I think it is time we lighten up about this whole enlightenment business. We act as if there is a state of being we can achieve, and once achieved, everything just glides along in a state of perpetual bliss. We are awarded this state of being because of all of our hard work and sacrifice by some outside source that is greater than us. Yuck!

That is no prize at all. It is the end of the game, the end of growth. There is nothing to do but sit around mainlining the divine. Once we say we know the answer there is no reason to question anything. There is no reason to grow.

That is atrophy. That is death.  

The feeling of enlightenment comes and goes. It is supposed to. It is the very thing that makes new possibilities possible. Letting go of the last epiphany was what leads to the next. It is a dance. We don’t dance to get done dancing. We dance for the joy of the dance. It is the dance that puts the eternalness in eternity, the light in enlightenment.

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I’m not exactly sure what prompted me to take this picture. Perhaps it was to get the full primal effect of standing in a Giant Redwood Forest that had been witnessing the world for the last thousands years.

I wish I had the video of me taking off my clothes, setting up the camera on a tripod, setting the self-timer, gingerly rushing back and forth barefoot on the sticks and pine needles that covered the forest floor to check my position in the frame on the back of the camera, readjusting the camera, setting the self-timer again and doing it over and over again half a dozen times.

Now that I look it again, I know exactly why I took this picture. I took it for the fun of it.

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When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. - Buddha
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Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt County, California 2001