Everyday Enlightenment
Welcome!
If you're visiting this page, it's likely you are interested in topics like Meditation, Suffering, Mindfulness, and Enlightenment. Great! This website is all about reducing suffering and increasing mental clarity through meditative practices, but with an emphasis on small micro-meditative tools that can be used throughout the day as part of building up a new way to exdperience life.
Everyday Enlightenment is intended to provide an extremely simple yet comprehensive framework for learning about Enlightenment, coupled with an extensive online toolkit that can be used by anyone, anytime, and eventually every day, all day as an approach to experiencing life.
There are thousands of schools of thought, and so many ways to approach Enlightenment. Everyday Enlightenment is just one resource and isn't intended to be all-inclusive, but it offers an approach that is rare to find. The key concepts that differentiate the approach of Everyday Enlightenment are
- No emphasis on formal meditation.
- Learn to harness pieces of your daily routine as the tools of Enlightenment.
- Use these tools all day, every day.
- As you Awaken, the practices become part of you.
At its root, enlightenment itself is about achieving a dramatic reduction in suffering, and a dramatic increase in mental clarity. Enlightenment can be found every day, all day, in everything around you, and through meditative practices, you can harness the many moments of your day in a way that becomes a path to enlightenment. If this is something you are interested in pursuing, read through this page and see where you can get started.
Getting Started
Depending on your level of experience with topics such as mindfulness, nonduality, impermanence and meditative practices in general, you could approach this site very differently. Look over each of these types of Learners, and see which one matches where you are. Make sure you understand the purpose of this site, including how The Framework works, and then dive in and start browsing through some Exercises to see where you might be able to find some traction in the journey to enlightenment.
For First Timers or Beginners - Learning
For Intermediate Learners - Training
For Advanced Learners - Masterful
The Realm of Enrichment represents a significant level of personal development and commitment to meditative practices and the pursuit of Enlightenment. The majority of extremely advanced practitioners would find themselves within the Realm of Enrichment. Being within this Realm means you have dramatically shifted from a life of suffering and confusion to a life of peace, joy, and mental and emotional clarity.
The Framework
Everyday Enlightenment is essentially a set of tools (exercises) for developing the Qualities of Enlightenment. In order to conceptualize this development, a very simple framework is available to describe the why and how of these practices. Understanding this framework is useful for exploring and understanding the Exercises, because they are organized and categorized within that framework. However, if you are experienced enough with these types of meditative practices, you can likely dive right into The Exercises.
In order to easily contextualize the concepts of Everyday Enlightenment, and to aide in categorizing the Exercises, a conceptual framework has been made available. This framework is fairly arbitrary, and although it uses a lot of terms, these are just made-up terms to demonstrate the why and how of progressing to enlightenment.
Template:Everyday Enlightenment Framework Chart
The Themes of Enlightenment
Experience The Now
Template:Experience The Now Overview
Embrace The Change
Template:Embrace The Change Overview
Unlearn The Self
Template:Unlearn The Self Overview
The Qualities of Enlightenment
In support of The Themes of Enlightenment, there are four Qualities that we can directly work on. There is not a one-to-one mapping between Qualities and the Themes, but as you can see in the framework chart, there is a strong correlation, as explained more below.
Focus
Pursuit
Adaptability
Template:Adaptability Overview
Relation
The Stages of Enlightenment
Template:Stages Overview - each explained
Deluded
Learning
Training
Masterful
The Realm of Enrichment represents a significant level of personal development and commitment to meditative practices and the pursuit of Enlightenment. The majority of extremely advanced practitioners would find themselves within the Realm of Enrichment. Being within this Realm means you have dramatically shifted from a life of suffering and confusion to a life of peace, joy, and mental and emotional clarity.
Enlightened
Arriving at the Realm of Enlightenment is the theoretical culmination of the journey of Everyday Enlightenment. Throughout history, there have been many people that have described their own journey to Enlightenment, and their own experience of being Enlightened, and often these people will impart their wisdom and teachings to all that will listen. This journey is a personal journey, and anyone pursuing meditative practices and Enlightenment should simply focus on moving forwards through the Realms, making use of the appropriate Trails, Guides and Landmarks to continue to find greater peace in their life and greater clarity of mind.
The Exercises
When it all comes down to it, The Exercises are how we progress. They are organized in a number of ways which are designed to help you choose what interests you most and is helping you personally.
Below Here OLD STUFF to reorg
Okur?
Why, Where, and When
Why would I want Enlightenment?
Our lives are clouded by delusions that bring unnecessary suffering and confusion. As we learn to rise above those clouds, we find a dramatic reduction in suffering, and a dramatic increase in mental clarity.
Where and when should I look for Enlightenment?
Enlightenment can be found every day, all day, in everything around you. It can be an integral part of your life, and the first step is to start noticing it and embracing it.
How
How do I become Enlightened?
There are thousands of schools of thought, and so many ways to approach Enlightenment. Visit the Resources page if you need help getting started. Everyday Enlightenment is just one resource and isn't intended to be all-inclusive, but it offers an approach that is rare to find.
The key concepts that differentiate the approach of Everyday Enlightenment are
- No emphasis on formal meditation.
- Learn to harness pieces of your daily routine as the tools of Enlightenment.
- Use these tools all day, every day.
- As you Awaken, the practices become part of you.