The Light and Delight of Enlightenment
by Ed Jor-El Elkin, Ph.D.
The best definition I'd ever heard of “enlightenment” is when everything in your life goes easily and effortlessly . That may be a sure sign of enlightenment. Although I don't think I am “enlightened,” my life sure has improved over the years of and I like to think I'm moving in that direction.
Experience of Delight are also a fairly good sign of enlightenment. Many years ago, I co-created (with Anita Conroy) a seminar called the “Delightenment Intensive” which was designed to induce experiences of delight in the participants.
I have given the subject much thought. Curiously and somewhat paradoxically, lately, I've found that the less thought I give to the subject, the more enlightened I feel.
As Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt Therapy, remarked: the goal of therapy is to lose your mind and come to your senses.. to stop the “thinking about” process and pay attention to the sense data that presents itself in the Here and Now .
This guidance is echoed in the writings of Ram Dass’ book “Be Here Now” and in Eckhardt Tolle’s “The Power of Now.”
Fully focusing on this Now Moment is surely one of the steps towards becoming enlightened.
I fully believe in the philosophy of “different strokes for different folks”... especially when it comes to enlightenment.
For some, enlightenment may come only at the end of years of meditation, study, and spiritual practices. For others, enlightenment may come in a split second, unannounced and surprising. Perhaps, as Barbara Hubbard says.... “in a twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed.”
My experience is that feelings of enlightenment come and go with moments of exceptional synchronicity accompanying those feelings. Sometimes it’s the “AHA” of discovering a solution to a problem that brings it on.. often to pass away as time goes on.
Yet, most of all, the key component of all enlightenment experiences, whether temporary or long-lasting or “permanent,” seems to be the core experience of light.
This can be the inner or outer light.... seen as in entering a brightly illuminated room, or walking in the light.... .. felt as in a sense of lightness or unlimited joy... or just lightening up in one’s emotional being.
Whichever way it comes to us, that light is clearly delightful.
Ed Jor-El Elkin is a writer, psychotherapist, poet and actor, living on Maui since January 1989. He currently resides in Nahiku, near Hana. Website: www.jor-el.org In early 2004, he will facilitate the Conscious Evolution Adventure: An Interactive Theater Event as part of the National Conference on Expressive Therapies in Honolulu, Feb. 6-8, 2004 www.expressivetherapy.com
The Evolution of Devotion to Evolution.
by Ed Jor-El Elkin
When I first heard of the topic “Devotional Living,” my mind jumped to thoughts of piety, religiosity, and monks and nuns as the only people who led devotional lives. But when I heard from Maui Vision, that they were really seeking articles about what people were “devoted to,” a light bulb went off in my head and I said to myself: “Aha ! OK, I can write about this once I knew to what I was devoted.”
I’ve had many identities in my life: actor, psychologist, father, husband, teacher, adventurer... each of which garnered some devotion from me, but the role to which I've become most devoted in recent years is that of “Evolutionary Agent.”
“Devoted” means to me that to which I am willing to dedicate my life , my time , my energy and my resources . I am devoted to the furtherance of my own personal evolution within the context of the evolution of my community and world.
Within this context, I created a network of close associates called E.A.G.L.E.S. ( Evolutionary Agents Global Light Expansion Society), I developed a workshop called the Conscious Evolution Adventure (www.jor-el.org/ev-a.htm ) and I became a follower of futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard whose Foundation for Conscious Evolution and its Gateway Program (www.evolve.org) provided the most profound pathway for me to pursue my devotion to the evolutionary process.
Along with my commitment to planetary evolution, I’ve also been in the midst of personal evolution. In recent months, I have been in a cocoon inside of which a metamorphosis is taking place, and I now am ready to emerge, feeling the strains and pressures that accompany transformation.
As Barbara Hubbard points out, our crisis is a birth into a new identify, a new understanding of individual roles in a larger context to be shared with others who are on similar paths. Ultimately, we grow together, towards experiencing ourselves as single cells in the body of Humanity and celebrate.
Another more poetic view of the same phenomenon manifested 20 years ago in a poem I wrote:
Expressing Self a dream come true
Delightenment to share with you
We grow together one by one
From separate flowers to garden sun !
I have been a firm believer all my life in “Different Strokes for Different Folks.” The best I can offer is what works for me and share that with others. I make no claims of a pancea but the evolutionary context is one to which I am committed and devoted; it is the banner under which I intend to create the next stage of my evolutionary work. It has indeed become my Vocational Life.
I invite and encourage any who read this to see if the path of conscious evolution works for you. Your evolution awaits..... go for it !
Ed Elkin, Ph.D. has over 30 years experience as a seminar leader and as a personal and business consultant. He is a humanistic psychologist who founded Transpersonal Gestalt in 1979 as a synthesis of the works of Alan Watts, Ram Dass, and Fritz Perls.
A former Fulbright Scholar in psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris,he is currently a psychotherapist and consulant in private practice, living on Maui since 1989. He travels as a public speaker, lecturer and seminar leader. For bio details, see www.jor-el.org/e-e.htm
Current work in Conscious Evolution includes participation in Barbara Marx Hubbard's 9-month GATEWAY PROGAM www.evolve.org and continuing development of the Conscious Evolutiion Adventure Interactive Theater Events www.jor-el.org/ev-a.htm.
The Miracle of Synchronicity: by Ed Jor-El Elkin, Ph.D.
(Maui Vision Magazine Vol. 4, No. 1; April/May 2004)
“Everyone is a part of everything anyway”
I am reminded of the lyrics of a tune: “Happiness runs in
a circular motion, love is like a little boat upon the sea; Everyone
is a part of everything anyway, You can have it all if you let
yourself Be!”
Meaning? We all are interconnected which for me is a huge
part of Synchronicity, the apparent coincidences that happen in our
lives that are miraculous…. beyond logic and beyond reason which cry
out to be noticed and attended to.
I could hardly believe the coincidence. My friend,
Felicity, who had moved temporarily from Maui to Oahu had sent me her
address in Kailua that sounded familiar. Checking my friend, Sol’s
address, it was the same. Not only the same, but they were in
adjacent apartments and had not met yet. Furthermore, arriving at
Sol’s apartment where he’d invited me to stay, I learned that he was
so busy with his work, that he had no time for me.
No problem. Steve, an old Maui friend who I’d lost touch
with was sharing Sol’s apartment and helped me significantly during my
first few days on Oahu.
Shopping at a health food store in the neighborhood, Steve
began chatting with Dawn, the checkout person who we learned was
hosting Felicity next door to Sol and Steve. I introduced myself and
we marveled at the miraculous synchronicity of it all.
Less than a week later, Felicity was returning to Maui, it
became inconvenient for Steve to stay at Sol’s and so he moved in to
share Dawn’s apartment.
I’d experienced such high synchronicity from time to time
over the years, especially in such diverse environments as the early
conferences of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and at the
Rajneesh Ashram in Poona, India.
What they had in common was an intense shared releasing of
old karmas that led, I theorized, to heightened vibration rates and a
kind of entrainment that harmonized the field within we shared similar
experiences. Synchronicities abounded !
And yet, synchronicity does not work only when all is
going smoothly on the surface. During that first week on Oahu, cars,
computers, phones and electronic devices in general, were breaking
down more than usual; schedules changed and people forgot
appointments. A shortage of money also made some aspects of life
appear difficult.
A Voyager Tarot reading for the card “Setback” that week,
reminded me that “for every storm there is a rainbow”, reinforcing my
guidance over the years to have, wherever possible, an attitude of
gratitude and say “Thank You for everything, I have no complaint
whatsoever.” Re-experiencing the synchronicity of the truth of these
ideas, I decided to write this article.
Spiritual principles remind us that there is abundance in
the universe. When we learn to remove the resistance we have to that
abundance, then it pours down upon us, as we are again reminded to
count our blessings. We ARE living a miracle and right this moment,
as you read these words, you might FEEL the truth of these thoughts
that I share with you.
Mahalo for sharing in my world. Enjoy the miracles in your
life. Find the silver lining in any cloud you experience and If you do
not feel it, know that it is there waiting for you like a light at the
end of a tunnel.
NAMASTE. I honor the place in you, where behind our
differences, we are the same.
How Do You Limit a “No Limits” Article?
by Ed Jor-El Elkin, Ph.D.
( Maui Vision Magazine: Vol. 4, No. 2: June/July 2004 )
So the invitation to write for the Maui Vision Magazine on
the topic “No Limits” includes a request to LIMIT the article as a
“mini-feature” to between 325 to 575 words.
Is there a “conflict of interest” or a “Catch 22” not so
hidden here?
What could “No Limits” mean in writing if there were “NO
LIMITS”?!?
“EEK” ! “SCREECH” ! “KAPOW”! "COWABUNGA"! ... and other
expressive epithets and eggspressions come to mind.
Is it onomatopoetic to fudge words into chocolatey
dissonance when vanilla poems are really wanted?
And what limits do we place on ourselves in writing curse
words or expletives that are guaranteed to shock no one?
HOW BORING !
Well..... maybe not ? Just maybe G-Rated language can
raise the spirit and create nuances and resonances that are liltingly
lovely or joyously jingling or divinely ditsy or insanely inspiring
or even supremely silly...tickling God's funnybone to bring
soul-cleansing laughter and delightenment to those whose love of
vision, language and ideas leads them to even read these pages.
There is the concept that once the limits are set, there
remains total freedom within those limits. One example I've loved is
that you can get a on a train and move freely between the cars on the
train, yet the train runs on its track, regardless of what you do on
the train. Of course, you might get curious about who is the conductor
and make your way to the front of the train, open the conductor
compartment and find no one there, at which point you sit in the
conductor seat, at which point the tracks disappear and you are in the
pilot's seat of the train of your life !
I am reminded of a writing assignment years ago in which I
was asked to write one line, so I wrote a poem, entitled:
“The Right to Write One Line”
One line is all she said I should write
I wonder how it will ever be right
One line with no reference just gives me a fright
I shake in my boots at the thought of the sight
I TOLD you I knew it would never be right
When she told me one line was all I could write
She never said nothing about where on the page
When I finish this poem I'll be twice my age
So forever hereafter when asked for a line
I'll find not just "what" but "where" is what's mine
Not even in ending did I get it right
When one line is all that I'm given to write.
NO LIMITS ?! WELL ! ! That is obviously and simply
“supercalifragilisticexpialadocious.”
Mahalo nui loa, Maui Vision Magazine for limiting “No
Limits.”
Ed Jor-El Elkin. Ph.D., a Maui resident since 1989, is a
writer, actor, networker and evolutionary agent whose performance
poetry recently earned him an “Exhibition Poet” slot at the Hawaii
State Poetry Slam finals in Honolulu on his birthday, May 6, 2004.
To reach him, e-mail: edelkin@aol.com, visit his website:
www.jor-el.org or call 808,248.7543.
Life's Lessons: Breakdown Precedes Breakthrough
By Ed Jor-El Elkin
With many life lessons all around me, the one that's been coming through recently most strongly is that "breakdown precedes breakthrough." This lesson has surprisingly broad applicability, for seemingly minor situations or for very serious matters.
Recently I had a day where my car, cell phone, laptop computer and even my watch stopped working. Remembering that "breakdown precedes breakthrough" reduced my frustration, giving me the patience to go through the steps needed to repair each situation.
One by one, functioning was restored, although the car took me three weeks to correctly diagnose and fix. Looking for explanations for the phenomenon, and discussing it with my Gateway to Conscious Evolution partners, I was reminded that the pattern of evolution is for older systems to "break down," forcing new systems to emerge.
The apparent increase in vibration rate that the entire planet may be going through is "causing" failures in systems that used to work so that new patterns emerge. It's just possible that the old geo-political systems of the 20th and previous centuries are failing and a new planetary pattern along the lines of Buckminster Fuller's model is emerging in a "world that works for everyone," where there can be equitable distribution of global resources.
Even the events of 9/11 can be held as an "Evolutionary Drivers." forcing new realignments of power, and ultimately benefiting the planet. The overview of "breakdown precedes breakthrough" is one of optimism and empowerment, allowing us to remember that it often seems darkest just before the dawn.
The recent passing of our beloved brother, Robert Frey, is an ultimate test of the lesson. I've often heard the expression "if an experience doesn't kill you, it strengthens you." That may well be true. Like a spring that is pulled by an external force, once the outside pressure is removed, the energy in the coiled spring rebounds with great force. Similarly in many life situations such as accidents, new compensating mechanisms get activated that weren't available before.
The phrase: the incident was a "blessing in disguise" comes to mind. But what if the experience DOES kill you? Robert's apparently untimely death profoundly affected many in our community, both on Maui and in the many places where he did his work as Tantra Teacher, Sufi Master, Troubadour and more. The outpouring of love and the sharing of his teachings was one immediate result of his passing. Others who loved Robert are committed to spreading his message far and wide in ways that might not have happened had he lived.
To give meaning to his death, several including this writer, shared the viewpoint that his soul was so beautiful and powerful that it was needed "on the other side" for very important work and that he was needed quickly. His work on this side was done, although that may not have been apparent to many of us who loved him.
In this instance and perhaps in many instances, death is the "final breakdown" on the physical plane, but the breakthrough to spirit is on the other side. Just like taking off a very heavy garment, the soul is freed from the body and can be felt everywhere...in the trees, the skies, the ocean, the flower and the mountains.
So maybe, just maybe...all of life including our passing ultimately is a strengthening and we are reminded that we are each spirit having a temporary individualized body.
As we face the apparent breakdowns in our lives...in our relationshipsour communications...our physical bodies...let us know at the deepest levels possible the breakthroughs will surely follow.
Whether or not it is clear to you, the universe is unfolding as it should.
-- Desiderata
"Ed Jor-El Elkin is not your ordinary psychologist. In fact, everything he does is not ordinary. And he's planning to change the world, one person at a time to prove it. Every time, he surprises you in a new way. He even seems to trail some kind of glittering rainbow of astral hues, leaving people he's barely spoken to changed and more colorful." -- Maui Weekly.
A Wake Up Call For Hope
By Ed Jor-El Elkin, Ph.D
Anticipating the next issue of Maui Vision Magazine, I felt inspired to write about hope. But what was I to do when the theme was changed from “Hope” to “Wake Up?” Maybe I could write about both instead of subscribing to an either/or consciousness?
For me, waking up means accepting what is, creating a “Win-Win” situation wherever possible. If we would all wake up to the vision of a world that truly works for everyone, then we turn that dream into reality and discover our own Hope Chest for Humanity.
Hope is like a shaft of sunlight streaming from the heavens when the sun breaks through gray and stormy skies. Hope is a glowing ember that can be fanned into a flame of passion. Hope is the special gift of the Gods. Hope is the eternal angel that wields a sword of light cutting through the darkness of despair.
It is good to know what to hope for. I hope for peace on this planet and know that it must begin with me. As the song reminds us, “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.”
Lately, as I contemplated the war in Iraq and its images of fallen soldiers and war -- maimed civilians, adults and children alike; as I watched an astonishing PBS special commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the Nazi concentration camps – the phrase “NEVER AGAIN" burned in my mind as I hoped for a better world and I realized I carried within me a hope chest for humanity.
It is the Hope Chest that traditionally carries a woman's linens and clothing as she anticipates marriage. And it is the internal marriage of the male and female within each of us that leads to wholeness and peace – an androgyny that brings compassion, tenderness, caring and the full flowering of the seed planted within us all at the orgasmic moment of our conception.
My dictionary offers two meanings for hope.: “desire accompanied by expectation of fulfillment” and “confident expectation." Both bring to mind images of hopeful immigrants coming to America passing the Statue of Liberty.
We long for that new world where finally we can breathe liberty and freedom into our own lives. Some new age guru claimed that hope was the booby prize, but I am hoping against hope that he is gravely mistaken, and invite us instead, to find that spark of hope that remains after Pandora's Box is unleashed on the world. And let us instead focus our energies on the highest aspirations for our lives, individually and collectively. Even if we must prepare for the worst, let us hope for the best. Let us call upon whatever guardian angels or saints or gods that humanity has conceived so that we envision our most positive futures. And we can begin, with appreciating the wonder and magic of what we each have now in our lives, including that spark of hope that springs eternal. I surely hope we can.
Ed Jor-El Elkin, a Maui resident for 16 years, is a writer, actor, poet and counselor, fulfilling his dream for humanity as a Gateway Guide for the Foundation for Conscious Evolution www.evolve.org.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ed Jor-El Elkin has had many roles: Ph.D. psychologist,
writer, actor and performance poet living on Maui since 1989. Most
recently, he has become an Evolutionary Agent, conducting the
Evolution Adventure Interactive Theater programs
www.jor-el.org/ev-a.htm and becoming a guide to the Gateway to
Conscious Evolution www.evolve.org
.Phone: 808/248-7543 e-mail:
edelkin@aol.com website: www.jor-el.org.