I was listening to someone talking to a group about how to accomplish a particular project. I was waiting to hear what simple actions to take in order to accomplish it.
I was still waiting when the speaker said that positive thinking was crucial for the success of the project, and for everything in life.
This would apply if you are at the point where you need encouragement in order to begin taking action, or if you are feeling discouraged as the action is in progress.
And it would apply if you are in the habit of self-defeat. Positive thinking might be helpful for changing that habit.
Positive thinking is also an invocation to the positive forces in the universe, attracting support for the success of your activity.
I definitely affirm anything that works for you.
At the same time, it seems to me that there are a few more nuances to the topic.
For one thing, there is the common, everyday experience of doing something that you don’t feel like doing. Inwardly, you experience resistance, but you still decide to do what you know has to be done. And you do it.
This suggests that you can perform action regardless of your inner experience, positive or not.
As Answers From Silence says, “Feelings and actions are separate dimensions.”
For another thing, if you accidentally tip over a glass of water onto your dinner table, you probably won’t take any time out for positive thinking in order to convince yourself to do what needs to be done.
In fact, taking time out for positive thinking at that moment would be superfluous. And it would reduce your effectiveness by sidetracking your attention.
Instead, you will act instantly to contain the spill. And you won’t do any thinking at all.
This suggests that there is a part of you that is always ready for action.
So it seems to me that there can be something beyond both “positive” and “thinking”.
Item: beyond “thinking”.
You are not your thoughts. You were here before they were.
There is a more fundamental self that is you. It is characterized by silence.
Thoughts orbit around that fundamental self. But they are not the definition of you. Nor are they the identity of you.
Item: beyond “positive”.
That silence is positive, but not in the sense of “I get what I want” or “I am in a good mood”.
It is positive in the sense of wholeness.
Wholeness means that nothing is lacking.
When you move through life having embraced the inner sense of the wholeness of the silent self, where nothing is lacking, then you are beyond the qualities of positivity and negativity that categorize events in the outer world.
Your experience might be something more like having God carry you in His two hands through each day.
Bonus item: beyond “invocation”.
When wholeness is there all the time, then you never have to summon it.
—JC
There is a section of Answers From Silence on the topic of intolerance. It says that all viewpoints are limited in some way.
Every day you hear about people who can’t understand or relate to others who have a conflicting viewpoint.
Perhaps as a result, most public discourse now consists of taking a position and defending it against another person’s position.
This is might work if only there weren’t an essential flaw in taking a position. Any position can be challenged and undermined by contradictory information.
The world constantly changes. New information is always arriving. Holding a position might require that you ignore new information.
Also, holding a “good” position in opposition to another person’s “bad” position only makes you into their reflection.
As Answers From Silence says, “The only ‘right’ thing is the whole thing.”
Perhaps people want to hold to a changeless viewpoint because at some level they sense that there does exist a realm of changelessness and they want to exist there.
In that case, what they really want is enlightenment.
Establish yourself in the realm of changelessness, and you will inherit a viewpoint that originates from an experience of timelessness and unboundedness.
Except that it isn’t exactly like a viewpoint. It is more like an actual view. Like one you might see from a mountaintop.
In this analogy, opposing viewpoints would be like an argument between two mountain climbers who are trying to predict what it will look like when they reach the top of the mountain.
Only arriving there answers the question.
And then silence reigns.
—JC
A loyal reader sent in this question: “When injustice seems to triumph, how do you handle it as an enlightened person? So many crazy things go on in the world every day. Please comment.”
Before answering the “how do you handle it” part of your question, let’s look at the ”as an enlightened person” part.
What is it to be an enlightened person? It is to know the truth of who you are.
Who are you? At your inner core, as your Enlightened Self, you are simply being as pure consciousness.
A person has boundaries. Enlightenment is unboundedness. A miracle of our human existence is that as persons we have the capability of experiencing enlightenment.
And as an enlightened person, you are still human. You still have human reactions and emotions.
Things that happen can still provoke a reaction in you. Seeing injustice triumph can make you feel a negative emotion. Seeing justice triumph can make you feel a positive emotion.
But an enlightened person knows that she is not her emotions. She also knows that she is not the world of phenomena that triggers those emotions. She knows who she is.
Emotions change and phenomena change. They have no impact on her changeless Enlightened Self.
Which brings us to the “how do you handle it” part.
In the arena of activity, do what needs to be done. If you see injustice and can effectively do something to correct it, then do something.
But perhaps your question comes from a feeling that you can’t do anything about it. You want to change something unjust that happened and you can’t. You want to prevent all future injustices that might happen and you can’t.
What we all want, all the time, is for outer to match inner. With every action we take, we have an inner intention and we want it to have an outer reflection. We are always trying to make the world in our own image.
When outer doesn’t match inner, we experience distress, frustration, and anger. Like when something unjust in the outer world doesn’t match our inner sense of justice.
Perhaps your question means that you want to hear something that will make it match. “If I could only understand how injustice can triumph, I could reconcile all this.”
There are lots of explanations for the grand and sometimes hidden designs behind confusing events in the world. Answers From Silence is full of them.
For example: “Everyone is on their path of enlightenment, and everything that happens in a person’s life is their path of enlightenment.”
Understanding can help. But enlightenment is not a philosophy. It is the living knowledge of the truth of who you are.
And when that knowledge lives in you, nothing that happens in the world can compromise, endanger, damage, negate, extinguish, or triumph over your Enlightened Self.
—J.C.
“I did read your book. Of course, I didn’t agree with everything in it.”
The spirit in which the person said this to me was that some things in Answers From Silence didn’t jibe with her own positions on various issues. She viewed the information in the book in the context of forming opinions and defending them.
It’s true that Answers From Silence addresses some controversial subjects, including abortion, extraterrestrials, sexuality, and God. Just click on the “Topic Listings” tab at the top of this screen to see the whole list.
But the things that I wrote in it were not arrived at by following a line of reasoning, by winnowing facts, or by building cases. I was not trying to represent the opposing side of an intellectual debate or to convince you to change your views to fit mine.
I didn’t write Answers From Silence for you to agree with it.
I wrote Answers From Silence in case the information could be of help to you. There might be a zinger in there that is just the thing you need to hear at a particular moment. Something that could clear your path or resolve your confusion. Something that will fit into the existing stream of your thoughts and divert them to a more fulfilling direction.
And I wrote it so that you would have a model of the interaction between a person and his Enlightened Self. The message of this model is that it can be done, and that you could benefit from cultivating the same sort of interaction. That’s why there are how-to instructions in the book.
Once you get going with that, I expect that you will find, as I said elsewhere on this website, that the answers you get from your Enlightened Self will be the best answers possible, tuned in to your greatest evolutionary need at the time of your asking, and phrased in the language that communicates the most clearly and directly to you about your question.
Then we won’t need to agree about anything.
—J.C.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine who has read Answers From Silence. She loves the chapter about career, but she has a “yes, but—” issue with it. She is tired of struggling to succeed in her particular profession when there seems to be so much resistance and so little encouragement. She just wants success.
I used to have exactly the same issue, and I addressed it in that chapter about career. Therefore, I assumed that she needed a different angle on the subject.
I tried reminding her that everything in our life is our path of enlightenment, and that ultimately “success” isn’t the point; instead, it’s growth of awareness.
After our conversation, I felt like my message was received as some kind of positive-thinking rhetoric. Assuaging words about growth of awareness didn’t reach my friend’s sore spot. They just seemed like a bandage. And, like a bandage, a cover-up.
Enlightenment isn’t a bandage, and neither should information about enlightenment be used to evade genuine feelings of unhappiness. If you are really unhappy, then denying that reality by pretending otherwise would not be the “enlightened” thing to do.
What I hadn’t done in the conversation was to identify the dynamic of the question. A question needs to be answered at its own level of intention. If the questioner has one intention, it won’t help to answer with another intention.
When my friend said, “I am unhappy about my lack of success,” I took her meaning as, “Please give me the understanding to be free of my unhappiness.”
But she could have meant, “Please give me information on how to be successful.”
Or, “Sometimes I get discouraged. Can you reassure me that I’m doing the right thing?”
Or, “I need to talk about this. Please just be here and listen to me.”
Or, “I know the enlightened answer to my question, but I am resisting enlightenment by holding onto my question.”
Our conversation also hinted at another question that people seem to have about enlightenment: will it improve chances for worldly success?
Various things will happen after you are enlightened. Things always happen. But none of them will add to you or take away from you, because enlightenment is constant fullness that is independent of circumstances.
Also: can you be enlightened and still want worldly success in the way that people usually want it and for the reasons that people usually want it?
If wanting something comes from the sense of lacking something, then the answer is no. Because of the fullness that is enlightenment, the enlightened person doesn’t do things because of an inner lack. If the enlightened person wants anything, it is probably enlightenment for everyone else.
Just as enlightenment doesn’t substitute for worldly success, so does not worldly success substitute for enlightenment. If you want to talk about enlightenment, let’s talk about that. If you want to talk about success, let’s talk about that.
Or let’s not, if you are ready to look out the window, beyond the roomful of concerns you have busied yourself with all this time, and see the amazing panorama that you never suspected was there all along. I would really like to watch that happen.
—J.C.
Some people have said that the Japanese tsunami catastrophe was divine retribution. In a search for a meaningful explanation of why this terrible thing happened to these people, the idea was put forward that somehow they had brought it upon themselves by displeasing God, who then punished them by sending the disaster.
Apart from making God look not so nice, this makes the search for meaningful explanations look not so nice either.
It also amounts to an extreme application of a widely accepted principle: do good things and good things will be done to you, do bad things and bad things will be done to you.
This karmic explanation creates a sticky problem. Sometimes bad things are done to those who do good things, and vice versa.
This requires that the explanation be elaborated upon, applying the principle over an elongated time duration: you can reap the consequences today of actions that you performed in the distant past. Maybe even a past life. The reaping is just delayed. It’s all cause and effect.
The way to be done with karma is to know yourself as fully being self-sufficient. The enlightened experience is of fullness, of inner fullness and outer fullness, and of fullness matching fullness. Nothing needs anything other than itself to be known or to be defined. Or explained.
The by-product of that is to know all moments as fully being self-sufficient. One thing at a time, and each thing unto itself.
Then it isn’t about cause and effect. There is just being. And tragedy or its opposite are just happenings.
As it says in Answers From Silence, “The wise have no ‘why’s.”
This doesn’t mean that you don’t grieve, or that you do nothing to respond to events.
One must always do what needs to be done. If there is a tsunami-sized mess to clean up, then clean it up. There are no questions to ask about that.
But when you ask, “Why did this happen?”, you are often really asking, “Why did this happen to me?”
When you ask this, you are confusing one thing with another. This happening is not about you. Only you are about you. This happening is about this happening.
It can be said that the Japanese didn’t cause a tsunami to wash onto their shores. Impersonal tectonic forces, driven inevitably by the laws of physics, did that.
As it says in Answers From Silence, “Don’t take anything personally. Except what you do to yourself.”
—JC
Dear Readers:
This is the final follow-up to the article on this website titled, “The Mr. Enlightenment Interview”, where Rose Rosetree asked me questions that were posed by readers of her blog. “Mr. Enlightenment” is what she playfully decided to call me.
If you don’t know and are wondering what this is all about, please take a look at this link.
I am taking the remainder of the questions from Rose Rosetree’s blog buddies and answering them here in the order that they appeared.
As I did in Part Two, I aim for giving the shortest and most direct answers.
However, full elaborations of many of these are addressed by the articles at this website, found under “Archives”, and in my book, Answers From Silence. You can read parts of the book at this website under Excerpts.
If more than one person asked the same question, I answered it the first time.
Here goes!
Renee: Why you??…Why not…me??
JC: That is one of the main parts of my message. I never expected it to happen to me in this lifetime. But it can happen. It does happen. It could happen to you.
Jim Curry: Is Enlightenment a condition cut out of a single cloth? Or can a person be partly Enlightened or Enlightened in one area while still lagging in another area?
JC: Enlightenment only pertains to one area, which is the area of consciousness.
Jim Curry: Or does the same new condition imbue all aspects of the person’s activity and understanding?
JC: Consciousness imbues all aspects of activity, therefore enlightenment imbues all aspects of activity. As for understanding, that can be a mental abstraction. Therefore, I wouldn’t choose the word “understanding”. I would instead say that enlightenment imbues all aspects of knowledge.
Jim Curry: Have you noticed that very few Enlightened people gather about themselves whole communities of similarly upgraded persons?
JC: To my understanding, historically there have been many communities of like-minded spiritually-oriented people who have gathered together.
Jim Curry: Suppose a person who would like to be Enlightened shows up at an enlightened person’s doorstep. Is it possible to transfer the condition through some sort of (perhaps unexpected) educational process, or is this something that must be done all from the start for each person?
JC: I believe it must be possible to transfer the condition.
Jim Curry: If, indeed, it is possible to help people along, then why have we never seen that happen on anything like a great scale?
JC: On a great scale, people first have to want to show up at an enlightened person’s doorstep.
Jim Curry: Even Jesus seemed to have trouble getting through to twelve guys. It should be clear enough that they didn’t all “get” it (Judas, for example) and that the rest didn’t get it all (not both Peter and Paul were right on all points—not possible, they disagreed a lot). Please explain this.
JC: You can begin communication with people only at their own level of understanding.
Suzanne: I think Jim brings up an excellent point. If Darshan, the concept of becoming Enlightened by being in the presence of an Enlightened person, is true — then why doesn’t it happen more often?
JC: People aren’t willing to surrender more often.
Suzanne: In your experience, are you able to influence other people just by being around them?
JC: Yes.
Suzanne: How do you keep your peace with the pace of other people’s evolution?!
JC: I accept where they are. Everyone is on their path of enlightenment.
Jim Curry: Physical exercise means that we place measured stress on the physical body in order to elicit adaptive changes—which come from the unseen wisdom of the body itself. Our work just knocks on the door, asking the body to improve itself. It does the work. Is there an analogy to enlightenment? Can we place adaptive stress so that we get closer to enlightenment—can we exercise in some sense toward enlightenment as we exercise toward the Boston marathon?
JC: I don’t know whether there is an adaptive stress analogy to enlightenment.
Jim Curry: On the other hand, are there unhealthy stresses we can self-impose that delay enlightenment?
JC: Yes, and your common sense will identify those. But your path of enlightenment is comprised of every moment and event in your life. If there’s a delay, it was part of your path of enlightenment.
Jim Curry: Is the exact reverse true, i.e. if instead of imposing stress, if we impose some sort of reverse-stress—some flavor of pleasure—can that get us nearer?
JC: Make transcending a daily habit.
Jim Curry: Is there any sense in which becoming Enlightened makes it more awkward or more difficult to function in ordinary life? Is it in any sense a mal-adaption?
JC: No.
Sunny: One of the main purposes in our life is to become Enlightened. But how can I recognize my purpose in life (other than the Enlightenment one)? How do i know what I am supposed to do in life? Which job, mission, purpose am I supposed to undertake?
JC: The one that suits your abilities, that brings you joy, and that contributes to the lives of other people. Chapter 1 of Answers From Silence is all about this.
Carol: Would you allow some of us empaths to merge with you? Could we get a feel for Enlightenment by doing that?
JC: Go ahead.
Jordan: Jeffrey, do you ever get sick?
JC: Yes.
Jordan: Do you think it’s possible or at all likely for an Enlightened person to become seriously or terminally ill?
JC: Yes. But it would be experienced as an illness of the body. The self would be unaffected.
Jordan: What is bad, icky STUFF anyway?
JC: Energy configurations.
Jordan: Where does it come from?
JC: It comes from the past.
Jordan: Is it just the unknown and distortion?
JC: It is mistaken identity.
Jordan: What do you perceive at the farthest edge of your consciousness?
JC: Consciousness.
Jordan: Where do you experience limitation?
JC: The experience of self has a quality of limitlessness. But the physical environment has limitations. Solid objects can’t occupy the same space, for example. But I don’t mind.
Station: Hello, can you please describe the dynamics of your shift from pre-enlightened to enlightened?
JC: It was accomplished by interacting with my Enlightened Self until I merged and became my Enlightened Self. Chapter 6 of Answers From Silence traces this step by step.
Station: Is it simply a matter of a shift in perception?
JC: No. It is a shift in the perceiver.
Station: Do you subscribe to the common belief that the purpose of human life is to “learn” and “evolve” spiritually?
JC: I used to, but “purpose” seems like a different issue to me now. Everything is whole and self-contained. Therefore, I would now say that the purpose of human life is to be human life. The purpose of learning and evolving spiritually is to learn and evolve spiritually.
Station: If so, how did you arrive at that conclusion?
JC: Before now, “the common belief that the purpose of human life is to ‘learn’ and ‘evolve’ spiritually” was the best working model for interpreting human life and spiritual evolution.
Station: What about other forms of life (animals, plants, single cell microorganisms)?
JC: Same answers.
Amanda Flood: I would like to ask about the experience of being ‘in the moment’. Can you describe it?
JC: It is an experience of fullness and of completeness.
Amanda Flood: Sometimes I will have times of being in the moment when everything is just love. It’s an incredibly gentle feeling and feels timeless. I had put it down as just another ‘consciousness place’ but it seems from what Rose has written here and elsewhere that this (or something similar) is characteristic of enlightenment. Is it characteristic?
JC: Yes.
Amanda Flood: I’d also like to know if it’s something I should be cultivating?
JC: No. You should cultivate the cause, not the effect. Aligning into timelessness (cause) is what you should cultivate. Don’t try to duplicate an incredibly gentle feeling when everything is just love (effect).
Heather: I believe that Rose has previously mentioned that it is possible for ALL humans to become Enlightened…but is it truly possible for everyone to obtain this level?
JC: Yes. But now would be a good time to put the word “obtain” to rest. Accurately speaking, enlightenment isn’t an obtaining. It is a giving away. As I said in Answers From Silence, “Enlightenment is a bargain. The trade-off is: give up everything you have. In return, you get all of it back, plus everything in the universe.” And, “You don’t obtain enlightenment. Only God obtains enlightenment. You don’t become God. God becomes you. Then it is God who is living your life, thinking your thoughts, feeling your feelings, etc.”
Heather: I understand that not everyone would choose this path and therefore it would not be a possibility.
JC: Also from Answers From Silence, “Everyone is on their path of enlightenment…The only difference between some people and others is that they know this.”
Heather: But if I worked hard enough to get rid of my STUFF, is it possible?
JC: Yes. And it’s also possible that it could happen even before all the hard work was done.
Heather: Or, for some of us, is it not possible in this lifetime?
JC: Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is not possible in any lifetime as long as you take ownership of that lifetime.
Grace: Do you find that since you’ve become Enlightened that you have fewer problems in life?
JC: Yes.
Grace: And/or if you do have problems, is it simply easier to deal with them?
JC: Yes.
Grace: Did you actively and intentionally pursue getting rid of STUFF (as Rose defines it) as part of your path to Enlightenment?
JC: Yes.
Jody: I was wondering if your body is more healthy and resilient post-Enlightenment?
JC: I’m not sure. But my periodontist said that my mouth was healing faster than expected after a recent tooth extraction that left no bruises or swelling. If that means anything.
Jody: If you do catch a sore throat or tummy bug or something, does that affect your inner state, your mood?
JC: No.
Jenny: Millions of people suffer from insomnia. Do Enlightened people get insomnia?
JC: I don’t know. There have been a few nights where I couldn’t get to sleep for an hour or more. I think it had to do with eating certain kinds of food in the evening.
Jenny: Jeffrey, how responsible do you feel for fixing other people’s problems? So many compassionate people make themselves feel guilty because they are not stopping to help every suffering person who crosses their path.
JC: I feel no responsibility for fixing other people’s problems. But I am always available to respond to a need.
Jenny: Do you stop constantly and bless random people all day long? Or do you set yourself a quota for each day? Or what?
JC: It’s happening automatically at all times.
Roma: If someone close to you does something “offensive,” rude, or abusive toward you… do you perceive it that way for even a moment?
JC: Yes.
Roma: Or does it not even bother you?
JC: If it occurs within a personal relationship, it bothers me at the emotional level.
Roma: And if it doesn’t bother you — how/where do you draw the line between remaining calm and peaceful, and protecting yourself from people who are trying to harm you?
JC: You should protect yourself when appropriate. Draw the line at reality. There is no value in injecting an unreal sense of calm peacefulness into a harmful situation.
Anita: I am wondering if being Enlightened is something that impacts you in a noticeable way or if it is almost imperceptible, a wonderful add-on to your life and something you might notice if you paid attention but it otherwise doesn’t create any big waves.
JC: It impacts you in a noticeable way that never leaves your attention.
Anita: Do problems with our government or more global ones, such as poverty in third world countries or the thinning of the ozone layer, still irk you in any way?
JC: Yes.
Anita: Do other people – aside from Rose Rosetree, of course – notice that you are different in some way, even if they can’t articulate exactly how you are different?
JC: Sometimes.
Anita: Do they do something like, “Wow, Mr. Chappell, you just seem to have a glow to you that not many other people have, an inner incandescence”?
JC: Sometimes.
Anita: Does life seem more rich and textured to you as one who is Enlightened – like sunsets are more beautiful, oranges zingier, music more delightful?
JC: Yes. Chapter 7 of Answers From Silence provides a thorough before-and-after comparison.
Anita: Do you live more in the Present Moment now than before you became Enlightened?
JC: I live in eternal timelessness. Because the present is an aspect of time, I don’t live in the present—or the past, or the future. I have released the present. See the website article, “Being In The Present—And Beyond” (http://www.answersfromsilence.com/being-in-the-present-and-beyond).
Anita: Do you remember when and how you became Enlightened?
JC: Yes.
Anita: Was it a Moment or something gradual?
JC: It was a moment. More precisely, it was a period of about 20 minutes. I was writing it down as it happened. This is found in Chapter 6 of Answers From Silence, under the heading, “This Is Your Enlightenment”.
Anita: What do you think your dharma in this world is?
JC: At this point, teaching.
Anita: And how were you able to figure that out?
JC: The first part of my life was spent with a single focus on performing classical piano music. The next part was spent diversifying my musical knowledge into all other areas, and I also wrote Answers From Silence. What remains now is to pass on my knowledge to others.
Anita: Do you have any advice to give to the younger generation?
JC: Bring your best into every situation.
Anita: What tips can you give to those of us who aren’t Enlightened about how to live life well?
JC: The reason you do the things you do is to feel alive. Drop the painful, unproductive ways to feel alive. There are better ways to feel alive. Find joyful, productive ways to feel alive.
Anita: Do you recommend we become Enlightened ourselves?
JC: Yes.
