Spiritual Enlightenment

Dear Seeker,

Can I call you a “seeker”? What is it you seek?

I think everyone is seeking happiness, but a spiritual seeker is one who has realised that long-lasting happiness does not lay in the trinkets promoted by society, such as, fame, fortune and power.

Jesus asked “What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” The answer is “nothing”. It’s a piece of skillful rhetoric. If only the whole of humanity could realise the futility of chasing temporary illusions. Until they do, responsibility for this world is yours. If not you, then who?

First of all, wake up to your true purpose. Do not dream, suppose, assume or speculate but find the Truth and you will have found the Truth of Existence.

I am coming to your country to teach again. Nothing can stop me.

It took 500 years for the Buddha’s teaching to be written as scripture. Only then could the teaching be transported to influence China, Tibet, Japan, Korea and many other Far East countries.

I am bringing something special to your country. An energy. The Enlightenment Transmission. It can easily bring Awakening with no effort. This proven to be true in nearly every case, but Awakening is not Enlightenment. Awakening is glimpse of Reality. It is to get you started.

The Transmission is moving. Move with it. You will be rewarded with spiritual riches beyond imagination.

May all beings be free in 2008!

Dave Oshana

Confidence. Everyone wants it. Many fake it. Only a few feel that they really have it.

What’s the secret of unshakeable self-confidence? How can I have it?

Actually, there is no secret. Self-confidence is not an accessory but an absolute necessity. A person with no confidence is unable to act with self-autonomy.

To a large degree every human being has lost their self-confidence because they have lost their self-awareness and purpose.

The easiest way to ensure self-confidence is to never lose it. Have you noticed that babies have endless self-confidence and enthusiasm? It is truly tragic when they lose it - the price of admittance to the so-called “human race”.

Given that so many have lost their self-confidence by the time that they reach their teenage years, then the only solution is a recovery operation.

What is it that has been lost when self-confidence has been lost?

Security, certainty, self-awareness, the ability to discern and discriminate and act spontaneously without doubt and inhibition - these are qualities which are lost.

First of all, let’s be clear about what does not work. Material acquisitions and attainments do not solve the problem of lacking self-confidence. If they temporarily seem to then time and changing circumstances will surely change them.

A permanent solution does not depend on external situations.

A person who lacks self-confidence has, by definition, lost faith in their own qualities and abilities.

This unfortunate situation ensues when a person does not know who they are.

Self-realisation is simply the re-gaining of the awareness of ones true nature. It is the ability to correctly perceive the world and to know the correct course of action. You can call that Enlightenment.

There is an energy which exists to help you get beyond your psychological and emotional obstructions. It is called the Enlightenment Transmission and it is available for all who truly want to recover their lost abilities and start living their life.

Intro text for Unshakable Self-Confidence Through Absolute Self-Realisation: an Oshana Deeper Understanding Intensive.

For insightful texts about other Oshana Teaching events see the Enlightenment-Now.Com Meetings web-page

I received two emails from a seeker who met me once en-route to a jungle commune run by a drug-taking guru.

The email gave me an opportunity to explain a number of faults in spiritual groups of the “Get Nowhere Fast” variety.

Unfortunately, this type of “Nowhere” is not the supreme deluxe version but the regular mundane “Nowhere” version which can be experienced anywhere (like our city’s concrete jungle) but it’s so much easier to cope (presumably) with the mundane under the influence of drugs. I would have imagined that a jungle is so spectacularly wild that one would NOT need drugs but some people just can’t cope without their distractions.

The points which I made in the email refer to various aberrant spiritual groups (how judgmental) and not solely to the “let’s-take-drugs-in-the-jungle” crowd.

Rather than paste the two emails here I will just refer to the relevant lines. You can fill in the gaps. Just to give some context the writer claims to have achieved a “realization of the truth” over one year ago, and that there are other self-realisers in the same commune.

The main question in the email seems to be asking if self-realisers can change the world by reaching a critical mass. There is a strong suggestion that they can’t and that they make all the same interpersonal goof-ups as other people do. I take it further and state that some so-called self-realisers are actually abusers which begs the question what is a true self-realisation.

Below is my reply:

Greetings.

About the main ideas you wonder about [i.e. critical mass], I don’t think I have ever promoted them.

I frequently find that other teachings are really messy and that I am often asked to debug people’s confused thoughts.

Sometimes it’s natural to ask certain typical seeker questions, other times the questioner has been conditioned to think and question in a certain (useless) way. This makes them join the seemingly never-ending merry-go-round of religious fanatics and village idiots that we see every generation ruining the planet. Critical mass? Possibly - but most definitely spinning in the wrong direction.

The prescription for pseudo-religious brainwashing is mental detoxification -the dropping all religious beliefs. This has become a popular method in in the West in recent times - but it is not the end of the journey just a pit-stop on the road to Enlightenment.

Concerning so-called “self-realisers”, especially the “nod and a wink” variety, suspicions are raised when the person rigidly maintains a “no beliefs, no mind, no attachments” stance. This smacks of an anal retentiveness which is only of service in certain backward tantra groups.

It seems that there are many Western groups who hold this frozen position of pseudo-spiritual high rigor mortis. It starts with the fixed stare and the permanent smile. However, no amount of makeup and air-freshener, will make the purifying corpse of the faking-IT-in-the-belife that-this-is-making-IT seeker into the real thing, although naive mass followings (the greater the numbers, the worse the ignorance) (ref: Nuremburg 1936) can’t see the con.

For the discerning seeker, these Western groups unwittingly reveal their fake pedigree, much like a Cockney who has bought a Lordship when he opens his mouth to speak, when they misguidedly claim to be branches of the tree of Hindu Advaita (renamed in American McSpirituality as “non-dualism”). The original Shankacharya would be turning in his grave, except he may have been burned already.

Fake groups are unable to grow in anything but numbers, and certainly not wisdom, because like the recipients of every transplanted belief system they are orphaned and under-fed. They therefore eternally await The Final Reckoning when the missing intellectual jigsaw piece will finally be bestowed upon them - which it never is. What we see today, unfortunately, are a lot of humans claiming to be seekers but acting like like dogs barking up the wrong tree.

This is not to knock, what you have experienced. You have probably learned that experience is better than intellectual knowledge, and yet, beliefs have entered your reported “no-mind” state long enough to cause you to write me - twice! Itchy sods.

I would not appraise your current state without witnessing it (not that I am in the business of handing out MoT certificates [Ministry of Transport]). All I can say is that I have met a number of dubious characters who claimed to be “there” or had “IT” but who were conspicuously in a far worse state than your average Joe. Worse, they tended to act out, just as you fear in your email, in the most hideous ways. This is not to say that you are in that place.

However, I am uncertain of the ashram/commune where you are. It’s well-known that shamanic herbal drugs are dished out there like cabbage was in schools in my day. I don’t agree with drug use. Worse, I know of at least two cases of drug-induced insanity which required leaving the ashram to get long-term psychological and energetic help. Too dangerous. Drugs damage. I would not trust these groups.

You asked:

“How can self realized ones save the world? in the commune that I live
in there are several no minders, does this make the rest of us any more conscious…the answer is no.”

You have answered your own question, although, I would direct you to go further.

Is “self-realisation” the same as “no-mind”? Not necessarily, but from (a particular) no-mind can come the realisation of how one’s self will live. For me, that unavoidably and immediately meant being a spiritual teacher from the moment I got enlightened. So, self-realisation could be defined as knowing who you are and what you are to do in this life.

You wrote:

“Self realized ones (I don’t like to use the word “enlightenment” it just conjures up ideas or something to become)”

A person can even aim to become one of the “self realized ones”. I am looking for substitutes for the word “enlightenment” from time to time.

You demand:

“Tell me honestly David, do you not act out human behaviour, get angry, upset etc? I am not suggesting that you get attached to your own emotions but acting them out effects others around.”

I am glad you asked me to be “honest” ; ) - i don’t want to be like those dishonest ones who claim to be self-realised.

I would love to answer this question. Everyone wonders about it sometime.

I do act out human behaviours. I love passionate emotions, but I am often careful about when, where and how I express them.

You reason:

“Surely in these moments of human attachment atrocities can occur?”

That’s an extreme speculation. I don’t know what is possible. I know that I have learned to act responsibly with awareness and avoid hurting except to saves a person. You are entering the area of ethics and right action which will ruin your no-mind . Can you accept the price for extra growth?

Will real self-realisation save mankind? Yes, in time, if it spreads.

Will critical mass do it? That’s a vague idea which could be better defined. It’s not easy for people to change and there are not enough true self-realisers at the moment. But I want to see more - just not the FroZen No-Mind garden peas variety.

Blessings,
Dave Oshana

A Martian tuning over the last few weeks might assume that this blog is about nothing more than the Jokela High School massacre. He or she (presuming that Martians have sex like everyone else - gratuitous anthropomorphic search engine bait noted) might wonder what does this blog have to do with Spiritual Enlightenment? Of course, it has everything to do with Enlightenment. Healing the immense psychological trauma resulting from the Jokela tragedy has everything to do with the enlightened life.

An enlightened person cannot just switch off and pretend that the Jokela High School children are not intensely confused and afraid. Daily they walk the same corridors where the blood of their friends and family was spilled. The trauma radiates out of Jokela like a seismic tsunami engulfing Finland and the world. Reports of copy-cat incidents planned, thwarted and attempted are coming in daily.

I would like to report that it is all being taken care of by the authorities, by the angels or life - but it isn’t. If teachers are breaking down seven years after the Columbine Massacre then what waits around the corner in Jokela? We can’t solve every problem today, but are Finnish children convinced that they are any safer now? Nothing has changed. While the rest of Finland might forget, the Jokela kids will remember their scars forever.
[I can get back to the Jokela issue in another post or maybe even start a new blog about social issues.]

A Martian, I am sure, would read deeper into this blog. In some parts of the world, let alone the universe, good enlightenment teaching is non-existent. You don’t want to go there, believe me! The Martian will harvest all the enlightenment information which there is to get - the sweet with the sour, the rough with the smooth.

For good enlightenment teaching to happen there has to be digging. Digging to find a qualified teacher, digging for the right questions and the teacher has to dig to get all of the teaching out of himself. Not 1% of what I have spoken has ever reached the internet and not 1% of what I could teach has ever been spoken - so that’s less than 1/10,000 of the teaching is out in the wild.

I know some seekers hope that enlightenment is simply unending bliss - it is- but it is also never-ending responsibility to free souls from suffering. This leads nicely into the subject of Jesus. You know, Jesus? Hint: He isn’t the guy that invented Christmas, presents, trees and all. Do you know why He came to us?

What I wanted to let you see is some of the other stuff that I do, in this case, a post which I am writing to my Finnish students. Normally you won’t get to see those posts. This recent post is about the upcoming Jesus teaching event. I will post it as the next blog item soon. So much to write and so little time . . .

PostScript: The promised blog item was posted two days later, enjoy : To Be Good One Must Do Good

I was recently asked a question that has been doing the rounds for at least a decade. Sort of like a chain letter with 21 sayings allegedly by the Dalai Lama which ends with the warning “if you don’t send this letter on to 10 friends then you will die, horribly and painfully”. If you get one of these emails then you have to wonder if the sender is really a true friend.

The question was something like “Some people suggest that after Enlightenment there is no person, but you seem to talk as if there is a person. So is there a person? What is your experience of Enlightenment?”

The last question is also a trick question thrown in at the end of a whole load of conceptual confusion. Supposedly if you are enlightened then you can’t talk about it because if you do then you lose your enlightened status. Voi helvetti! (Expletive known by only 5 million people of which I am not one)

There are encampments of believers, I think they call themselves, non-dualists, who seem to believe that by attacking the richness of the English language that they will be rewarded with Nirvana.

This is all very complicated to dissect. I agree with so much that they say, up to a point, and then no further - and even less with what they do in their spare time.

I think the non-dualists are flogging a dead horse. The alarming tendency today is that the non-dualist ideology today is not being wielded by gentlemen of skillful means, as it used to be, but by fanatics who find their life’s meaning in shouting down all no-believers. I believe that England and America are in their darkest hour as a new wave of extremists has hit their shores: the non-dualists.

The non-dualists go by various names: advaitics, advaitists, neo-advaitists, Brother of the Open Secret Tea and Biscuits club, Satsang Federation and Bums on Seats. Some of those names are currently only whispered in hushed tones in certain inner circles because the non-dualists know that they are still in the minority. But their grass roots movement is growing, especially in Germany and parts of America.

Any philosophy can be abused and used to support wrong-doing. Non-dualism has that potential. The non-dual mafia will excuse their crimes thus “there was no-one there, no victim, no criminal, nothing ever happened”. Hopefully, the non-dualists don’t penetrate as far as the House of Lords and the Court for Human Rights.

Enlightenment is not an external thing. An enlightened person does not have to talk a certain way. What you might reasonably expect though is that they know what they are talking about.

Communication is about reaching people. Chopping sentences to fit a non-dualist Procrustean bed severely cripples the richness of the English language. As my words are frequently translated I generally speak as clearly as possible for the sake of my translator and audience. I only let loose my full verbal range when I am back in London.

Enlightenment teachers cannot be judged just on the basis of their words. I like to talk. I like language. I have to like it because I use it. However, it is becoming clearer to me that that the Enlightenment Transmission can be spread through a variety of expressions. This is especially possible because the Teaching is primarily energetic with a only a small component being verbal.

The only way to reply to a non-dualist is to ask an inscrutable koan “Does Buddha Wear Harmony Hairspray?”

The koan is based on a British TV hairspray advert: Harmony Hairspray. Wherein a walking woman with long bouncy hair turns the heads of everyone she confidently passes to the refrain of “Is she….or isn’t she….?” which expands to “Is she or isn’t she wearing Harmony hairspray?”

Of course, no one can be certain. She might just have naturally healthy hair (she is after all a professional model) . The answer comes in the final frame - in her handbag we glimpse a can of… … which I can only describe as some sort of CFC and vaporised gluey globules combination.

In the Buddha’s time the non-dualists would have sat on the side-lines with scorecards. Every time Siddhartha uttered the word Enlightenment they would have downgraded him. Eventually, of course, Buddha’s negative scores would be less than everyone else’s because he loves talking about Enlightenment!

Enlightenment can be known. You might not know if someone is enlightened for sure, but that’s not the point. The live issue is how close can they get you to a state of self-realisation with the assistance of that person.

Fortunately, in my own life as a teacher, the Transmission takes care of others. It brings purification, energy, purpose, direction, many wonderful, mysterious and miraculous things.

A period of absence from this blog.

Everywhere else I have been busy.

The last quarter of the year was left free for teaching projects with international reach: video, teleconferencing and a complete renovation of my 5 sites. My wife now advises me to purchase a 6th site. Can you believe a wife who happily creates more computer work for her husband? As she is psychic I will comply.

I have been avoiding the computer as much as possible which seems to be less and less, meaning I am more and more involved. All event planning seems to involve piles of emails. The latest big project was teaching in Estonia. A great country but a language like no other, except a bit like Finnish, which is ideal since I only know a tidbit of Finnish.

Times have changed from whence I did everything flying by the seat of my pants. I still do but being a teacher, like being a parent, involves never ending responsibilities.

Which is why I am happy that some of my students have become teachers.

Oh, I didn’t say that I received a peace award on my Enlightenment birthday, 19 June. My wife has it on the piano which I can see when I go to the fridge. It reminds my mind of who I am.

The online enlightenment video project (YouTube probably) was delayed because Helsinki got hit by more lightning in 2 minutes than did in 2 years. Lightning is a sign to switch off the PCs which I forgot to do because I was filming the lightning. Fortunately, all PCs found the Resurrection after 3 days wallowing in the underworld.

My sites will be updated and re-served. (What would you like with your computer chips - enlightenment sauce?) We have an ambitious visual computation graduate who likes the application: Ruby on Rails. I mention that in case there is anyone out there with Rails experience. Job advert over.

Also, seriously what do you think of the web-sites. Tell me the worst and best. 1 month amnesty starting from today. Provide solutions.

I won’t give you the whole list of things I have been doing. Just to mention I like seaweed soup, steamed rice and chilli paste for breakfast. KoreanAir has great service even if the vegetarian option looked too ambiguous to eat. They gave me extra food. Finnair gave me my vegetarian option to another passenger because I slept too long (22 hour flying total time). BritishAirways have committed worse crimes against vegetarians - turkey in a melted cheese roll.

Oh, why did I write all that. I was a delegate attending a peace conference in Korea. 6 days. Too much to write. Still making sense of it.

Two of my students are getting married. I will give a speech. I know what to do. I was at a wedding in London in August. Extended stay. Marriage is really important. I would tell you if you were here. Eventually my observations will get to you, wherever you are. Think how that could be made possible.

First, though, the 5 6 web-sites have to be made ready.

Suggestions?

Just a quick note to let you know that I have posted a new piece of enlightenment guidance at spiritual-teacher.org entitled Enlightenment: The Hidden Door. You are welcome to leave comments about the article at the end of this blog post.
It’s a short but precise statement - coming after the much longer previous blog post Enlightenment Day & Responsibility.

I am going back to live by forest lake now - the traditional thing to do during Summer in Finland. I will, though, be back soon with more to tell you about how I see the Enlightenment Transmission Teaching spreading worldwide.

Be Blessed with Enlightenment,

Dave Oshana

I believe that everyone can get enlightened.

Enlightenment Is Your Birthright

Enlightenment is the natural birthright from which you were cut off. The separation happened at such an early age that you can barely remember how it happened.

Helping Others Get Enlightened

My life’s work is helping others get enlightened. I got enlightened on 19th June 2000.

I do not see myself as special but I have something special to give to those who have not yet realised enlightenment.

I can introduce those spiritual seekers who are really ready for the ultimate gift, the final transformation of person-hood, to the wondrous experiences of being-ness which exists outside of this universe of space, matter and time.

When I completed my own spiritual journey for enlightenment, today is the 7th anniversary of my own enlightenment, my life completely changed. I went from being a private individual to immediately becoming a public enlightenment teacher. I was in a hurry to enlighten others. Someone commented via email “you sure landed on your feet running”.

Experience Enlightenment Not Concepts

For everyone who has believed anything about enlightenment, I can assuredly say that I wish that you could actually know living enlightenment, not as a concept, but as a reality for yourself.

Mind: Wrong Tool For Enlightenment

Enlightenment has been endlessly debated for thousands of years. Billions of conversations - enough words to fill all the internet servers in the world. Such are the machinations of the mind. The mind - the tool used to seek for enlightenment. The mind - the exact same device which - ironically - blocks enlightenment. Not that the mind is bad. It’s not bad - per se - it’s just not functioning in a way that supports enlightenment.

The Mind As Firewall Metaphor

The mind is like a firewall. A doorman to the soul. It either allows or denies information types. The unenlightened mind is configured to deny enlightened information and allow unenlightened information. The enlightened mind is configured differently. You may have already guessed that the mind of an enlightened is wired the opposite way.

Distribute The Full Enlightenment Teaching

The mind as firewall - neat concept, huh? A modern spiritual metaphor for modern technological times. You probably had not heard of it, even though it is only a basic concept in the Oshana Enlightenment Teaching. The more sophisticated concepts have, so far, only been received by those who are able to attend group teaching events in Finland and the UK. I wish it could be different and that the teaching could be more widely available.

I always wanted to share the Enlightenment Teaching with the world. God knows - you deserve it! Maybe, through the Internet, I can achieve that personal goal. But it does not depend only on my actions. It depends partly on you, and mostly on the Enlightenment Transmission.

Oshana: A Finger Pointing At The Spiritual Sun

For you who don’t know this: I don’t actually give Enlightenment. I am a messenger, an errand boy - not even a middle-man. By all means go straight to The Main Man - allegorical speech for the Source of Enlightenment - if you can. If not then come to me and I will see what deal we can do with The Man, aka Source, to get you enlightened.

Enlightenment Transmission: The Ancient Awakening Spirit Of Consciousness

I say, I am not even a middle-man because those spiritual affairs are handled by a spiritual power infinitely more versatile, flexible, omnipotent and omnipresent than little old me. That power, I call the Enlightenment Transmission - I have a reasonable hunch that Jesus called it (or her) the Holy Spirit (Hebrew: Ruach Ha’Kodesh). It logically follows then that the Enlightenment Transmission is that spiritual power which elevated Jesus from being a mere man to permanent Divine Communion, in other words, Oneness with God. But, as is often pointed out: with freedom comes responsibility.

Enlightened Humanity’s Responsibility

Would you like that amount of responsibility which Jesus carried on his shoulders? I don’t refer only to that well-known responsibility to remove the karmic debt of every member of the human race. Jesus had an even greater responsibility, which is rarely, if ever, spoken about - to fulfil the Mandate of Heaven.

What is the Mandate of Heaven? The Mandate of Heaven is to restore Universal Harmony. Mankind just happens to be a very important part of that Restoration Plan, because as co-creators, we are agents of change standing in the position of energetic mediators between Heaven & Earth.

That last paragraph was quite pithy! It indicates how deep the Enlightenment Teaching gets - fast.

First Revelation, Second Conversation

The Teaching is profound and if you don’t understand it, then like any teaching, it can lose the listener who does not have the ears to hearing. Hearing, or proper comprehension, depends on having necessary revelatory experiences, aka realisations. Consequently, the Oshana Enlightenment Teaching considers revelatory experience to be more important than concepts. Concepts are just symbolic co-ordinates to check that we are on the same map grid when we communicate. However, if a person has not travelled the terrain described by the map, then they probably won’t understand what they are looking at - and, if they are not well-trained then they could be a danger to themselves and others.

Handling Life, Dealing With Energies

The spiritual journey is a real path but it is totally invisible because it is completely internal. Since spirituality concerns itself with the mind, energetic channels, the nervous system and internal organs and vast inner galaxies beyond the mind it is not something to be casually played with.

Out in the field, real spirituality, is a difficult but precious commodity to handle. The difficulties arise from unpredictable energetic variables. Energy powers the mind and the emotions. Consequently, energetic imbalance can create mental, emotional and physical disaster areas. Fortunately, most of us are healthy and able to handle energetic change. Spiritual training can help immensely in this area.

Who Is Ready To Receive More Transmission?

So who is ready to “step up the plate” clear all the bases on the field and run all the way home ? If you get the baseball metaphor then did you also get that you could be on the side of the Enlightenment Transmission? It was not a side that I chose. The Transmission chose me. Not because, IMHO, because I am special but because I made myself available.

The Enlightenment Transmission, the exact same energy, which empowered Jesus could empower you - you just have to be there when enlightenment strikes next!