible
Not taking fears seriously
Allowing yourself to be a whole being, guided by your Higher Self instead of your limited physical mind
Replacing ideas of segregation with understandings of shared humanity
Accepting others fully as they are, the way same Creation accepts us fully as we are
Changing scientific perspectives to come from a place of Oneness
Recognizing that all experiences are valid, for they all generate self-validating realities. No experience is inherently better or worse than any other. They simply have different consequences.
Sharing food, shelter, blood, time, attention, or even a listening ear with those in need
Becoming enlightened
Helping others (more of yourself) awaken to their true nature
Recognizing yourself as Love, realizing there’s nothing but Love in the universe, and thus automatically Loving all others unconditionally

These are many of the ways I’m applying it, and I’m sure many of you are already using many of these ideas as well and many more.

I’d love for you guys to help me add to this list. How else do you find your relationship with others changing now that you are coming to understand that everything is One?

Continued Discussion | 2 Forum Comments

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13 Responses to “Applied Enlightenment”

Sumiran said:

Nice and sweet list. However, I sometimes think otherway round. These list are primarily the results of dessolving egos rather than the causes.

Sumirans last blog post..Art of living: Reading our inner ‘Geeta’ or samyak dristi

Ariel Bravy Reply:
January 28th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Results of dissolving egos. Yes. That’s a great way of putting it.
Scarface said:

“can you think of some heart-centered actions you could take that might be representative of actions that stem from Oneness?”
To add, I could also think of none “heart-centered” actions that stem from Oneness, imo. If a sense of Oneness is there, it doesn’t necesarily have to mean that (all) the actions are heart centered. In my experience it more likely so that actions are “heart centered”, but not necesarily, imo. I woul like to add this, because I notice around me, that peolple mistaken Enlightenment or even Oneness with perfection (in action). Which to me may have some to do with each other, but not as much as peolple in general think.
Some actions?
- Living more spontanious (since less planning)
- (More) indifferent towards the outcome/fruits off the actions
- All beings are perfect, All hapenings are perfect, All is perfect as it is
- Not blaming/judging peolple for their actions/thoughts/believes
- All that I want to do with people, is looking them deep in the eyes and at that moment feel (and become both) One.
- Doing as you feel like doing
- Saying: “Yes, we are”

Ariel Bravy Reply:
January 28th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Fantastic examples, Scarface.

I love how you point out that heart-centered and Oneness may be related, but they’re not necessarily the same. Thank you for bringing that up!

Marko Reply:
January 28th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I’d add:
Cultivate Inner Peace and Oneness first. From that point of beingness, let all action, inspiration flow from that.

Affirm and live as best we can that we are now fully vibrationally aligned with our highest purpose, grandest dreams and desires. Allow them to come easily and effortlessly as part of who we choose to be.

When we come from Inner Peace and Oneness and are vibrationally aligned to our highest purpose and grandest dreams and desires, we are now living as best we can from the highest state we can currently experience.

We are either at full alignement or at different stages of that experience moving closer or not to it. Or, we are sustaining that state of being for longer periods of time and holding the vibrational alignment energy more frequently.

Of course when we are out of sync, we process our emotions and move back into the space of vibrational alignment.

It’s rather simple of course. It’s a challenge, but certainly a wonderful challenge to move into.
jake@mylifepassport said:

The sneaky ego is a very interesting way of looking at things

Marko Reply:
January 28th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
It’s interesting to see how many in the spiritual metaphysical field bring uP ego. I tend to think it’s often used as a more sophisticated version of the Christian devil. Just substitute ego instead.

In other words, the ego, like the devil is used as the excuse to justify non beneficial or inappropriate behaviors, rather than own them, acknowledge them, honor them and move on from them.

The ego is the excuse for dysfunctional behavior to become a victim and not own uP to ones own current state of beingness.

I find that there is often way too much talk of the bad ego run amok. Rarely good healthier egos like say Oprah who can be a billionaire and still have a fairly good balance in many (not all) respects.

Let’s rid ourselves of the ego excuse and acknowledge where ever we are currently at, honor that, respect it, and move on from it if we choose.

Make sense?

Ariel Bravy Reply:
January 28th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
That’s a good point that the ego is seen as a sort of devil. In fact, what people call satan is nothing more than a personified human ego. Similarly, the image of God is just a personified image too, yet there is no bearded guy up in the clouds named God, just like there’s no real devil out there somewhere.

I don’t see the ego as an excuse for dysfunctional behavior, but simply the root of it. Perhaps some do use it as a sort of scapegoat though. When people talk about the ego thing, they’re basically referring to not knowing who they truly are.

There are many examples of good egos, of good “me’s.” There’s nothing wrong with being a good person, of having moral codes and rules to respect others and be polite. It’s certainly more preferable to most of us to be around good egos rather than bad egos.

Yet what is good and bad? There are no rules. We literally make up the rules.

What is beyond all our silly rules? What is the Truth of our being that is true, regardless of any rule? What’s actually True?

When this question arises, then the real journey begins.

As you said, “Let’s rid ourselves of the ego excuse and acknowledge where ever we are currently at, honor that, respect it, and move on from it if we choose.”

Yes of course. Accepting ourselves fully where we are is great. Whether you want to play the game of being a good person or whether you want to realize you’re more than a person entirely, accepting what is, honoring that, and respecting it is a necessary stage in the process.
preeti said:

To have a feeling of oneness is very core thought.
As Swami Vivekananda says “Let all being be happy,let all being be peaceful,let all being be blissful.” this way we attain a state of oneness with all being by wishing good for all.
Evelyn Lim said:

When I believe in Oneness, I take the time to help someone else heal his/her physical or emotional pain. In helping my friend, I am also lessening my own pain. I am less self-centered and more willing to share more of myself in every way. I also judge less; because in judging others, I am also judging myself.

Evelyn Lims last blog post..101 Negative Money Beliefs

Marko Reply:
January 30th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Nice Post Ms. Evelyn Lims
buddha of hollywood said:

I was browsing the blogosphere and I stopped to say hello!
I am looking for friends as well as for some really good blogs to read.

Love, peace and happiness!
Ted Bagley said:

Oneness-
Consciousness hits the bloody wall by realizing it’s all alone yet can take consolation in knowing that everyone else is also, so things would be swell if we could just learn to live alone together.