Ask Your Enlightened Self

I was meditating in my office one day when a knock came at the door, which I did not answer under the circumstances. I heard from that person later, who said, “Didn’t you know it was me? What good is all of that enlightenment if you can’t tell who’s on the other side of a door?”

The answer is that I am not a professional psychic. I’m just a music teacher.

A psychic has psychic gifts. A musician has musical gifts. Other people have all of the other diverse gifts that are needed to run our society.

Part of the message of Answers From Silence is that enlightenment visits people in all walks of life, whatever their gifts are. But we have persistent ideas of what it means to be enlightened, and that often includes being endowed with clairvoyant powers.

Not necessarily.

Sometimes I’ll be in a conversation with someone and they’ll ask, “Jeffrey, what does your Enlightened Self say about my problem?”

One way that I can respond to questions like these is to quote from Answers From Silence. With chapters on career, relationships, personal growth, metaphysics, spirituality, and enlightenment, spanning a time period of seventeen years, it covers over one hundred topics (see “Topic Listings” above), probably including the one they are asking about.

However, the real response is to turn it back to the questioner and to reply, “What does your Enlightened Self say?”

Your own Enlightened Self is tailor-made to you. The answers that 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.

To say the least, I highly recommend it.

It’s true that I did get answers for other people from my Enlightened Self sometimes. The section in the book on “Couples” is an example.

But in any case, I can’t help you in exactly that way any more. The dialogues between me and my Enlightened Self ended when we blended. There aren’t two of me now. There is only one.

And when you cross the line too, enlightenment won’t turn you into a psychic wizard. It’s something different, and much better, than that. It will turn you on to the total human dimension of your existence.

—J.C.

Your Mistaken Identity

Yes, I am on Facebook. But I had what you might call a bit of an identity crisis when I went to create my profile there.

The crisis was that my identity isn’t defined by activities, interests, music, movies, books, television, political views, religious views, and what I’m looking for.

Therefore, I didn’t fill in any of those blanks. It seemed like such a diminishment. It seemed like such a misplaced idea of what identity is. And besides, I am not looking for anything.

A list of likes and dislikes really has nothing to do with who I am, or with who you are either. Mostly, it would just be a test to see whether my conditioning matches your conditioning. Then we’ll know if we share an agenda.

Like, whose side are you on, anyway—milk chocolate or dark chocolate?

Or another way of putting it: A friend of mine, whom I’ll call Joe Smith, has an expensive hobby. Some concerned people tell him that he spends too much money on his hobby.

When they ask why he doesn’t change his ways, he repeats a phrase that I am sure you have heard before, and perhaps have used yourself: “It’s just who I am.”

“No,” I would say to him, “that’s who Joe Smith is. It’s not who you are.”

What I am saying is that you are not your desires, habits, or personality. You are not even your name. And you might ask, if not those things, then who is a person?

There is a section of Answers From Silence that has the title, “Your Mistaken Identity”. To quote: “Your true identity is Being.”

And: “When you flip your identity to the ‘to be’ verb instead of identifying with the nouns that you are now ensnared in, you cross the line into Eternity.”

Let’s look into each other’s eyes and see the divine light that is shining there. It is not affected by time, place, or circumstance. And especially not by preferences for one thing over another.

—J.C.

How To Find A Piece Of Enlightenment

A lot of classic stories have been told that are variations on the same theme: someone searches for something and then realizes that they already have it. It may be a precious jewel, or the ability to do something, or in the case of Dorothy’s ruby slippers, it is the way to get home again.

This could be read as a metaphor for becoming enlightened, and you may hear the same theme from spiritual teachers. The variation goes like this: you already are enlightened, but you just don’t know it.

That can be frustrating. How could you not know it, and what good is knowing that you have something if you can’t access it?

The resolution of this problem has to do with the word “know”.

There are different types of knowledge.

Intellectual understanding is one type. You can have the intellectual understanding that you are already enlightened. But just thinking the words, “I am already enlightened” won’t do it for you.

Another type of knowledge is experience. Experience is wordless.

You do already have the experiential wordless knowledge of one aspect of enlightenment. It is part of your everyday life, a little 1% of something that is at the back of your mind, something that you really never pay attention to, something that you take for granted every waking moment, something that you carry around with you all day without noticing it, something that is automatic, something that is totally free of charge, and which if I were to point it out to you and ask if it’s there, you would answer, “yes.”

First, let me explain. This aspect of enlightenment is the aspect where each thing refers just to itself and where each thing is self-sufficient. In enlightenment, one’s true self is experienced as being complete and full, and that extends to all other things as well.

Because of that, for example, there is no need to finish the statement, “I am” with another set of words that gives a label to “I” such as, “I am a professional.” You are not your work. You are you. The work is the work. Each thing is each thing, unto itself.

God said it best and most simply with the statement, “I am that I am.”

And now, here is the experience of this aspect of enlightenment that is at the back of your mind:

You are conscious that you are conscious.

Interestingly, thinking the words, “I am conscious that I am conscious” won’t do it for you. At that point, you are conscious that you are thinking. Thinking actually takes you away from the experience.

Just let your attention rest in the experience. You don’t have to go searching anywhere. Not even into your thoughts.

—J.C.

“It’s The Journey That Counts.” Or Is It?

There is a wise, insightful saying in currency these days. You may hear variations of it such as, “It’s the journey that counts,” “It’s the journey,” or, “What counts is the journey.”

The idea behind the saying is this: if you only think about the goal that you are working toward, you may fail to notice, appreciate, and benefit from what you experience during the process of reaching that goal.

True enough.

Some people even say “What counts is the journey” as if it discounted the importance and validity of having a goal. In a switch of perspective, it turns out that the journey is the goal.

Wisdom often makes its appearance as a switch of perspective or even a complete reversal of thinking. This often yields a surprising burst of insight.

But to be surprising is not enough. To be valuable, such a switch also has to be true.

If “What counts is the journey” has been helpful to you, I have no wish to take that away from you.

Nonetheless, I would like to clarify something.

The journey is not the goal. Only the goal is the goal.

You may enjoy the ride to the next town to visit your friend, but don’t you feel good when you get there?

The point at which the goal is no longer the goal is when you fulfill it. Then it becomes your new environment.

I would say that you should not discount the goal in favor of the journey. If you have no goal, you won’t be able to fulfill anything.

As I said in Answers From Silence, “Uniting with your Enlightened Self is the completion of your quest.”

It’s really nice to reach the goal. And I’m sure you will.

—J.C.

Is Jeffrey Chappell Enlightened?

Answers From Silence traces the author’s growth of consciousness, a process that eventually culminates in “crossing over a line to an entirely new mode of existence.” This seems to be saying that, by the end of the book, Jeffrey Chappell is enlightened.

“Enlightenment” can mean many things to many people. And that can be a problem. I have actually been advised not even to use the word “enlightenment” for this reason.

But I do provide a definition of enlightenment in Answers From Silence: “Enlightenment is the shift of identity from that which is bound by time and space to that which is eternal.” And I did experience a shift of identity from that which is bound by time and space to that which is eternal.

So according to that, the answer to the question posed in the title of this article is “yes”.

But there is a twist to it. The shift of identity was a shift away from identifying with Jeffrey Chappell. Instead, I identify with eternal being as consciousness. Jeffrey Chappell is the unenlightened part that was left behind.

So according to that, the answer to the question posed in the title of this article is “no”.

As I have said elsewhere, I am not trying to be a wise guy. I am only relaying the truth of the experience.

But why am I relaying that? To advertise something about myself? To get some sort of special, reverential treatment? The answer to these questions is “no”.

Enlightenment is not an ego trip. In a way, it is the antithesis of that.

I wrote Answers From Silence for you. If I am advertising anything, it’s the fact that this transformation does actually happen in our current society. Enlightenment is on your doorstep. It is available today to anyone, in all walks of life.

If you have a special, reverential feeling about someone who is enlightened, then you would best apply that in the direction of yourself, which is to say your own Enlightened Self. It is a feeling that I encourage you to have about you, not about me.

And then to have it about everyone.

—J.C.

“Never Better”

It can be hard for me to answer ordinary, everyday questions with the expected responses. For example, when somebody asks, “How are you?” I invariably answer “Never better.”

This is often met with incredulity or amusement, or with a follow-up question of “What is the reason for that?” I then have to answer, “For no reason at all.”

I’m really not trying to be a wise guy. Nor am I trying artificially to cheerlead myself into a state of denial.

All I am doing when I make these replies is telling the truth. I will give the same answer every time, because I am not talking about my emotions, my physical health, or any of the circumstances through which I am moving.

Those are just circumstances. They are not my Being, which is what I hear you asking about when you say, “How ARE you?”

In Answers From Silence, I state that “Your true identity is Being.”

Being is unaffected by time, and also is therefore unaffected by cause (past) and effect (present and future). Being is that infinite constancy that is total fullness.

Nothing is better than that. That is why I have never been better than I am right now, at all times, for no particular reason.

The same mismatch arises when someone says something like, “How was your weekend?” or “How was your Thanksgiving break?” The item here is that I don’t think about the past.

But since “I don’t think about the past” sounds so strange as a response to that normal, everyday question, I say, “I’m sure that it was great.”

That is the truth also. It had to be great, because all moments are filled with total fullness. I don’t need to confirm that by checking my memory of a past event.

The best of all is when someone else answers my question, “How are you?” with “Never better.” I don’t want to be the only one experiencing life in total fullness. Please join me.

—J.C.

The Enlightenment Business

I have been told, now that Answers From Silence has been published and the website has been launched, that I am in the enlightenment business.

I suppose this means that my “products” will be bundled in with the general traffic of advice-giving books, magazines, websites, seminars, video courses, click ads, etc., for customers who want assurance that they are getting the right things to promote their spiritual evolution.

I can give you one assurance. Your enlightenment is inevitable.

But I’m not going to tell you that you will get a second one free plus shipping and handling if you call in the next 10 minutes.

And I am not trying to outrun my “competition” with a (pick a number)-step “package” of secrets, laws, passions, methods, habits, techniques, etc. that you can get to process, enable, and empower yourself.

Not that these are bad things. But there is a larger picture.

The fact is that everybody is in the enlightenment business. That is the only business that we actually are in.

As I said in Answers From Silence, “Everyone is on their path of enlightenment, and everything that happens in a person’s life is their path of enlightenment.” That means that there is never a time when you are not working on making progress toward enlightenment.

Everything, one way or another, contributes to the growth of your awareness. There is no event in your life that is wasted or meaningless in contributing toward that goal. Every passing second brings you closer to its fulfillment. Living your life is the means to that end.

To illustrate the point, think of something about your life that is hard to make sense of.

Now say, “It’s my path of enlightenment.”

Your reaction to that statement could be a feeling of greater comprehension and appeasement.

It also works to think of something about another person’s life that is hard to make sense of. “It’s their path of enlightenment.”

Welcome to the company.

—J.C.

What Does Enlightenment Look Like?

My web designer has suggested that I choose some images to illustrate my blog posts on the topic of spiritual enlightenment.

There is just a slight problem with this. Enlightenment itself doesn’t have a particular look. At the same time, it can be seen in everything. I could either put up no image at all, or as an equally valid approach, I could put up any image.

After all, Answers From Silence regards over one hundred topics from the viewpoint of the Enlightened Self, the part of us that is already enlightened and has all the answers we need. This blog will continue in like fashion, and that will suggest images to go with it.

However, it’s not that enlightenment looks a certain way. Instead, it is a certain way of looking at things.

That does not mean that it is the same as following a new line of thinking to arrive at a different perspective on life. That is what I would call rearranging the furniture of your mind. It has nothing to do with thinking.

Instead, it has to do with knowing. It is the knowing of who you truly are, a knowing that you carry at all times.

If we were to meet in person, I might say that, at that moment, what enlightenment looks like is you. Until then, I will hope to meet you here from time to time.

—J.C.