Granddad Looks at Enlightenment

A solid book about spirituality has certain hallmarks:
 ·        It is powerful yet  human.
 ·        It shows both strength and vulnerability.
 ·        It reveals triumph over misunderstanding.

Every spiritual master has achieved success only after struggle.  He or she knows intuitively that we recognize that journey and so each tells a personal story that identifies a triumphant path uniquely human and potentially attainable by each of us.  Their stories are messages we cannot put down.

We follow our teachers’ accounts from backwater villages in India or  Palestine or Arabia (and occasionally, an Indian palace) because they show that obstacles can be defeated and love regained, made fresh.  We find we cannot put their narratives aside.  We cannot stop reading because they do not preach; do not lay down laws; do not make demands.  They tell us how they lived and assume that we are intelligent and motivated enough to pull nourishment for ourselves from their examples.

No Master claims such a title for herself or himself.  They don’t think in such terms.  Such language has no value.  These Beings are followed because they are so loveable and so much like ourselves and what we would like to be.

In writing my own story for my grandchildren I came to the realization that it is worth sharing because my journey is everybody’s journey.  I am buoyed-up when I read of someone who is attempting the same path as me.  We learn through our commonality and so I share my story humbly.

I have spent more than 50 years in active spiritual exploration.  This began in a Roman Catholic seminary in the 1960s and I presently sit outside the boundaries of any specific sect and/or creed.

GRANDDAD LOOKS AT ENLIGHTENMENT is my journey.