Enlightenment

Many eastern gurus teach that enlightenment comes to one who loses all desire and thus frees himself of the karmic cycle of birth and re-birth; he is then absorbed into All-That-Is or God. Yet, karmic justice does not keep us in the cycle of physical life because karmic justice is nonexistent. Karma means action, nothing more. Karma is neither good nor bad. There is no separate power or supreme being, imbued with any qualities we care to give him, who is judging our behavior and then rewarding us--or punishing us, only to send us back into physical life until we get it right. It is our own desire to experience the physical that keeps us coming back for more.

One could say that the guru who controls is farther from becoming enlightened than any other person because he, himself, has great desires, such as the one to teach and influence. He designs systems of living to hasten one's enlightenment--best hours for sleep; proper foods to eat; types of medicine, exercise, and meditation; best architecture; astrology charts (how to live one's life according to the planets' influence); appropriate behavior and dress; the list is endless. These systems are valuable when offered as possible ways to live rather than as the best or only ways.

Indeed, the guru is not farther than anyone else from enlightenment--by his own definition or another's. Yet, nor is he closer. There are no levels to attain, distances to travel, or lessons to learn. According to one concept of enlightenment--understanding and witnessing the eternal nature of Creative Intelligence, its silence and dynamism, equal to the unmanifest and its inherent desires--enlightenment can be achieved instantaneously. Since dynamism permeates silence, sending forth desire, then elimination of desire must be impossible--even the desire to have no desires is a desire; the desire to not be re-born (become incarnate again) certainly is a desire.