A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years.

One day a stranger walked by.

"Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap.

"I have nothing to give you," said the stranger.

Then he asked: What's that you are sitting on?"

"Nothing," replied the beggar.

"Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember."

"Ever looked inside?" asked the stranger.

"No," said the beggar.

"What's the point? There's nothing in there."

"Have a look inside," insisted the stranger.

The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.

"But I am not a beggar," I can hear you say.

Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the raidant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.

They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but in infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.

It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you.

It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.

The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of separation, from yourself and from the world around you.

You then perceive yourself, consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment.

Fear arises, and conflict within the without becomes the norm.

I love the Buddha's simple definition of enlightenment as "the end of suffering."

There is nothing superhuman in that, is there?

Of course, as a definition, it is incomplete.

It only tells you what enlightenment is not: no suffering.

But what's left when there is no more suffering? The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you'll have no find out for yourself.

He uses a negative definition so that the mind cannot make it into something to believe in or into a superhuman accomplishment, a goal that is impossible for you to attain.

Despite this precaution, the majority of Buddhists still believe that enlightenment is for the Buddha, not for them, at least not in this lifetime.

** The definition of Being in the sense I used it above**

Being is eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.

However, Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructibe essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature.

But don't seek to grasp it with your mind.

Don't try to understand it.

You can know it only when the mind is still.

When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally.

To regain awareness of being and to abide in that state of "feeling realization" is enlightenment.


The path to enlightenment is in all of us if we truly seek it.

You should let people know that that passage came from - The Power of Now - A Guide to Spiritual Enlightment by Eckhart Tolle

Yes I actually know him as we often talked in the beer garden in Giessen Germany, well actually with my father at the time more then me. He is surprisingly a great spiritual teacher that even Deepak Chopra complimented on this book, who I have just discovered. When I first met him he was anything but a spiritual teacher or at least not fully pledged as one. He was actually a wreck to tell you the truth and so was I at the time. He found spiritual enlightenment and I found humantarian work to balance my well being. He is actually a friend of my father, but nevertheless I have met him before.

I am surprised to find books by him. I will attend one of his seminars one day just to say hello and talk of old times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now

When you say Being, are you talking about God? If you are, then why don't you say it?

The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse.

I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly.

By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about.

Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying.

This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as "My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false," or Nietzsche's famous statement "God is Dead."

The word God has become a closed concept.

The moment the word is uttered, a mental image is created, no longer, perhaps, of an old man with a white beard, but still a mental representation of someone or something outside you, and, yes, almost ineveitably a male someone or something.

Neither God nor Being nor any other word can define or explain the ineffable reality behind the word, so the only imporatnt question is whether the word is a help of a hindrance in enabling you to experience That toward which it points.

Does it point beyond itself to that transcendenetal reality, or does it lend itself too easily to becoming no more than an idea in your head that you believe in, a mental idol?

The word Being explains nothing, but nor does God. Being, however, has the advantage that it is an open concept.

It doesn't reduce the infinite invisible to a finite entity.

It is impossible to form a mental image of it.

Nobody can claim exclusive possession of Being.

It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own presence, the realization I am that is prior to I am this or I am that.

So it is only a small step from the word Being to the experience of Being.