an admission

I could flatter my self and say that childhood in no way prefigured the way I have ended up. My child-hood was mostly filled with "what-have-I-done-wrong-now-and-how-can-I stay-out-of-the-way", not to mention genuine misdeeds and misadventures.  At the age of 70 those earliest sensing have not lost their place in the personality made inevitable by those early vagrancies.

That is what the Bird Path is all about.

If the World had not put the question to you, the Universe would not bother speaking to you.

Its OK to be a human being.

Secular Monasticism

In the not so distant past enlightenment was the domain of ascetic religious conservatories.  The age in which we find ourselves is one where the high secrets of traditional monasticism are in paperback books to be bought in dime stores. There is a fabulous array of esoteric technology that is venerable and effective, and precious little practical help with what to make of life if the practice of this magic should have it's way with you.

To awaken to the core of being which is the fire that heats our human appetites and inclinations puts a human creature in an odd position. If this "awakening" were to occur in a monastic environment one would be born into community of those who had made a similar passage by way of a shared tradition and who would welcome the newly born naked-spirit into the community of awakened beings. The austerities peculiar to monastic communities create a haven in which the new born child of the universe can dry it's wings and adjust to the light.  The effectiveness of meditative techniques and the proliferation of these technologies have created a situation where wholly unprepared beings are smacked in the face with enlightenment and have no means of dealing with it.

Let's say you have a job, a family, a functional narrative that suddenly is seen to be significantly other than you supposed it to be. There is no door back to the previous state of naiveté. This point has led to what used to be known as a "nervous breakdown".

The answer is to accept the mantel of creature-hood and to practice a private secular monasticism.

Enlightenment as Loss

Enlightenment tends to be considered in popular thought (in so far as it is thought of at all) as an achievement: as something that adds to our being... as something that somehow make us more of something-or-other. In point of fact it is the exact opposite.

Enlightenment is what's left over when we (for whatever reason) have outgrown our illusions, and native intellegence is left with simple Awareness. It was there all along, but we were distracted.

Our humanity is found to be a costume that can not be abandoned, and so must be reconfigured if it is to fit our new, more slender, form.

This is no small task, but if the spiritual essence of the eternal is to openly exist in everyday life it must be done.