"Don't worry about the future, the present is all thou hast; the future will soon be present, and the present will soon be past." Family post card sent from Kansas to Tennessee, 1910. Courtesy of Kate Bowers. Homespun advice from the farm belt; reminiscent of Buddhist teachings, long before they were popularized in America....

The journey to enlightenment takes serious amounts of time and effort; countless meditations, meetings with gurus, spiritual books and practices. With these insights as our guide, the path is clear yet the destination illusive. For the light we seek is not somewhere, it is everywhere as light is all there is.   Enlightenment is not a matter of finding the light. It is lighting up with the sound of laughter, laughing at our self as we would at a dog chasing its tail....

No thing in the world is perfect as there is always some thing about every thing about which someone complains. Complaining presumes a duality between us and the thing about which we are complaining. That is, duality is the foundation of complaining. However, there are two things that must be perfect as about them no one ever complains: the universe and nothing. Nothing is what every thing is before it is what it is whatever it is and before time begins. The universe is the infinite and ever-changing manifestations of the nothing in the now. Nothing and the universe are one thing, the everything; mutually dependent, like two side of the same coin. As one thing, the everything, they dispense with duality. Those who realize every thing is one thing, never complain. They too are be perfect....

Nothing is perfect, but no thing is perfect. Nothing contains no thing to like or dislike, describe or think about. As there is no thing to complain about, nothing is perfect. No thing is perfect as every thing is but temporary, ever-changing; perhaps seemingly perfect momentarily, but not eternally perfect....

"You can not escape a prison if you do not know you're in one." The mind creates a familiar and comforting world out of the seemingly chaotic universe. In so doing, it separates us, imprisoning us, from directly connecting with the universe as it is and, ultimately, realizing we are the universe. Unless we come to know we are prisoners of mind, we can never escape. To recognize we are in mind's prison, we need to realize we don't know anything. That's scary, or at least our mind makes us feel it is. "You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need." -- Vernon Howard The mind galvanizes in us desires that can never be satisfied but temporarily. This is how the mind distracts us from recognizing we are in its prison. ...

Awakening is the realization we don't know anything. Enlightenment is knowing nothing. Sleeping is a state of consciousness characterized by dreaming based on the illusion of knowledge. Awakening begins with the realization that we don't know anything. This is startling, frightening as it separates us from the common thinking of others. However, upon awakening, at first light, we take solace as every-thing is indescribably beautiful; always and all ways. Soon after, we wonder what is this world, who am I? Thus begins the process of enlightenment, as we fill with light until we and every-thing are the light. Enlightened, we now know nothing, which is the essence of every-thing....

According to the Oxford English dictionary, "the good life" has three definitions: "(1) a life of luxury, pleasure, and material comfort. (2) a way of living that is moral, satisfying, and worthwhile. (3) (British) a way of living characterized by simplicity, self-sufficiency, living off the land, and the rejection of consumerism." Alternatively, maybe the good life is informed by the good death. Graphically, the good life is when upon being told we will likely die in a month, we continue to live as we have. That is, we appreciate experiencing our experience and desire nothing beyond our basic needs for sustenance. In other words, the good life is living in an awakened state, living in the now. We don't miss anything but realize we missed something once we have it as we then greatly appreciate it....

"When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose." As we are born with nothing and die with nothing, thinking we have something in the interim is an illusion. When we have something we think we can lose, the something has us and to it we have lost our freedom....

Before we are whom we are whomever we are, we are but soul. Creation, our birth, is a manifestation of soul in bodily form. Orchestrating our bodily form is the self. Ergo, our principal identities are the self and the soul. As self, we perceive who we are as independent and finite beings. Essentially, we are selfish; thinking we are apart and separate from others and need to prioritize our wellbeing above that of others. As soul, we are one with every-thing as we realize every-thing is a temporary, ever-changing, interdependent manifestation of soul. Moreover, we  experience the universe as it is, as soul has no memories (the venue of the self) that compare one thing to another. As well, as soul is one, we interact with other manifestations of soul with wisdom and compassion. Soul is heaven, where all souls connect after the demise of bodily forms. Heaven is a peaceful, happy place as it's the same place everything is before it is; the place before creation, about which there has never in recorded history been a complaint. At our bodily death, the self is no longer and only the soul remains as it is forever. That is, those whose principal identity is self will surely die and those who realize they are soul will remain eternal. In life, the soul is shrouded with layers and layers of self. Ipso facto, the soul becomes distant (as in many lifetimes ago) and little part of our consciousness; ultimately, a lost soul. Upon our bodily death, it takes much time and effort to find our soul which is how we transport to heaven. Those who live with little self-stuff covering their soul don't need travel to heaven as they are in heaven....