Uma Silbey - Enlightenment on the run

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ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE RUN

Meditation: How to Observe 46 Self-Acceptance and Identity 48 Practicing Observation During Everyday Life 52

Observation Meditation: Observing Your Thoughts 53

CHAPTER FOUR Rememher 61

The Third Practice 61

The Experience of Remembering 64

Visual, Environmental and Musical Reminders 66

Ceremonies 69

Repeating a Name for the Higher Spirit 70 Remembering to Repeat Your Mantra 75 The Farmer and the Spiritual Man 76 Meditation to Remember the Higher Spirit 77

CHAPTER FIVE Let Truth, Guide Your Way 85 The Fourth Practice 85 Truth Versus Relative Reality 86 What It's Like to Live In Truth 89 A Personal Example 91 How to Start Living a Life of Truth 93 How to Hear the Inner Truth 94

Meditation to Develop Intuition and Hear the Inner Voice 96 Balancing the Logical Mind v^dth the Inner Voice 99

Visualization to Gain Insight^ Solve Problems and Develop Effective Courses of Action loi Your Commitment to Truth Must Be Total 107 Meditation: "Who Am If 107

CHAPTER SIX Surrender and Accept 113 The Fifth Practice 113 Its Not Always Easy to Surrender 114 A True Life Example of Practical Benefits 115 The Process of Surrendering 117

CONTENTS

VII

What It Feels Like to Surrender 119 Affirmations to Help You Surrender 120 Affirmations For Surrender and Trust 121

Acceptance 122

Acceptance, Desire and Change 123 Surrender, Acceptance and Happiness 125

Meditation: Surrendering Attachment to Desires 126

CHAPTER SEVEN McJltate I35

The Sixth Practice 135

The Effects of Meditation 136

Let Your Whole Life Be Meditation 138

Consistency is Important 139

A Meditation Guideline 140

Monthly Meditations 141

OM Meditation 144

Meditation for Strength of Willy Endurance and Vitality 146

Salute to the Sun 149 The Importance of a Spiritual Family 154

CHAPTER EIGHT Pvogresswri on the Path 159 Love and Vulnerability 161 Open Heart, Closed Heart 163 The Third Eye 165 Keep Practicing 166 Opening the Heart 167

Meditation to Develop Love, Compassion, Acceptance and

Empathy for Yourself 168 Meditation to Develop Acceptance, Compassion and Empathy for Others 170

CHAPTER NINE Losmg Youv Way 177

Mistaking Your Ovm Desires for the Inner Truth 184 The Lesson 185

Signs and Guidelines to Know^ That You re Lost 187

ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE RUN

New Abilities 190

Confusion, Clinging and Running Away 192 Roadmaps for Enlightened Living 194 The Five Precepts 196

CONCLUSION Homecoming 203

Poetry hy Uma Silhey

Dance Ever So Lightly 6

The Way 17

Being Here 36

Awakening 82

Truth Is no

Be Still 156

The Great Mystery 174

Lost and Found 178

Arise 199

Homecoming 208

DEDICATION

/wish to both thank and dedicate this hook to all those friends, family and teachers who have helped me along my path. Most particularly, I wish to dedicate this book to my grandmother, Lloita Glick, who has always inspired me with her quiet dignity and wisdom, to my friend and aunt, Nancy Baumgartner, who has always provided a listening ear and non-judgmental help to me, and who so willingly provides help and comfort to so many Also to my grandfather, John Reed, who was the first to tell me that I should write books, and to Marcellus Bearheart Williams who has taught me so much in the years I have known him.

I wish to thank my parents, Lloyd Glick and Shirley Murphy, who so unselfishly and lovingly provided me the upbringing in which I could explore myself Thanks also to: Carol LaRusso and Hal Zina Bennett for all their editing help; to Margot Koch and Jim

ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE RUN

Love of Publishers Design Studio for their wonderful book design and illustration; to Brenda Plowman and Dawson Church of Atrium Publishers Group for their thoughtfiil, expert advice throughout the process; and to David Webb who thought of the title, typeset the book, and has helped in so many other ways to bring it to publication.

Finally, and most importantly, I wish to dedicate this book to my dear husband, Steve Fink, who has always supported and encouraged me through "thick and thin,*' and to my spiritual guide, teacher and friend, Neem Karoli Baba Ji, who is forever alive within my heart.

May all beings be happy!

Uma Silbey Lagunitas, California

ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE

INTRODUCTION

7i all started when I found a dead hird and lovingly huried him. A couple of days later, curious to see if he had gone to heaven as Td heen told he would, I scraped the dirt from the little grave I had so lovingly made a few days before. As I dug away the rest of the dirt with my little five-year-old hands, slowly the horrible truth revealed itself to me. I was aghast, shocked, forth ere was the little bird body still there. Even though I could see that his body was partially decomposed, I didnt think this meant he was halfway to heaven. Instead, I thought that everyone had been lying to me. He wasnt going to heaven which meant that I wasn t going to

ENLIGHTENMENT ON THE RUN

heaven, and no one else was either. Who or what could I believe?

From that point, my search for spiritual truth began. A seed was planted, and from that seed began sprouting a growing number of questions and an inner longing for something that I couldn't quite describe, although it felt like love. I remembered the biblical assurance that all you had to do was knock, and eventually the door would be opened. You only needed faith and commitment. Being led by this promise, I vowed to knock until I found the real truth. I didn't know how I would recognize it, but somehow I knew that I would know. So through the years I kept knocking.

I started meditating in my late teens. I didn't have any teachers then, but would acquire books with meditation instructions and do what they said. At the same time, I continued to live a regular life, getting a degree at UCLA, starting a jewelry business and doing my music. To try to understand what the awakening was that I was trying to experience, I proceeded to read every psychological and philosophical book I could get my hands on, from Dostoyevsky, Kant, Kierkegaard and Marx to Freud, Jung, Reich, Fritz Perls and other more modem psychologists. I read, studied and contemplated. I feasted on ancient scriptures from the Vedas, Puranas, Zen and other Buddhist texts, the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana.

I didn't just read, I practiced what was suggested. I did the recommended meditations and contemplated Zen koans. I went through two- and three-year periods of celibacy and retreat. I tried to understand non-attachment by giving up everything I owned, household things, businesses, money, and my residenceseveral