Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Magic, Miracles and Enlightenment

Enlightenment or Self-Realization is commonly associated with extraordinary phenomena.

"I felt completely light, unaware of the body and was floating in air"

"I was able to see the past , present and future all together"

"There was a unbearable brilliant light surrounding all around me"

"I could see God in all his glory"

"My body was shuddering, and I was breathless"

and so on.

Initially such experiences seems extraordinary, and simply impossible. And such impossible events are assumed to be necessary in order to believe we have transcended our limitations and have become realised.

An enquiry into ordinary and extraordinary phenomena puts this in order.

Any event that is not properly understood will baffle us. If I bring out a rabbit out of a hat, it baffles. If I can make someone float in air it baffles. If I could make a ship disappear then it baffles. These are impossible things to happen, based on the understanding of the laws of nature, and when it seems to be broken it appears magical. That is in fact what Magic is. A seemingly impossible thing happening. But since the magician is similar to us, and is able to repeatedly and consistently perform it, we can learn it to be a mere trick. An illusion. There is only an apparent breaking of the laws of nature.

Similarly something miraculous happens. Something which clearly breaks the laws of nature. such as a feather falling at the same speed as a stone, light bending around a star, particles moving around in a liquid by themselves for no reason, someday this could include people walking on water, curing the blind with a touch. These events clearly are abnormal, extraordinary, and impossible. But if we look at the very manner in which we define it, we say so only because it has never happened before, or never observed before. More accurately we have not understood the laws fully. The laws are there. But we know only a subset of them. and the unknown laws will reveal only through such miracles. and once known they fall into ordinary.

So, all phenomena appear baffling only as long as we don't know their mechanics.

Just like it gives a blind man a great amount of joy after getting sight through surgery, any such extra ordinary phenomena will eventually become ordinary. when something is possible then one cannot say a impossible thing is possible. mere play of words and simple contradiction. These experiences are only relative.

In fact any such experience , even the ability to say fly in the air by oneself without assistance, will become ordinary eventually, and cannot be equated with Enlightenment.

Enlightenment is knowledge. The truth behind ALL phenomena. All of the phenomena out there is only there for us to question, seek and then eventually to Know I AM THAT.

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