There are many lessons we should learn throughout our lives to enhance our life experience. Unfortunately, reading about a life lesson doesn’t not mean that you can understand it. Many events have to happen in the right order to allow us understand the lesson. Let’s take a very simple example to see the events that lead up to an understanding of a lesson. Suppose you are playing tennis and have been struggling to hit your backhand. You have a habit of stabbing at the ball. You don’t understand why you can’t hit a backhand properly. You want to hit the backhand better. So, you look to see what you are doing when you hit your backhand. Your friend hits the ball to your backhand and you continue to stab at the ball. He tells you, “hit the ball don’t stab at it!” You don’t understand what he’s talking about. Then he hits to your forehand and you swing a perfect return. Suddenly, you realize that you are not swinging at the ball when you hit your backhand. The stabbing motion doesn’t give you a consistent hitting motion. So, you try swinging the backhand the same way as your forehand. You hit the ball into the net, over the fence, and off the court, but you notice that it feels good to swing at the ball. Your timing with the swing is off but you feel the power and consistency of swinging it. You continue to swing your backhand and after a few days, you can consistently hit the ball into the court.

Let’s look at the events necessary to learn this backhand lesson:

• you see that your backhand is inconsistent and want to improve
• you watch to see what you are doing with the backhand
• Your forehand hit shows you the proper way to hit the ball
• you realize the problem, that’s the Aha! moment
• you test and try to change the backhand swing
• you persist even though you were hitting the ball all over the place
• you finally achieve it

If certain key events didn’t happen, you most likely wouldn’t have learned the lesson. For example, if you didn’t care or didn’t know that your backhand is inconsistent, if you didn’t realize that you aren’t swinging your backhand, or if you didn’t continue to practice hitting your backhand, there’s a good chance that you may not go through the process needed to learn the lesson.

This is why life lessons can be difficult to grasp or understand. Anything can interrupt a key step in the process. When it gets interrupted, we don’t learn the lesson. We miss the opportunity to realize something new and possibly life changing. Of course, the opportunity could reveal itself many time throughout our lives, but we may unknowingly let it slip by each time. Now that we know there is a process, we can be keep it in mind as we come across any life lesson. Doesn’t it seem troublesome to go through all this trouble just to learn some lesson? We can go through life doing the same routine, but wouldn’t it be much better to have insights that help us understand ourselves and our world better?

I was watching “The Late Show with David Letterman” the other night, and Charles Moore was one of the guest. His discussion about the floating garbage shocked me. The amount of garbage floating in the pacific ocean is double the size of Texas. It is harming and killing all the sea creature in the area. I have heard something about it a few years back but didn’t get a chance to watch any video or read any article about it until last night.

We have made great advances in science and technology. It has made our lives much better, but everything that share this earth with us is paying the price for our convenience and cleverness.

Recycling is good but it’s just a bandage to the problem. The root of the problem is plastics, is it possible to stop using it? Everything we buy comes in plastic packaging, and we carry them home in plastic bags. We use it for everything, and it’s everywhere. This video gives an overview of the situation.

Some things I’m doing and we can all do:

• recycle everything – all plastic containers, newspaper, paper, cans, batteries, phones, etc.
• reuse – bring my own canvas bag for groceries, use both side of the paper before recycling, reuse containers to store things, etc.
• go glass, wood or metal – try to buy and use glass, wood or metal rather than plastic
• use less – water, energy, and fuel; and packaged processed food and products;

Problem areas:

• groceries – everything is wrapped in plastic, sometimes multiple layers.
• grocery bags – I live in a condominium, so I use plastic bags to put wet and smelly food stuff before throwing in the garbage bin. I don’t have a good alternative yet.
• things we use daily are made of plastics or has plastics. (comb, toothbrush, toothpaste tube, chairs, tables, computer, car, pen, etc.)

We can help to reduce, but ultimately companies have to change at the source. It’s a big problem because every company in the world would need to find alternative materials, and would cost lots of money.

There is a process or a natural order for doing things. For example, to walk, a baby learns to move his hands and feet, he learns to roll over, he learns to push up with his arms and legs, he learns to crawl, he learns to stand, he learns to balance on his feet, and he learns to take his first step. We wouldn’t expect him to start walking without first learning the basics to set up the foundation for walking. Processes are important road-maps to help us head toward our final destination.

As the world gets more complicated, we have to learn more to live in it, and we are swept farther into the current of our daily lives. Most of us get lost and trap in our daily existence. We live our lives based on what we know and learn from our environment and culture. We form our understanding of the world and that becomes the boundary of our lives. Most of us will live inside that boundary for our entire lives unless someone or some event shakes us to the core and break us free of this prison.

To free ourselves from the boundary, we need to examine ourselves. We need a process to lead us from where we are to the point where we understand nature’s law or universal law. The point when we reach this understanding is called enlightenment. This is my understanding of the process toward enlightenment.

Journey Toward Enlightenment

Description of each step in the journey:

Focus - Focus allow us to feel the connection between mind and body. One thought leads to coordinated action, awareness of self and surrounding, and produce excellent performance.

Awareness - Focus leads to awareness of thoughts’ influence on mind and body. Awareness of thoughts help us learn to separate our “thoughts” from our “self”. This separation lessen thought’s control over us. We learn that we are not our thoughts, and we don’t have to watch a thought develop. In not following thoughts, we are more present in our lives.

Clarity - In being present, the mind sees things as they are rather than through desires, emotions, ego, superstitions, culture, and family influence. Seeing without these attachments allows true understanding of our lives and of the world rather than through a clouded lens of our thoughts.

Good Character – In clarity we see how negative characteristics cause suffering. What are the things that cause suffering? Things such as arrogance, greed, hate, jealousy, or lust cause suffering. How many arguments and wars have they cause? Do we want to be the cause of ours and others’ suffering? We change ourselves to end our contribution to the problem. We do our best to help ourselves and others in an honorable way.

Overcome Attachments – In developing a good characters we find that we hold certain ideas and things close to our hearts. In holding tight, we breed the hate, greed, or jealousy which causes the suffering. To develop this good character, we learn to release our grip on each thing we hold so tightly.

Human Purpose – In letting go of attachments, we are not held back by thoughts and emotions. We can sense a higher purpose beyond struggling to make a living, caring for your children, exploring the world and experiencing life’s pleasures. We begin to see a sacredness in things around us.

Enlightenment - In understanding our existence and our connection to everything, we begin to understand the true meaning of life. We can begin exploring the many levels of nature’s law to deepen our understanding of life. Supernatural things are suppose happens when we reach enlightenment, but we won’t know until our long journey is complete.

Endurance - The key to unlock the truth is endurance. Obstacles will try to block the way or distract us toward other directions. Persistence in face of endless challenges weeds out the ones worthy of the secrets. Nature’s secret doesn’t reveal itself to anyone who can’t handle it. That is why it is precious and many are willing to spend a lifetime to refine themselves for the opportunity.

What is silence? We know it as the absence of sound. If we removed sound, do we have silence? If you sit with your eyes closed with no noise around you, can you experience silence or does your inner voice begin to chatter? In your mind, isn’t that chattering the same as the noise you hear? How about the thoughts floating in and out of your mind? How about the images, the smells, and the emotions from those thoughts? Don’t these things create noise in your mind? True silence is the absence of all thoughts, emotions, senses, stresses, and desires from your mind.

Today, life has many distractions and obstacles to keep our minds occupied. Our lives are filled with noise and it has become a part of who we are. How can we turn that off? This is why silence is hard find. It can’t be bought with money. Its price is practice and persistence to experience it. Millions are willing to pay with a lifetime of practice to experience it and to find clarity in life through it.

Some things to think about:

• Why do we want to experience silence?
• Have you noticed that our thoughts control the body? Fear increase our pulse, make our hand sweat, and make our breathing quickens.
• There are dozens of thoughts going through our mind each hour. What happens to our mind and body when we are caught up in these emotions and thoughts?
• If we spend most of our time working in stress or fear, what would happen to our mind and body? Don’t we develop anxiety and illnesses that need medication?
• What would happens if we can let go of these thoughts? How would our mind and body react? Would you feel calm and at peace?

Starting to do the eye exercises is easy, especially when we are excited to see the results. Enthusiasm, however, does not last. I managed to do the eye exercises for about three weeks before getting distracted by something else.

I was inspired one day as I walked away from my car. After ten steps from the car, I stopped and asked myself, “did I lock the car?” I walked back to check and I had locked it without realizing. This habit was so ingrained in my mind that I didn’t need to think about doing it. I had an Aha! moment. I need to transform the exercise into a habit. When it’s a part of my daily routine, I don’t need to allocate time to do the exercise and more importantly, I will do the exercise without having to think about it.

What did I do?

I started doing the eye exercises when I was waiting for something or wasting time. I did the exercise:

• as I was on the toilet
• as I stopped at a traffic light
• as I was working
• as I was reading
• as I was watching TV

by making the exercise a part of my daily routines, it became a habit. I’m always doing the exercises so I didn’t worry about finding time to do it. This helps me to improve my eyesight without it turning into a chore.

What is the ego?

As a man, I expect and I am expected:

• to have a job to provide for my family
• to have authority and influence in work and in personal life
• to be clever and intelligent
• to look and act manly
• to defend my country
• to want to make a difference in the world
• etc.

There is a long list of things that culture and people demand in a man. This list influence our thoughts, behavior, and actions. Together it creates an image of how we will eventually see ourselves. We become this self image. We see the world and act through this self image. This self is our possession or property. We will defend this property against anyone who dares to damage or steal it. Our ego encompasses a large part of who we are, and what we do.

Some things to think about:

• Why is it important to understand the ego?
• In order to see who we are, we must understand this fog of self image that surround us. If we can fan away each part of the list and allow the fog to slowly clear, what do we have left that makes up our self?
• Can our ego exist without this list?
• Should we maintain an ego?
• Have you defended your thoughts or ideas before? Did it cause tension and anger? Why must you defend it? Did you want to be right? When did your ego come in?
• Does the ego separate men and women’s role such as job, house chores, caring for children, and cooking? How does this affect the man and the woman?
• Does this separation apply to skin color, culture, wealth, age, etc.? What does this separation do to humanity? How much killing and destruction has it caused?