Enlightenment
“Enlightenment comes to those who study and those who dream.”
Simple Enlightenment
Everyone has moments of enlightenment. All enlightenment is, or needs to be, is a realization of anything at all. For example: You realize how to solve a math problem, or you suddenly understand a religious concept, or you finally see over the top of the hill you have been climbing. Your heart may be stirred by poetry, art, music, a cause, or a movement.
Evolving Enlightenment
This is the changing enlightenment that we all have experienced. For example: an artist’s skills are broadening with her understanding of colors, as a student learns a subject at school, he becomes complete in his knowledge of that subject. An athlete would evolve in her abilities, the more she participated and practiced.
Complex Enlightenment
This type of enlightenment usually takes study, experience, a great deal of focus, or a powerful emotional or spiritual experience. This could be something as simple as understanding a dream, understanding the complexity of a physical function, or feeling a religious change of heart. It could be an astounding realization of a new way to decipher information or a life-changing spiritual enlightenment.
Visualizing Enlightenment
Our brain works in two halves called the left and right brain. The left brain functions in the area of math, direction, organization, and production. The right brain functions in the area of creativity, emotion, and imagination. The left and right brain function together so that we have a unique balance of "doing and thinking”, "laughter and tears”, "focus and relaxation”, "care and respect”.
Everyone has a mixture of the left and right brain that is not exactly even. This, in part, is what gives us different personalities. If a group of people witness a particular event, although they may be similar, each person will have a slightly different perspective of the event. This, in part, is how the information is passed from one side of the brain to the other to make sense of what we just saw. Depending on the percentage of the left and right brain used to process an event, our assessment will be different. Again, we will view the event through our own personalities. Since these percentages are different for everyone, the information processed between the two brain parts is quite a bit different. What may make one person cry, may anger another, etc. Most people are dominated slightly, by one side of their brain. We are born this way. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just the way we are as humans. Many things can also attribute to someone’s left or right brain dominance, just like the surroundings and situations of your life have changed and built your personality. This domination doesn’t mean that you can’t have strong powers of processing information on both sides of your brain. Some of the dominant behavior appears in the outsides of your personality. Some say a simple distinction between left and right-brained people would be, for example: a left-brained dominated person could be considered a thinker vs. an artist who would be considered to be a right-brain person, etc. That’s a good start, but we all know it goes much deeper than that. The skills of painting with a brush, require the right brain for creativity, and the left brain for the craft matching colors and brushes. If two people, a left brain dominated person and a right-brain dominated person, saw a sad event, they both may cry. So, a right-brained person, who are said to be more emotional, and a left brained person, may have the same reaction. Visualizing events, feeling moved, and being enlightened is also different for all of us. What might be a profound understanding for someone may mean nothing to someone else. Visualizing or understanding enlightenment is highly influenced by our left / right brain process.
Recording and playback
As we are experiencing an event, a feeling, or a calculation, we record it into our memory through our personality. How we judge and classify this event, is a part of how our character responds and remembers it. Different parts of the event are recorded into the different sides of our brains. These two bits of information are connected back together, through our personalities, when we remember them. The inputted information is split, for a simple example: emotions, feelings, comfort level, etc., are recorded into a part of the brain, while the details of the event (time, location, people, etc.) are recorded into another part. There are some scientists who say that the information used by the left brain is actually stored in the right brain’s memory and visa-versa. It is common that the two bits of information lose their connection. For example: maybe you can remember a feeling about an event and but not the details or dates.
Female and male calculation
The processing of information in the brains of females and males is different. There are very many similarities, but also many different ways that information is passed and processed. This does not mean that a woman cannot think and calculate like a man or that a man cannot feel caring like a woman. We have seen thousands of examples of men and women operating comfortably in the same functions. This is not a discussion of who is better at what job. To have survived as an evolving creature on Earth, both men and women must have been able to “cover” and “work with each other” for thousands of years. What can make for simple differences is hormones. Men and women have differing amounts of hormones functioning in their brains. Since, on a physical level, memory and information processing is partially a chemical function, differing hormones would chemically change our differing responses.
Translating Enlightenment
Since our version of an event or of how we feel emotionally can be so different from others, sharing these responses becomes very difficult. Even using science and mathematics, our response and understanding many be very dissimilar. Grasping a concept or seeing a pattern in calculation requires enlightenment. In other words, the numbers don’t mean anything without the enlightened reactions experienced during the learning process. Even having all the necessary information to make a calculation does not mean that it will be understood without enlightenment. This is most notable in the study of sub-atomic physics and astrophysics, for example.
Enlightenment in Time and Space
Grasping some of the concepts involved in the understanding of time and space are beyond using just our scientific brains. They both defy description or complete comprehension. They don’t contain sufficient information for us to understand and assess these concepts with our physical minds easily. "It takes both enlightenment and a calculator to comprehend the connection between the spirit and physics." We (our physical bodies) live in a material world governed by rules (tools might be better), which appear to work almost perfect for our positions on Earth. Using these rules, we have survived, reproduced, communicated, and functioned well on our physical planet. We can forever use these tools and rules to progress and function in the physical world. No matter what belief system, education, experience, or knowledge of the universe we have, the world as we move in it and see from it, will never change. For example: If we know that the Earth revolves around the sun or not, it appears the same. The universe did not change, we allow ourselves to see it differently. We (our belief systems), whether spiritual or scientific, and our connection to the universe live in a world governed by experiences that appear to be similar to most belief systems. The tools are meditation, prayer, respect, worship, wholeness, etc. No matter the belief system or point of view, these tools will always be there. We can forever use these tools to become closer to God or the universe. Once you have a spiritual experience, you view the world differently, but it appears the same. Whether you wake up in 1800 B.C. or 2800 A.D. and look at the tools available for spiritual advancement, they are the same. The spiritual world did not change with our spiritual awakenings; we allow ourselves to see it differently. These two views of the universe (scientific or spiritual) have always been a part of each other’s existence. Man has always tried to find answers using both directions. It's beautiful to realize the correlation between the two. It's our belief system that triggers one of our responses to each event. It’s beautiful to think that between each side of all things is the center of understanding.
Common Views
Both science and religion (or spirit world) have many things in common. Each one of these common ideas helps us to understand and reinforce our own beliefs and understanding. If you will, the eastern/internal view of the universe is a spiritual cycle of the union of life (spiritual does not have to mean religious or mystical). The western/external view of the universe is that it can be visualized and measured. The external world of science breaks each element of the universe into smaller and smaller parts to understand them. Each day the world of science grows into a better understanding of the universe. The internal world of the spirit tries to see the interactions and reactions involved in the union of the life and the universe. Each day many people have been enlightened by the spiritual evolution of life. For simplicity, I may call them “internal system(s)” and “external system(s)”. This is not an issue of a correct view of the universe. Both views have equal validity in all cases. These discussions are meant to add a physical connection during meditation, prayer etc. and a better understanding of the physical function of the universe from understanding its spiritual connections with probabilities and outcomes. The external view of the very small has similarities to the internal aspect of the functions of the universe at large. They also have very many similarities in the physical world. To talk about them for this essay, we will use this common view. These discussions of the external systems view, are just as they were taught to you in high school physics, astronomy, and math subjects. These discussions include examples taken from those who presented these ideas that became the physics, math, and astronomy of our universe. These discussions on the internal systems view, are just as they are taught in many different belief systems worldwide. These discussions include examples from those who could best communicate inner experiences. One of the primary similarities of both views of the universe is how the internal systems view the solar system as one whole life coming into balance, and how the external systems view the subatomic world of the very small coming into balance. “The universe is not about masses of energy moving around and interacting with each other. The interaction is the energy. Not in the sense that collections of mass need to smash into each other to be an interaction, but the interactions by themselves make up the mass.” Physics, geometry, and math have correlated enough experience and data to continue to study and support their position. Prayer and awakening have correlated enough experiences through similar visions, beliefs, and understanding to continue worship, meditation, prayer, and ritual belief. Each one having equally validity. The external systems see a view of interaction on the subatomic level. They see a system that can only be verified by interaction. Without this interaction, nothing can be measured or validated. The internal systems view the universe at large in this way. Without us to interact with the world, there is no universe (or anything for that matter). What both these two views have in common is interaction. “Both spiritual experience and the findings of science conclude that. without interaction, nothing can be correlated, verified, or even possibly exist.”
The external systems and the physical world of interaction
We could not see anything without the interaction of light with our eyes. With no light to interact with, we cannot see. We could not touch anything without the interaction of our senses and an object to feel. Sight, taste, smell, sound (hearing), and touch only occur because of interaction. As you were taught in school, the moon has no visible light of its own. What we see of the moon is its interaction between the sun’s light reflecting off the moon’s surface and our eyes. It takes three interactions to see the moon. If we didn’t have senses, we could not comprehend anything physical. Without the air’s interaction with our bodies, we would not know of the wind. Even feeling the temperature on your skin, is an interaction with the air and your senses. Our senses are limited to only a small section of physical events. Other creatures can experience sensory events out of our range. For example, a dog whistle can emit a sound that dogs can hear but humans can’t. Do you notice that you don’t see sunbeams or rainbows very often? That is because the moisture in the air has to interact with the sunlight for us to see it. As the sunlight hits the moisture, it lights them up, and we can see them. The sunlight is consistently hitting our clouds and the moisture in the air. Still, we can only see it when the interaction of the light, moisture, and our eyes are in the right place to interact with it. “To observe something in any way is to participate with it.”
The internal systems and the heart of interaction.
The world of internal systems is one of the experiences outside of the physical world. These experiences happen away from the brain in a world where all things function together in one living whole that has many names, but we will call it heart and soul. During meditation or a spiritual experience, this view of a world of interaction comes from the heart. It is more than a feeling or a premonition. It is a connection, a participation. Connection with the universe (or God or Gods) moves the heart to passion or fullness. Although each person has a different relationship with God or the universe and may see the world slightly different, there are enough similar experiences that they can be correlated into belief systems and powerful understandings. This inner world of interaction always requires a participant. This world of feelings, connections, and belief can only be experienced. There can be no computer or instrument that can simulate or record a spiritual event. “To be moved by the spirit world, the universe, enlightenment, or gain experience in any way is to connect with it.”
The internal system’s interaction with the universe feels instantaneous, but has taken since the beginning to unfold into the present. The internal system has no time. Therefore, time moving forward or backward has no relevance. The external system’s interaction is a time-based process. However, it can appear instantaneous. The external systems can view interactions of subatomic particles moving both forward and backward in time. At this level of observation, time is of little relevance. The external system’s interaction is based on area, speed, space, spin, force, and heat (to name just a few from volumes of tests and theory). It is based on events, single points of movement or groups, statistics, and data collection. This data can be collected and interpreted in a linear fashion, which is how our modern brain wants to calculate and visualize the events. In this way, we can better understand events if we can see them as start, operation, and end of an event. An event starts somewhere in time or space and will end somewhere in time or space. “One of the most important tools of the external system is the communication of data. This system can also be taught.” Because the external systems reference is based on time and distance, we see the unfolding of events as if they occur one at a time. The slower the object, the more information we can assess from it. The slower the object, the more pictures our eyes and our measuring devices can take to process the event. Because we look at events “overtime”, our interpretation of them is that they, the events, start, function, and end in steps. However, this is based on the accuracy of our perception.
A single firework is an event that occurs at once, but we can perceive it as two events. The light of the firework reaches us before the sound. From the right vantage point far enough away, you see the explosion before you hear it. (Light travels at 186 thousand miles per second and sound travels around 720 miles per hour.) Although the event takes place at once, we see and hear them at different times. If we were unfamiliar with fireworks altogether, we could easily perceive the sound and visual explosions as two separate events. Our eyes and calculating minds take “time” to process information into a usable fashion. The computer still takes “time” to process data and again see a delayed picture of an event. Using time as a reference, light can still take millions and millions of years to reach us from other stars. The speed of light is the fastest calculated operation (of a macroscopic physical property) we have found in the universe. Scientists have found rays that move faster than the speed of light. The linear operation of our thought process is always behind the actual event. As we watch anything happen, it is just shortly behind the event. For example: As you look at something, the light that reflects off the object that you are looking at takes time to reach your eyes. First, the light must hit the object and then bounce to your eyes. Even though the delay is very short for objects close to us, there is still a delay. “Whenever we look into our beautiful heavens we are always looking into the past.” For objects far from us, the delay becomes quite noticeable. For example: Light from the sun takes 8mins to reach the Earth. This means that if an event happens on the sun, we won't see it occur until 8mins after it happened. The light we live in is already 8mins old. The light from the sun takes 43mins to reach Jupiter and 7hrs to reach Pluto. If we are to see an event on Pluto (in its original light from the sun), it will take the 7hrs for light to go from the sun to Pluto, plus the time it takes for that light to bounce back to our eyes. When we look at distant galaxies, it could take millions of years for their light to reach us. In this case, what we see is light that is millions of years old. These galaxies have changed, some dramatically, long before that light reaches us. We see them millions of years ago. “In both views, that as a physics and an enlightened individual, ‘time’ does not have a steady forward movement... only the interactions calculated among themselves correlate any meaning of time at all.” “Both systems have a view of the universe that grows and shrinks as it needs, to fit its inhabitants or better yet, interactions.”