You might just stumble upon one when your time is right.
Pray. Send your message out on the airwaves. See what answer comes to you. When you passionately seek the enlightened ones, the universe has a way of supporting your journey. It’s a frequency thing. Do you understand? Like attracts like and all that? What happens when you’re pissy? Doesn’t the whole world suddenly turn sour and don’t you attract a lot of pissy people around you, too? And when you’re authentic, or deeply in joy – what is the result around you? This law of universal reciprocation is really a thing! And it’s no different when seeking enlightenment or the enlightened. After all, somehow you’ve stumbled upon this blog, haven’t you! Somehow these words have made their way in front of your eyes. Synchronicity is a real thing, friend. Now all that’s left is for you to be able to put it to use to conscious purpose!
Stay open and alert. Watch the signs. The enlightened one you seek might be in a temple, or slurping noodles at a roadside kiosk. Stay alert. Watch. Your ears will perk as you get near.
Walk. Watch and talk to the people. Approach the interesting ones. Sit. Ask your questions. Listen well and actively. Hear the answers. Walk and sit some more.
There are masters of every art alive in this world. Whether or not you find one depends a lot on your own condition, circumstance, willingness, effort, desire and readiness. Sometimes you may stumble upon the master and overlook simply him or her because you were not burning with the desire or need to find. But yes, they exist. On every continent. Open your heart. If yours is the real quest of the ardently thirsty for self-knowledge, you’ll find whom you’re looking for.
Now, once you’ve found that Master you seek, what to do? How to become enlightened like them?
Obviously not everyone is destined to become enlightened like the Buddha, but if that’s your goal, then be possessed of the same passion that the Buddha was possessed of as a child. Live like he did. Study what he studied. Find great teachers like he did. Practice what he practiced and maybe, just maybe, you’ll become enlightened like he did.
Everybody is not enlightened as Buddha was nor can it be achieved like he did. Every aspiring painter is not nor can be Michael Angelo. Though some, a very few, can approach his level, attain and even surpass him!
Enlightenment like Buddha is not for everyone. And no master exists, then or now, who can tap you on the head and wake up your potential without the requisite effort on your part. If it were so, Jesus and Buddha and all the sages who have followed would certainly have created a firmer civic foundation that the one we see globally today. But do what you are doing and be as a being, as the sages advise, and you may just find your joy. Find a master and follow in their footsteps. Model them and make their teachings your own. And you, too, will grow into mastery, make an impact on the world and hopefully give back to the next generations that follow you.
…is a Saiva Tantrika, Gyana Yogi and founder of Uma Maheshwara Yoga & Ayurveda. David has an MA in Semiotics, lives in Japan with his family and works as a coach in L & D, devoting his time to developing science-based tools and programs that help people reach the fullest potential of the human condition.