The Enlightenment Training Manual (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780988028708)

Whenever anything is pulled in an opposing direction against its will, and with an ever increasing force, only two possible outcomes can occur. The object being pulled either succumbs to the pulling force, or the force that is pulling breaks and the object is catapulted the other way. This is perhaps the simplest way to sum up the experience that led to writing this book. I had spent most of my life in anger, bitterness, depression and resentment at the way the world had treated me, and at all of the injustices that had been heaped upon me. Despite all of my best efforts to try and make sense of it all, I kept getting pulled deeper and deeper into it. Just when it seemed as though it was becoming intolerable, and I felt a sort of resignation as though I was ready to succumb to it, something snapped and my consciousness shot up the other way. What I didn't know at the time was that the problem hadn't been what the world was doing to me, it was how I had perceived the events that were occurring around me. It was my own thoughts that were the problem. After several days of this new level of consciousness, I found I had settled back into a more neutral place, one that was still much better than where I had come from. Even if this was where it ended, compared to where I had come from, this was like paradise. However, since I had experienced this even greater level of consciousness, I became determined to find my way back into that state. This was the beginning of a spiritual and inquisitive journey not only to find my way back to where I spent those few days, but also to try and understand what had happened to me and why. I turned to meditation, introspection and research into altered states of consciousness reading psychology, metaphysics and Buddhist books. My intention was to figure out what had happened to me, how to get back, and how it all worked, in a way that could hopefully be replicated and also benefit others. That journey was the source of inspiration for writing this book. With each passing day I am able to spend ever increasing amounts of time enjoying that silent, peaceful state of mind. I now know how to reach that state any time I am mindful to do so and with each day my journey deepens. I now know that reaching that state is not the end of the journey, for there is an infinite amount of space in which the soul can grow and an infinite depth to which the consciousness can journey.