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READ A SAMPLE:All of us – from the most wounded souls
to those rejoicing in all the abundance they could possibly ask for – arrive at
spirituality sooner or later. All of us have come from there, too. It is, after
all, our true home beyond the shores of earthly forms which come and go over
time. It is the evening sun receding in its
daily game of hide-and-seek, dissolving the illusion of blue skies being the
limit. It is the awe-inspiring vastness of the stars, which light up one by one
like a picturesque postcard sent from an eternity away.
What, then, is night if not a period of
darkness sandwiched between two pieces of daylight? And what is suffering if not
a period of struggle sandwiched between two slices of enlightened bliss? But
alas, some groundwork is in order before we proceed. The spiritual journey is a mountain which we desperately wish to conquer during tough times, yet hope will never end during the happiest days. All people climb this mountain over their hours, years and lifetimes, yet call it by different names. To a psychologist, it is the grand
question of life purpose beyond the internal dramas of the human brain. To a
Buddhist, it is the life-long goal of achieving nirvana. To a physicist,
it is the mysterious phenomenon of consciousness beyond mere matter. To a
Christian it is the stairway to the pearly gates of paradise. To a materialist,
it is the strange something that is still missing, even after we have purchased
our way to earthly utopia. Historically, our limitation was in
believing that we had to go to a particular expert for help on our pathway when
troubles arose. Just as a cobbler was wholly entrusted with all things footwear,
there were spiritual experts who we permitted to give us answers to questions as
personal as, ‘What is my life purpose?’ or, ‘Who am I?’ Given their incredible
power over people as well as political and legal structures, it seems the same
spiritual experts were too busy clinging to their authority to wonder if they
really knew who they were. Over the course of the 20th century, the
absolute power of spiritual experts declined in many parts of the world. Widely
known controversies ranged from genocide to paedophilia, leaving the masses to
slowly disperse from once untouchable churches of obedience. Despite the newfound freedom of so many,
the remains of centuries-old social structures, widespread negative views of
humanity, inclination towards paranoia and mankind’s addiction to chaos did not
extinguish. From manic minds to worldwide warfare, true healing from the
corruption in our past remained, and still remains, elusive. A rise in Western
consumerism and other escapism signified that the masses could not turn off the
noise, so were covering their ears. This century’s challenge is almost the
opposite of that which our ancestors struggled through. The chances are that
right now, you are situated within metres of an electronic device capable of
connecting to a vast network of data, bursting with more information than could
be read in a thousand years. Hundreds of philosophies, thousands of questions,
millions of emotional debates, billions of passionate opinions … and an infinite
amount of ongoing noise. Sooner or later, one only wants to switch the darned
thing off. The sprouting seeds of the future are
growing from ashes of the past. I arrived at spirituality through a
rocky childhood sprinkled with everything from golden moments of joy to dramas
of emotional abuse. However, it turned out to be a carefully engineered series
of events aimed at pushing me towards asking the great questions about life. And
what I thought was a state of dark depression, endless emptiness, fruitless
failure and ghastly godlessness was a key to happy hope, unlocking an
introduction to infinity. Nearly a decade has passed following the
fiery anger of my first book, The Best Days of My Life (2001), which
criticised the callousness of the mainstream school system. Though it was
wonderful to have my voice truly heard for the first time, it nonetheless took a
long time to understand my continuing self-destructive patterns, blame games,
emotional dysfunctions and frequent suffering. I came to realise that the same
misery I had cursed from the depths of despair turned out to be a divine system
designed to awaken me to something greater. A great philosophy came to me as a seed,
a spark of light. Piece by piece I dug like a scientist slowly unearthing a
buried fossil. It took many years before my heavy focus on this topic took me
near a place I had longed to go. The spark grew into a candle, then a ball of
white light … eventually I could see I was pushing aside a great boulder to
reveal an infinitely vast light that had always been there. I had been judging
the world as a dark place from deep inside the depths of a cave. But looking around, I then observed a
planet mostly full of people similarly lost in caves, yet comfortable enough due
to having little fireplaces to huddle around. They know nothing of the infinite
light, yet would be ill-motivated to seek anything greater than the small flame
that they call home. It is only a select few who are willing to leave the warmth
of their campfire to seek the great journey to divinity. Had my flame not been
all but extinguished during my childhood, I would still be huddled and perhaps
destined to die in exactly the same uninspired place. The world is changing today because it
has no choice. Sustainability was a meaningless word when existing industrial
and social structures were initiated, but time has forced us to begin rethinking
everything. Like a hobo in the pits of heavy depression, the only ways out of an
unsustainable existence are either premature death, or a bold new direction that
conquers the strategic flaws of yesterday. Down, or up. There is no other
possibility. If this is not enough to shake up the
comfort zone, life will always bring us challenges – the death of a loved one, a
so-called accident, a health scare – to give us a little prod. Whether we
respond bravely or procrastinate further is up to us. The ultimate scale of
space and time is infinite; it is a simple matter of time before we achieve
enlightenment. The advantage of making high quality choices today is one of
speeding up the process and reducing suffering in the interim. Alas, just when it sounds like good
news, along comes a horror beyond hell itself: the system that will ultimately
get us there is the philosophy of individualism. And history has shown that any
earthly torment, bloody violence or torturous abyss is infinitely preferable to
the unimaginable nightmare of thinking for one’s self! But don’t worry, it is not really that bad. The fear of the self is only a rotting structure of the old system in which spiritual experts dictated to us. We loved this comfort as long as the bloodshed did not affect us personally, but this pattern got us absolutely nowhere. Even after dozens of millions of horrendous deaths, the fact remains: that way just doesn’t work. Humanity’s pain is just a prod to move forth, and now is the time for something new. Click on the cart below to purchase this book:
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