“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.

Crossing the Line to a New Existence

Everyone has an Enlightened Self. It is the part of you that already is enlightened, already knows peace, and already has attained the goal of your evolution. As you seek out your Enlightened Self, your state of consciousness rises to approach its level. Finally, you inhabit that level, and the difference between you and your Enlightened Self evaporates. Uniting with your Enlightened Self is the completion of your quest.

At the age of 13, I started talking with my Enlightened Self. I mentally posed questions about life and living. I received answers to those questions, and they were answers that I would not normally have thought of. They consistently came from a wise and elevated viewpoint.

I consulted with my Enlightened Self sporadically over the next two  decades. Then in 1985, I simply asked what it was that I needed to know. The response was, “Love yourself and congratulate yourself. You are doing very well. Talk here more often, since the channel is open to you.” This initiated a long, continuous series of dialogues between 1985 and 2002.

I kept a diary of those interviews, and most of Answers From Silence is drawn from them. My criterion for selecting material and including it in the book is that it would have the potential to be useful to people other than myself. The purpose for this book is to provide information that could have a positive effect, to portray the progressive stages of developing awareness, and to deliver the message that this type of experience is available and applicable for people with a contemporary lifestyle.

On the surface, the dialogues tracked the dominant current interests in my life. But whenever I held a conversation with my Enlightened Self, the real topic was always enlightenment. I once was told, “You want the local news. Our aim is to bring you into the largest context.”

Accordingly, each chapter points to enlightenment by way of a particular subject. Chapter 1 deals with career issues such as money, success, and professional jealousy. Chapter 2 addresses the ups and downs that come with relationships. Chapter 3 is about personal growth, with insights into emotions and self-image. Chapter 4 gives answers regarding occult and metaphysical matters. Chapter 5 is devoted to the more mature aspects of spirituality such as suffering, forgiveness, and healing.

Chapter 6 is explicitly about enlightenment. It chronicles the period of a month and a half when my Enlightened Self started calling on me instead of me calling on my Enlightened Self. By the end of that time, the gap between my everyday awareness and my Enlightened Self’s cosmic awareness had closed completely. It was like crossing over a line to an entirely new mode of existence. The auspicious thing about it was that at the moment I crossed the line, I had pen in hand and was writing down the entire event.

Chapter 7 describes what it can be like to live and function in higher consciousness. Some of that material came out of my conversations with Gideon, a student with whom I frequently discussed spirituality and whose questions enabled me to clarify and to articulate my new way of being.

Thus, the sequence of chapters follows the evolution of inner awareness—from a focus on personal gain, to sharing life with others, to striving for self-improvement, to the flashy early stages of spiritual curiosity, to genuine devotional qualities, and finally to permanent transcendence.

–J.C.