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Articles

By Rusty Stewart, Ph.D.

What does superconsciousness and enlightenment mean to you? Is it a place to get to? Something to achieve? To accomplish? To graduate to? If you have answered yes to any of the above questions you may be very disappointed and disillusioned. Likewise, the same metaphor applies to psychotherapy and personal growth work. Superconsciousness and enlightenment are mystical and practical. Like finding peace, balance, and joy in the mundane. It is a way of being, not a place to get to. There is no outcome or graduation, only continuing to do our work with humility, more balance, and less attachment. It has to do with going inward and changing our perspective. I just recently finished an excellent book, "Earthfire: A Tale of Transformation" (Simmons, 2000), that talks about transformation being an inside job. "I take that to mean 'enlightenment' or any spiritual opening doesn't necessarily affect our outward actions, but that such experiences have everything to do with transforming our vision of the outer world and our understanding of its relationship with what's inside." This is also very consistent with "A Course in Miracles." Seek not to change the world, but rather your perception of the world.

So what is the connection with beginners mind, keeping it green, psychotherapy, enlightenment, and superconsciousness? Essentially, growth never stops. We are NEVER DONE! Got it? There is no perfection to be attained. We are moving towards more peace, extending more love more often, having less attachments, having less anger, etc. The psychotherapy process is about changing our perceptions about ourselves and accepting our self more fully. Then and only then can we accept others more fully. As we learn our lessons we move on to new lessons. The lessons never stop, at least not in human form. What can lessen, however, is the energy we attach to learning our lessons. In this way we can have more fun, feel more joy, and accept life as it comes and appreciate the lessons as gifts in the beautiful process. Once again, the key is a change in our perception.

Enlightenment and superconsciousness are also changes in our perception. Examples would be finding God in a pen (Thich Nhat Hanh), finding the Buddha in your partner, finding Krishna in George Bush (I know, it's a stretch, but it's true), or finding Great Spirit in a tree, etc. Enlightenment and superconsciousness is finding bliss in the ordinary and continuing to do our practice day in and day out. We stay in the process with beginners mind, humility, and keeping it green.

Now this may not be what some of you want to hear, but trust me I've lived through trying to do it the hard way and the ways it doesn't work. The harder you try the longer it will take you to experience peace. The more expectations you have about how you want it to be, the more frustrated you will become. Develop a practice and discipline and then let the outcome go. Just do it, experience it, and call your higher power into everything you do. It works, but not on our ego based timeframes or predicated outcomes. It kind of works like this, "the teacher will show up when the student is ready." The student can't look for the teacher because then it is ego based and the ego is based on illusions, control, and fear. When we let go, we allow a willingness for spirit to enter and real healing to occur based on love, compassion, and forgiveness.

So if your looking for this superconsciousness or enlightenment to rush in like a tidal wave and transform you into a completely different person, you'll be waiting a long time. And if you think therapy and personal growth is a finite process to fix things that are outwardly happening in your life, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Doing our work, remaining humble with beginners mind, and keeping it green are lifelong processes. The change is in our perception of our self, the process, and the world. To me enlightenment and superconsciousness mean peace, slowing down, and being more present to appreciate and experience the moment. I'll be doing the same types of things that I did when I started this glorious process 13 years ago for the rest of my life (ex. meditation, breathing, personal growth work, therapy, learning, etc.). It's called beginners mind and keeping it green. "Before Enlightenment Chop Wood and Carry Water. After Enlightenment Chop Wood and Carry Water."

Yoga Living, May/June 2003