I have no idea what it means to be enlightened, but I’ve seen the light enough to know that that’s what I should be doing here – what I should be living for. Does it mean that I should go off and live on a mountaintop somewhere? I hope not. I think not.

I’m probably far too caught up in the minutiae of daily life now. Founding and building a company, Watchfire Music, is a task that takes inordinate amounts of my time and energies and sometimes I go weeks without even thinking of the word.

Then again, I live my life these days considering the many ramifications of Inspiration so I like to think that I’m somewhere on the road to enlightenment.

I just have no idea how long that road is and how far it is that I have to go. There aren’t a lot of roadmaps to buy and I don’t have a GPS system to point me the way.

Well, then again, maybe I do.

The world is full of enlightenment talk these days. It’s a confused world we live in, but there are also tremendous signs that people are seeking enlightenment on a mass level like never before.

There’s a lot of information at our fingertips. For all the sins of the internet, and there are unfortunately many, there is also a treasure trove of information gathering that can provide us with that GPS system of sorts – if we can just get it all organized and sift out the chaff from the wheat.

On this auspicious day, 9/9/09, it seems a good subject to consider.

We have so many men and women’s lives to look to as examples of enlightenment. Not only historical religious figures like Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius, Siddhattha Gautama Buddha, Elijah, et al, but it seems to me in this moment that some people reach a kind of enlightenment in their lives by the way they live and do their life’s work.

Perhaps they don’t gain and maintain that higher mind, but they certainly reach a level of enlightenment in their work. Consider Edison and his revolutionary inventions of the light bulb and the phonograph – two world changing inventions in two completely different fields. He certainly had his enlightened moments.

Consider also the genius of Albert Einstein, Stravinsky, Picasso, Horowitz, Beethoven, Shakespeare. Weren’t these enlightened people? Perhaps they did not work in the field of religion, but the mastery of their work that they attained certainly enlightened the world.

Some people are just further down that road than others. We consider many of the Eastern mystics like Yogananda and Krishnamurti to be enlightened. In my lifetime I’ve seen the light through the likes of Baba Ram Dass; certainly today, Eckart Tolle is one of our living guides to enlightenment.

I believe that even television’s Wayne Dyer is on that road somewhere – each of them exploring man’s growth and attraction to the light.

Perhaps there’s a difference between spiritual enlightenment and intellectual enlightenment. If pressed, I would have to say that they both move in the same direction – an understanding of the perception of the nature of mind.

We would probably not argue whether or not Mother Theresa was enlightened – she certainly had an understanding of the power of giving. But how many would get their backs up at the notion that Steven Jobs of Apple has a certain grasp on enlightenment. I’ve watched with great interest the absolute nobility of a Derek Jeter on and off the baseball field.

Perhaps you laugh at my drawing such a conclusion, but when the few reach these high levels in their lives and maintain an elegance and demeanor that is a lesson or a teaching to us all, I call that “being on the road to enlightenment.”

This year, each morning, one of my spiritual practices has been the reading of a book called Glimpse After Glimpse, Daily Reflections on Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche who also was the author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Each day there are several paragraphs that are tied to the particular day of the year.

Yesterday’s reading was the following:

“Enlightenment is real, and each of us, whoever we are, can in the right circumstances and with the right training realize the nature of mind and so know in us what is deathless and eternally pure. This is the promise of all the great mystical traditions of the world, and it has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in countless thousands of human lives.

The wonder of this promise is that it is something not exotic, not fantastic, not for the elite, but for all of humanity; and when we realize it, the masters tell us, it is unexpectedly ordinary.

Spiritual truth is not something elaborate and esoteric, it is in fact profound common sense. When you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don’t actually ‘become’ a Buddha, you simply cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.”

I found these three paragraphs to be very settling to my quest. I love the “ordinary” approach of these truths, the simple straight forwardness of the explanation. Somehow it seems only right to me.

It also reminds me of Mary Baker Eddy’s definition of the word “Miracle’ given in her book, Science and Health. She says, “Miracle. That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly…” I love this idea that miracles too are “not exotic, not fantastic, not for the elite, but for all of humanity”

I love this idea that enlightenment is ordinary, is, in fact, the normal state of man. I’m convinced that we live in our pure spiritual manhood every day, every moment.  Most of the time we are unaware of it.  That’s what awareness is – when we become aware of our ever-present spiritual state.

How strange to be living and breathing every day seeking that which we already have. It’s all kind of goofy really. The above quote talks about our ceasing to be deluded – deluded by the illusion of matter and this mortal dream we are living I suppose. It all strikes me as the truth.

The great hope is that the process of awakening does not require time. I know this because I practice a simple form of waking up every morning. Some mornings I’m immediately awake and others, not so. Time is not the factor, but rather, state of mind is the determiner.

Our minds can change in an instant. We have only to turn to the light and then practice what we already know to be true. Those of us who are fortunate enough to know the difference between good and evil, must choose the good and not delude ourselves.

This is certainly one of life’s requirements – one of God’s requirements.

So who knows how long the road? Who knows how fast we travel it? Who knows what lies over the next hill – around the next corner.

I do know this:  It’s going to be an interesting trip.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.