YOGA AND ENLIGHTENMENT

What Is Enlightenment?

I'm not sure. But I do know, from my decades of being a spiritual seeker, that it isn’t necessarily about sitting in a cave and meditating for 10,000 years, nor is it about being able to levitate or read people's minds, or being perfect or having all the answers.

In fact, enlightenment is probably a lot more mundane than we think. 

As I Was Taught In My 500-hour Yoga Training, Enlightenment Is About Being Able To See The World Clearly, To Accept Yourself For Who You Are (Um, - Divine!), And To Live Your Life With Joy And Purpose.

It's about being able to laugh at yourself, to forgive others, and to let go of your need to control everything.

It's about being present in the moment, to appreciate the beauty of the world around us, and to find joy in the simple things.

So if you're looking for enlightenment, don't go looking for it in a cave, retreat, or even nature. To find oneness, peace, and realization of one’s true nature, we can start living our livese with greater awareness, compassion, peace and joy, - and just see what happens.

After-all, yoga is a science, not a religion.

And Even If We Never Experience Full, Ongoing Enlightenment, The Practices Of Being Mindful, Grateful, And Peaceful Are Obviously Super-worthwhile, And Move Us Closer To Being In Those States More Often.

(Don’t you love neuro-plasticity?)
I’ve had glimpses of enlightened states in Ganja Yoga, and maybe you have too.
Moments where all was well, even for a moment.
All was okay.
We were in full acceptance of reality, we were at peace and connected to everything.Like I mentioned, - the more we experience these states, the more we create a neural pathway to make these states a more and more common state for us, - our ordinary waking state, and not an altered state.
So, enlightenment is a journey, a path we find ourselves on. We may not reach the final destination in this life, but the path is amazing.

Enlightenment Is The One And Only Goal Of Yoga.

Everything else is secondary in traditional yoga practice, - relaxation, peace, mental and physical health even.
And certainly greater than flexibility and attaining postures that feel fly.
These are all bonuses on top of the main bonus, which is to remember our nature, to remember we are divine.

One More Thing:

To Be Enlightened Is To Exist Beyond Culturally-Conditioned Limitations Or Narcissistic Self-Concerns. 

My yoga training explained that once we’ve attained enlightenment, all thought, word, and deed we do come from a place of union with all aspects of oneself and all other beings.

Like I said, I’m not an enlightened (nor an I a guru), but I’ve only had glimpses of enlightenment in my meditations, nature trips, star-gazing, dancing, and in sacred sex sessions. I know what oneness-with-the-all feels like: It feels right and real and yummy and nourishing.

We don’t need cannabis to feel these states of oneness and divinity, of course.

And, the beautiful, relatively-harmless plant sheds us of conditioned mind and allows us to remember that peace and love are our true nature.

To Be Enlightened Is To Feel One With All Of Life.

The objective of enlightenment is not to transcend the world or human affairs, to be above the “child-people” as described in Hesse’ exquisite and timeless book, ‘Sidhartha'.’

While still completely engaged in the world, the enlightenened one (a Buddha, or Christ-consciousness person) would experience ongoing liberatation from suffering, - from anxieties, self-criticisms, competition, self-doubt, depression, and the like.

An enlightenned person wants to help all humans become liberated, because they experience everyone as an extension of themself.

(*Unless your karmic path is that of the renunciate, but many enlightnened people are “householder-yogis",” living in the world and not mountain-top monasteries.)

Cannabis And Yoga Have Been Used By Yogis For Thousands Of Years Precisely For This Purpose, Bringing Yogis In South Asia Incredible Serenity, Sensitivity, And Insight.

Yoga and cannabis together can create permanent positive changes to your brain and outlook on life, even after the altered state is gone.

If your goal is less about being one with the cosmos and union with all beings, and, let’s say… relaxing, - well, that’s your path, preference, practice, and disposition right now. The cool thing is, yoga doesn’t force you to believe anything, or to do yoga in one way.

Perhaps knowing about the spiritual side of yoga will entice you to consider it, if you haven’t already, and perhaps not.

What’s important is that you create those neural grooves for peace and joy, knowing that thousands of people, for thousands of years, around the whole globe, have been doing the very same thing as you.

To that, we toke for our highest selves! :)
As you roll one up, feel free to answer one of our prompts below so we can feel your energy.

APPRECIATE YOU!
XO D.