Enlightenment or illumination starts when a person becomes aware of his own condition as a whole. People think this is very easy to do, but in reality it is very difficult. To see yourself as you are, to see the conditions in which you live, and to see the condition of your physical, emotional, and mental nature needs very sincere and honest efforts.
Many people think they are great scientists when they earn a bachelor’s degree. Many think they are philosophers when they read a few philosophical books. Many think they are great artists when they paint a few trees and lakes. Many think they are unique leaders when they are promoted to leadership positions. It is also true that some people think very little of themselves; they think they have no value.
Thus most people are deluded by their superiority or inferiority complexes; they cannot see exactly what they are. To see yourself as you are, physically, emotionally, and mentally, is a great progress. This is, in itself, illumination.
Sit down and try to see whether you know yourself as you are mentally, emotionally, and physically. You will be surprised how ignorant you are about yourself as a personality. Dispelling this ignorance and seeing your real condition leads to illumination.
You cannot have Cosmic enlightenment, you cannot take great initiations until you really know the condition of the vehicles in which you live and the condition of life or the environment where you live. Many people claim to have “Cosmic consciousness,” but at the same time they do not know how to dress or even where their stomach is and what it does.
Enlightenment means to see things as they are. This is the first step. The next step will be to know exactly who and what your immediate associates are. This is more difficult, but it helps you to know yourself better. Many people mix their memories, impressions, fears, prejudices, past events, expectations, glamors, and illusions through their imagination and reach wrong conclusions. If you want to be enlightened, you must try to see not only yourself as you are, but also those who are associated with you in their true reality.
We cannot really understand and know people as they are unless we first understand and know ourselves as we are. When people try to know others before they Know themselves, they see their own image in others, and they see in others those qualities which they hate within themselves. This creates around them a world of unreality, which does not lead to enlightenment.
In Asia there is a technique of getting to know yourself called the mirror technique. You are going to face yourself and see yourself as you are, not only physically but also emotionally and mentally. See what you represent as a person, mentally and spiritually. See if you are aware of the conditions in which you live.
For example, a condition exists in your home. Do you see exactly what the condition is, or are you just imagining it? Or because of your past wounds — physical, emotional, or mental — or because of many shocks, are you evaluating the situation correctly or the situation incorrectly? Because you do not see things as they really are, you may take wrong actions.
If you want illumination, you must start seeing things as they really are. Your success in life depends on the clarity of your vision and your true appreciation of the conditions. You will not fail when you are enlightened. Failure is the proof that you could not see things as they are. We know that every one of us has failed or is failing.
But why are we not learning to make our practical, daily life really successful, powerful, beautiful, joyful, and enlightened?
How can you develop this enlightenment? Not by sitting and repeating mantrams. You must try to see — to open your eyes. Do not be swayed by your emotions, thoughts, nerves, irritations, anxieties, desires, drives, and urges because all these things will mislead you. Instead of you leading your own life, they will lead you.
The future servants of humanity must have common sense. Common sense means to see things as they are. We are not learning these things to benefit only ourselves. We want to raise the standard of humanity and awaken humanity in any degree possible. The future of humanity depends on the present students aspiring toward enlightenment. If more and more people start to be enlightened, your government will be enlightened, your police will be enlightened. If you do not become enlightened, the blind will lead the blind. Blindness means that you do not have enlightenment, or it means that you are seeing things through the windows of your glamors, illusions, maya, inertia, urges and drives, jealousies, hatreds, or irritations.
To see things exactly as they are, good or bad; to see the facts means you are becoming a Master. Masters are not built in schools and colleges, in exoteric, occult, or metaphysical circles, or in meditation. Masters are built in the heavy and hard life of reality. In facing facts, you learn. When you have learned, then you can change the direction of your striving because you no longer deceive yourself.
Enlightenment means to come in contact with reality. If we look very deeply, we will see that sickness originates from self-deception. The best thing we can do for our health is to take off the masks behind which we are hiding and which are preventing us from seeing reality.
If we see reality or help others to see reality, we are enlightened persons. It is a matter of honesty — intellectual, spiritual, common sense honesty. There are some people who are poorly educated and seem to have few social graces, but they have sound judgment. This is their foundation, and the most important thing is to have the right foundation.
Some people say everyone is beautiful, but this is not seeing reality either. Only if you know his real situation can you help a person. For example, if your son is dirty you must say, “Your feet are dirty, your face is dirty, but I love you, my son. Now let’s go and wash you.” You must stand on reality and then expand yourself.
There is a difference between seeing the real condition and mental criticism. Criticism, even when it is based on reality, comes from your superiority complex.
First criticize yourself. Then criticize others. Before you start thinking about others, look at yourself in the mirror — physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, morally, and spiritually.
Christ said two very important things: He said to keep awake and to see. We are talking about practical life — about your shoes, your body, your eating habits, your kitchen, your relations with others. Illumination begins with these things because illumination is nothing else but the result of friction with reality. It is just like the result of two dry sticks that you rub against each other to produce a spark. If you face reality, you are enlightening yourself.
The greatest Master is reality. You do not need to go to the Himalayas to see Masters. Reality is in front of your nose, and that is the Master. The Master is the truth, the fact, the reality that you can meet everywhere, at any time. When you see facts, you are with God. Wherever truth is, God is. Wherever reality is, God is.
People may ask, “Why are we told that we must First seek the Kingdom of God?” The answer is that the Kingdom of God is reality. When you meet reality, you have everything. As Christ reminded Peter, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” Everything will be given to you when you are enlightened. You will know how to put people in the right places, what jobs to give them, how to give, what to give, when to give, what to say, and how to handle things.
Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the task of seeing ourselves as we really are and we feel trapped and frustrated. We see only our shortcomings, rather than the vision of the truth within us. Who says this is easy?
It is not. We are always deceiving ourselves. Sometimes we think we are our stomach. Sometimes we identify ourselves with our sexual organs. Sometimes we think we are our mouth, head, or eyes. Sometimes we are spirit; sometimes only mud. Try to find your own right position within this confusion; try to see where you are and see yourself exactly as you are at any moment.
You must try to find your exact condition without any hallucinations, dreams, or imaginations. You must face reality with your mind and with your logic. When you have a realistic attitude, you try not to identify with confusion, mirages, hallucinations, or lies.
Unfortunately, our whole system is based on deception: how we can deceive each other to make a little more money, to gain a little more fame, a little more . . People deceive each other because they are deceiving themselves. You cannot deceive anybody else if you are not deceiving yourself.
Enlightenment is the ability to see a situation as it is and start improving yourself, step by step. If you are honest with yourself, life will make you meet the conditions needed to develop yourself. You may think that life is a blind chaos, but life is built with such minute, precise planning and mechanics that whatever happens to us is consciously planned or produced by our karmic actions or reactions. It is exactly that life in which we are going to live and find our way.
If you are honest, people will come and meet you; books will be dropped in your path; a friend or a problem will come and awaken you. Even a sickness or an accident will awaken you. The right person will come and tell you something and, because you are honest, your soul will be open for the truth.
There is a real light inside of us which knows, if we watch it. But we deceive that light. How many times do we know that we are doing something wrong, but we do it anyway? Do not be like the commander who, though he sees that his army is surrounded by the enemy, says, “We are strong; we can destroy the world.” Try to see the true situation with your enemy. What is your enemy?
Your fears, jealousies, hatreds, separative attitudes, racism, nationalism, deceptions, urges, drives, and imaginations are all your enemy. All these things form a huge wall around you. Do not hide behind that wall and think you are something that you are not.
If you fool yourself, you are doing a very dangerous thing: you are creating a double, even a multiple personality around you. Then you are confused as to which one you are. One day you will act this way, one day that way, another day that way.... Try to get rid of the prisons that you are living in and face greater beauties.
In this way, you will increase your light, unveiling the reality in everything.
-Torkom Saraydarian
Initiation, The Path of Living Service
