A Canadian said:
Much thank you Leo.
Another question arises however.
Can you still achieve this Buhda enlightenment even if you are still a slave to material possessions?
I think it depends upon what you want the most. If there are THINGS that you really desire, then you really have to face that. For years I could not take up Religious Orders because I knew that I would have had to give up my motorcycle racing. Then for awhile I was a semi-famous New Age drum player (Southern India Tabula) and could not take Orders because I did not want to leave that. Now, I am an old man and have tired of motorycycles, and being semi-famous, but the Religious Orders won't accept me because now I am too old. But, although that sounds like regret, still you can't fool yourself about these things... you really need to be able to honestly turn your back on the World and all those Material Things without the slightest urge to look back. You need to be able to say to yourself "been there, and done that".
Now, there are some people who naturally do not have any other desire in life but to turn inward toward the Universal -- people who are natural Saints. If you are such a person, then material things will not have a very strong pull on you.
There is the problem of material security. You may not have a huge desire for material things, but at the same time you may worry about having nothing and starving and being out in the cold. It is a legitimate concern. It is difficult to meditate on an empty stomach out in the cold rain.
But all of these concerns can be counterbalanced by an extremely strong urge for the Spiritual. There was a famous Saint in India not too long ago by the name of Ramakrishna. They once asked him what needed to be done in order to have that Realization of God -- what you would understand as the Perfect Samadhi Meditation -- and he said that when you desire God, or that Perfect Meditation, the way that a drowning man desires a breath of air, then you inevitably experience God.
I've always been fascinated by the Spiritual, but I have to admit that I have never wanted it quite that bad... but then again, I was once visiting the Tropical South Seas and was swept over the reef and out to sea. I saw that the only way I could save myself was to hold my breath and swim down and grab onto a rock and wait for a wave to come in... the only time I could go even a few feet back toward the reef. Then I realized that I did not even want that next breath of air all that very bad. But my strategy worked... I would ride each wave in a few feet and then swim back down to grab a rock before the outgoing current could take me back out to sea, and I eventually was able to climb back up onto the reef.
This incident brought to my attention that I had grown largely dispassionate about just about everything. Usually we would understand that as being the optimum state of desirelessness which would be a precondition for Spiritual Realization. But I think that something positive is lacking. A blase sense of apathy about the things of the World is not enough. I think you must have some intuition about the things of the Spirit and a positive desire for that.
My problem may have been caused by overextending myself. I've engaged in many religious practices both of East and West and may be suffering from a case of Spiritual Fatigue. The Wise enjoin us to practice moderation in all things and I have never been very moderate.
But, yes, success in things Spiritual does require that you make these spiritual things a priority in your life. If you have other things that have a strong appeal for you, then either get it out of your system, or throw yourself completely into Spirituality for awhile to see if you don't simply forget about what had formerly been enticing you. Sometimes just alittle mental and temporal distance is all we need to get past some things.
