Although I occasionally mention some knowledge about spirituality in my blog, I haven’t written about my own spiritual enlightenment experience. Let’s talk about this topic today.
For me, spiritual enlightenment has two perspectives, one is the perspective of nature, and the other is the perspective of rational understanding.
The meaning of spirituality
Before talking about the two perspectives, let me explain what “spirituality” here refers to?
Take the example of a teammate who had an accident and died while hiking in Gongga in June this year.
On the first day of gathering, I found that she was about to die. Although she was a healthy person in terms of both physical and psychological states.
To some extent, physical and psychological states can be perceived by material means, while spiritual states cannot be perceived at least with the current scientific and technological capabilities.
In this article, my definition of “spirituality” refers to the world that mainstream science cannot perceive.
And my observation and perception of spirituality are as natural as walking with open eyes.
So in the previous example, it means that in addition to observing this person’s material state with the naked eye, I will also observe this person’s spiritual state with my heart.
Then I saw that this person’s spiritual state is about to end this life, and based on the laws of the spiritual world, when the soul decides to end this life, its physical body will die.
It’s just that I have no particular interest in in-depth observation of when and in what way death will occur. After all, my interest at that time was in the hiking itinerary.
My spiritual enlightenment from the natural perspective
The natural perspective refers to spiritual experiences that my reason cannot understand but occur naturally.
This actually happened when I was very young. It’s just that as a child at that time, I didn’t have enough intelligence to understand these.
I once saw my entire life, but now only some feelings are retained, and the specific content is forgotten. (Although we experience our lives from the perspective of linear time, in fact, the whole picture of life is a multi-dimensional and three-dimensional complex. Limited by language, I cannot express its specific appearance, but it can be simply understood as a holographic game containing all possibilities.)
I have also seen the process of creation. It wasn’t until I later came into contact with the Bible that I found that the sentence that expresses it most closely at the language level is “The world was in darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the waters.”
So strictly speaking, spiritual enlightenment from the natural perspective does not exist, because each of us comes from an enlightened state and blinds ourselves to experience this material world later.
Spiritual enlightenment from the perspective of rational understanding
Since my family has no religious background, these naturally occurring events are incomprehensible to me, and no one around can understand them either.
Until around 2011, when I was hospitalized again due to illness (I used to be in poor health and often got sick). There was a child in the neighboring ward. One day, he suddenly asked me if I had read “The Power of Now.”
After I was discharged from the hospital, I still remembered the name of this book, so I bought this book and read it. Since then, I have gradually understood the reasons for all kinds of things I have encountered.
Therefore, when someone asks me for spiritual enlightenment book recommendations, I always recommend “The Power of Now” first.
Not only because this is the first spiritual book I read in order, but also because I experienced the enlightenment process described by the author in the preface. At that time, I was still ignorant and it didn’t last long, only about a day.
In winter in Shanghai, the walls were cold. But when I entered the open state of the present moment, I found that the walls were not only much more beautiful in color than usual, but also extremely warm and comfortable to the touch. This is also the wall from a spiritual perspective.
Later, I slowly read more related books. Those memories that were once sealed away due to incomprehension, as well as those overlooked details in daily life, were gradually remembered and understood again.
What does spiritual enlightenment mean to me?
When I gradually realized that I am not just a material existence, I began to gradually know the reasons for the difficulties I encountered at the material level.
So I can perceive more information, see more choices, and thus make my life more harmonious.
In fact, that hospitalization mentioned earlier was also the last hospitalization for me so far. Now, due to my years of fitness, no one will associate being often sick with me anymore.
My former wish was to be enlightened. But as I observed and experienced spirituality in depth, I found that actually living in the present moment is the best way of life.
The goal of “enlightenment” sometimes makes people stay away from the present moment and the material world.
And each of us comes to this material world with great enthusiasm. Each of our hearts deeply loves this material world. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.
My advice on spiritual enlightenment
In fact, everyone has experienced many spiritual events. In fact, life itself is a spiritual event, but the brain has difficulty understanding this.
So I first recommend a book list. Through reading, let the brain understand this “unknown world”:
The first one must be “The Power of Now”. The method taught in this book can help you let go of many obsessions and live a more relaxed life.
But “The Power of Now” teaches more methods rather than theories and logics. For this part, I recommend “Conversations with God”, with a total of three volumes.
Although the author continues to expand the “Conversations with God” series later, the first three volumes are the most classic and readable.
In addition, both “The Power of Now” and “Conversations with God” have their own filmed documentary films. If you are interested, you can find them online by yourself.
After you finish reading the recommended books, you actually have a general understanding of spirituality. Next is to practice and explore your own life in life.
That is, commonly known as “seeing a mountain as a mountain, seeing a mountain as not a mountain, and seeing a mountain as a mountain again”.