Life In Reverse

You may start off tired, weak, and somewhat confused. Most people do. Sounds may be muffled, lights look too bright, and things may barely make sense, if at all. But considering the void that you have just come from, what a joy it is to be alive! People you don't recognize may talk to you soothingly and move you from place to place, perhaps to a sunny spot by a window with a view of a duck pond, but essentially they'll mostly leave you alone, except when they have to feed you. You may get occasional visitors, and even recognize some of them, but if you don't, just remember: you're new here. Give it a little time and you'll undoubtedly get to know them better, and will gradually learn their names and faces and voices. As this happens, for reasons that you won't comprehend, you may also initially find yourself harboring some resentment or anger towards them, but give that time too, and it will surely pass. Just try to relax. When you do, you'll surely get close enough to them that they'll decide to take you home and let you live with them - temporarily, of course. But it's a start. From that point, your life will indeed get busier and more interesting. As is true with many aspects of our Path to Enlightenment program, it's guaranteed!

Rates of progress along The Path differ greatly. For some of you, greater comprehension, vitality, mobility, and energy may come very quickly. For those falling into the highest percentiles, it may be only a matter of months (or even weeks!) until you have made a huge improvement. For members of this lucky group, every day will be an exciting adventure as you swiftly gain new mental and physical capabilities. For others among you, this may be a rather slow process. Do not be dismayed. It can sometimes take years to reach your next plateau of physical fitness and mental acuity. Keep in mind that both ends of this spectrum are normal. Don't be competitive and wonder how your neighbor is doing. Just let nature take its course with this one. In either case, you will begin working your way towards sharper senses, greater strength and mobility, and a better comprehension of the things going on around you. In fact, many of you will very quickly find that you possess a lot of confidence, strong opinions, and a great breadth of knowledge that you find quite amazing to have acquired in so short a time! Just remember this: it is in these first few years that truly accelerated learning occurs. You're like a dry sponge right now, and will surely soak up more knowledge in this very short span than the rest of your life combined. During this period, you'll also find yourself freer to speak your mind without fear of consequences than you will at most other times in your life (pretty much until you get to the other end of The Path), so enjoy it while you can.

As your muscles strengthen and your energy level rises, you'll soon be able to put your surprisingly vast storehouse of newly found knowledge to good use. As you get to know the members of your family, you'll begin to encounter strong urges to give them advice on a wide variety of topics, and to judge them on whether or not they follow your advice. Here's a little secret (and don't get dismayed now): they never will. Even if prior to your giving them advice they seemed to be heading in the right direction, they will inevitably move off course. It is, however, impossible to prevent these events, so again, just let nature take its course, and don't sweat it too much.

Initially, special family gatherings will be arranged in the fall and winter months, and these may well be your only opportunity to share your wisdom with your loved ones. Don't worry too much, since it's a sure bet that as the years pass you will gain greater and greater access to the members of your family, and will have many more opportunities to interact with them. You'll find that the gatherings will become more and more frequent, and will require less planning and pre-arrangement. This is a great benefit of getting to know these people! As you begin to spend more time with them, barriers between you will begin to fall. Now, it won't happen at the same pace for all of you, but gradually most of you will also find that over time you'll be less inclined to give advice and to judge, and more likely to just have fun and interact with the members of your family. Again, that's just another benefit of building solid relationships.

As your health and vitality continue to slowly move towards their peak (still many years away), you may notice that your body of knowledge is actually shrinking. This "Algernon Effect" is not a problem. You will be compensated in so many other ways that most of you will even consider this to be a blessing! Rather than thinking about things too much, you'll find yourself more and more often simply doing them. Follow this instinct, because it is a primary behavior that is absolutely required for Enlightenment.

You'll also embark on a career soon, which will occupy much of your time for years to come. And over those years, your knowledge of your chosen profession (and just how did you choose it anyway, you'll soon wonder - you somehow just knew…) will be converted more and more often into direct action. At first, your work may not yield very much satisfaction, but you'll see that the longer you stick with it, the more you will enjoy it. Trust us on this one. As you patiently work your way towards attaining "rookie" status, many of you will gain an almost unbearable sense of joy and excitement about your job, and feel a growing sense of the importance of your work and your ability to really make the world a better place through it. As you are assigned to each new, more basic position, you may well experience a temporary sense of longing for your old job, and even experience some anxiety about getting it back, but this will pass in time, and soon you'll be back in the groove, just doing your work.

As you pursue your career, you will learn that there is no greater professional pleasure than that derived from getting "hands-on" with the most elemental tasks that make your enterprise run successfully. Wasn't it Thoreau who said, "Simplify, simplify, simplify"? Well, as you begin to take on these more basic tasks, many of which are more physically demanding than what you've been used to, you'll find your body responding in the most wonderful way! This is also a long, slow process, but you will surely achieve stronger muscles, greater endurance, flexibility and range of motion, tighter skin - the whole nine yards. Many of you will also lose some weight, and perhaps even get a little bit taller. The bottom line is if you just have faith and follow your heart in your career, you will find greater satisfaction. Remember, it's guaranteed!

Another important aspect of Enlightenment that you will surely master is learning to live without regret over the choices in your life. Right now you may be full of muted feelings, or submerged dismay and sadness over decisions (some quite distant) that lie along The Path. Picture in your mind the decisive moments where these choices will be made and confidently move towards them, since they are indeed inevitable. Anything you can envision, you can and will make happen. This is the power of positive thinking! As these critical life-events and moments approach, you will probably experience stronger and stronger feelings of pain and regret, but don't let that deter you from facing them head-on. As you pass through each one, you will undoubtedly experience a sense of relief and a shedding of a great weight. Once you pass through each critical point, you'll find that you can simply forget it and move on with no regrets. That's the way to go! Your burden gets ever lighter on the Path to Enlightenment.

But what lies at the end of The Path? What is Enlightenment, really? What you are striving for, what we are all striving for in this program, is the ability to relate, the ability to trust, the ability to truly be as one with another human being. And do you know what? You can do it! You will do it! It's guaranteed. As you approach true Enlightenment, you will find your mind growing ever less crowded with thoughts and conflicts, and more full of feelings. Pure feelings. Innocent feelings. Simple pleasures will begin to mean more to you than ever before. You'll learn to know the joy of running aimlessly in a sunny field; the pleasure of falling in the snow; the comfort of sleeping under a warm blanket in the middle of the afternoon. Your doubts and worries will fall away. You'll learn to turn towards someone in love, and in trust, and count on her fully and without question. Oh, this is great progress! This is Enlightenment in the making…

Your final step, your goal, will be to achieve a joining: a true becoming as one with a single chosen soul mate, if you will. To reach Enlightenment, you will have to clear your mind of everything. Don't worry - you won't fail here. Remember, you're not trying to achieve this state all at once, but are traveling the full length of The Path learning how to do it: how to stop thinking and start feeling. But most important of all, you're learning how to trust others completely and not judge them, which will take, essentially, all the years you'll have. Although a mantra may be used to achieve the clarity you'll need, most successful participants end up alternating between a sequence of meaningless burbles and sharp sudden utterances, and that seems to work just fine. You may find yourself screaming wildly in the last few minutes - but we expect that's due to your anticipation of completing the journey. It's a thrill much like that first big dip on a roller coaster. You can even put your hands up over your head if you like. But in this case, what lies beyond is peace of mind and union of spirit. Now that's Enlightenment.