Enlightenment and Liberation: Part Two:Marc Gafni

Enlightenment and Liberation: Post Two:

Marc Gafni
Posted on marcgafni.com

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So what is enlightenment? The answer of course is that anyone and everyone makes up there own definition…to such an extent that the word loses all meaning.

I will share with you how I understand enlightenment based on the teachings of the

Hebrew Wisdom Tradition.

That is of course pretty important because once we establish, as we did in the last post,

that enlightenment, of some form or another, is a major goal of Hebrew Wisdom practice,

then it becomes more then helpful to know what it means.

So here we go:

Enlightenment is Peace.

To be enlightened is to Be Peace and to Be Love.

Shalom! Shalem…..to be whole. Jacob wrestles with the angel in the darkness of the night and wrestles his enlightenment from the shadows. This is expressed by Jacob coming to Shalem; the place of peace and wholeness.

Peace of the Body

Peace of the Mind

Peace of Relationship and Community

Peace with Spirit

Peace of Emotions

Peace with the World

Peace with Structures of the Body

Peace with Structures of Society

To be enlightened is to be committed to act in a way which achieves peace in each of the
distinct arenas of our lives.

That does not mean that if you are enlightened you will necessarily accomplish peace in all these eight strata of living.

Rather it means that you act in a way that is aligned to peace in each of these spheres.

You must, yourself, Be Peace, {as the ancient Essenes liked to say it}, in all of these ways.

Of course, sometimes in order to achieve peace you must first go to war.

Peace is an integral value – it integrates the polarities and raises them to a higher level of integration and evolution.

A second way to tell the same story, to answer the question of What is enlightenment, is to deploy Integral Thinking.

Integral talk points out the simple truth that there are many different levels and lines on which we all develop.

For example, there is a moral line of development as well as a physical motor line, an intellectual line, a social line, an emotional line etc.

Each line of development is distinct.

Now here is the key…

One can be very advanced in one line and developmentally disabled in another line.

For example: one might be a great peace activist, engaged always in activities for Shalom,

And yet in one’s true center one may not be Peace at all.

This kind of person is not holding enlightened consciousness. This kind of person may talk about freedom all the time but they are sadly not at all liberated.

Rather they remain slaves to their fear, ego, pettiness and malice, almost always disguised as noble rhetoric and ethical integrity.

Even while they talk peace they may behave in the most obnoxious of manners, bullying, mean-spirited, frothing at the mouth in a frenzy of words, self-righteousness and domination. We all know the archetype.

This archetype may well be sincerely interested in peace in the world. In that line they are very developed. They may be willing to take enormous risks, on a conceptual level, to achieve peace with their enemies. These enemies may be people who have brutally murdered many of their own people. And this willingness to make peace may come from an evolved and noble place in the soul.

{Or it may come from a callousness and contracted circle of caring which his egocentric at its core, but that is a separate conversation}

But let’s assume for now that it indeed comes from a refined and evolved place in the person consciousness.

That same person may be completely unwilling to make peace, or to even engage in dialogue with a person who was once their good friend and who did not do anything similar to the genuine evil perpetrated by there real enemies with whom they rush to make peace.

How could this be?

The answer: This person may very advanced on the line of development called peace with the world but retarded in the line of development called peace with community, with other or even peace with self.

When it comes to their own life, disowned shadow, disassociated malice, fear, jealousy, and mean spiritedness may prevent all conversation, compassion, courage or integrity.

The person is very advanced on in one line of development; “peace with the world” but very developmentally disabled in the “peace with self” line of development.

The result is that the fear of being outshone, of having their legacy threatened, old neural pathways of jealousy and inadequacy may be triggered and the simply humanity that one extends to a friend may be crushed in a frenzy of domination and cruelty even though this very same person is willing to dialogue with all of the most vicious enemies who have done his people genuine harm and evil.

The person is very developed in one line of development but regressed and even retarded in a second line.

This is to be a slave.

To be enlightened- meaning to be liberated, means to be as maximally evolved as possible at this moment in history in all levels of peace, or said differently, in all lines of development.

Okay so that was part one…

More depth on this later tonight or tomorrow.

Big love to everyone…

Interesting article on Being Open to Growth HERE

Marc Gafni
Posted on marcgafni.com

Please share comments at info@marcgafni.com