What's this blog about?

My intention with this blog is to look at a phenomenon that has come to my attention within the past 18 months. Several people (alive today, not thousands of years ago) have described an experience that they variously call "enlightenment", "spiritual awakening", "non-dual realization", and other names. Most come from religious traditions and lineages, predominantly Buddhist and Hindu, and others seem to have stumbled across this thing through their own effort, study, or luck. All the descriptions are remarkably consistent across lineages.

I'm tempted to define or explain the phenomenon but I don't think I could do a good job, particularly when I haven't experienced it myself. It's helpful to refer to the awakening experiences of people like Ramana Maharshi, Eckhart Tolle, or the Buddha. Nevertheless I'll give it a shot.

• These people all experience complete or nearly complete elimination of fear and suffering, including fear of death.
• They feel an all-encompassing love for everybody and everything around them.
• They cease to identify themselves as individuals separate from their society or surroundings.
• They perceive the universe as a benign non-threatening place.
• They are exceptionally clear in an area where most people are very muddy: distinguishing between what is real (external to their minds) and what exists only in thinking, concepts, or narrative.
• They no longer feel any temptation to be "spiritual seekers". They are content with whatever they've learned.

The first few people I became aware of were Scott Kiloby, Jan Frazier, and Adyashanti. While Frazier is an excellent writer, I never connected with her work as I did with Kiloby and Adyashanti. As time went by I learned about others, and have met a few in person. It seems that these people are actually rather numerous, which I would never have guessed a couple of years ago.

What's been a real pleasure for me has been to become aware that there are people alive today, actually in pretty large numbers, who've had this experience, and who are blogging and writing books and giving public talks. For anybody interested in having this experience themselves, I think it's helpful, perhaps essential, to spend time with such people.

Here are a few interesting related URLs.

• Urban Guru Magazine
• Conscious TV: video interviews with awakened people
• StillnessSpeaks: Chris Hebard's website including many fantastic interview videos
• There's a yearly Science and Non-Duality Conference.
• Scott Kiloby has posted numerous Youtube videos.
• So has Adyashanti.