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September 2009 
Enlightenment.Com End-of-Year Special Gift Newsletter
Jordan
This
Enlightenment.Com Newsletter
Contains:
- Hello & Overview: A Special Gift Newsletter; What's Coming; Reaction to "Beyond My Ken" and Prayers for Ken needed
- Two Great New Free Media Offerings: Byron Katie and Deepak Chiopra
- ChipIn! to Help Keep Enlightenment.Com Alive
- Brand New: Enlightenment.Com Branded Merchandise
- Globus for 20% Off: A Great Deal on a Great Movie
- The Dan Millman eBook: An In-Depth Multimedia Offering From a Great Teacher
- The Wild Divine: Still an Amazing Experience
- Some More Great Gift Ideas
- Prayers for Ken Wilber: A Real-Time Email Request
- Consider How Special You Already Are (Compared to Your Favorite Teacher or Guru): A Short Essay by Jordan Gruber
- Thank You!
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1. Hello & Overview: A Special Gift Newsletter; What's Coming; Reaction to "Beyond My Ken"
- ChipIn! to keep the site alive (see Section 3 below), that is, make a direct donation to help us reach our goal of $2,500;
- Visit our lovely store and treat yourself or one of your friends or loved ones to one or more of our unique gift items (we only get a small cut on most items, but still, it helps)
Without some financial support - from you - we really will have to go away, possibly sooner rather than later. No more video/audio interviews with Dan Millman, or Deepak Chopra, or Byron Katie, or Ken Wilber. (Or Adyashanti, who we are interviewing in just a few days.) No more cool products that you can't find anywhere else online (for example, Globus, which we're offering a 20% discount on just until month's end; see section 5). No more Jordan Gruber essays on the meaning of life, or on what's really going on with Ken Wilber, or on the Reality Creation Hypothesis, or on anything else. Yup, without your support, we'll just have to sell the domain name to some entirely crass commercial venture that will probably use it to promote something that is ultimately very un-enlightenment.
OK, enough of that. You get the point, and the rest of this short newsletter will give you several opportunities to find a cool gift for someone or to otherwise directly ChipIn and support us.
So, speaking of Ken Wilber, my essay "Beyond My Ken: Personal Ponderings on the Philosopher Profound" created more feedback than usual from readers, all of it positive, and the essay even hit the number one spot in Frank Visser's reading room (it's down to # 34 as of this writing). I thought that was kind of cool, actually. I was hoping to hear back from Ken himself, but as Section 9 describes, as of December 6th Ken has had another serious bout of illness and we are all requested to pray for him.
Finally, I leave you for the year with a short essay on just how special you really are, even compared to your favorite amazing teacher or guru. Enlightenment is as enlightenment does, so carpe diem.
Well, that's about it for now. May you have a joyful, peaceful, and enlightening December, Solstice, and Holiday Season.
– Jordan Gruber and the rest of the Enlightenment.Com Team (especially Gabriel DeWitt and Jeramy Hale)
2. Two Great New Free Media Offerings: Byron Katie Video and Deepak Chopra Audio
Well, then. We figured we'd end the year with a double media freebie.
First, we have two meaty video interview segments with Byron Katie, taken in the Spring of 2005. This is good quality video that enables you to really see and feel the genius of Byron Katie's approach, and more importantly, the depth of her soul. We'll have the final two video segments from this interview available in early 2007.
(If you don't know who Byron Katie is, or what she is all about, go take a look at her site on The Work. Her system is outlined there in some depth, and you can pretty quickly get a feel for why Katie is such a potent teacher.)
Second, we have a brand new audio interview with the world-class teacher, writer, and healer Deepak Chopra. The interview, which happened just last week on December 1st, focuses on Deepak's new book, Power, Freedom, and Grace: Living From the Source of Lasting Happiness. While Deepak himself says that there's "nothing new" in this book, it is indeed an elegant and dynamic presentation of the truths of Vedanta modernized for today's spiritual seeker. Deepak and I had a lively conversation, including a brief discussion of Global Orgasm Day (Dec. 22nd, 2006, on the Winter Solstice), which Deepak thought was a good idea!
--------------------------------------------------------------------3. ChipIn! (Please) to Help Keep Enlightenment.Com Alive!
OK, folks, here's the direct appeal. Go to our front page, at http://www.enlightenment.com, and we've provided an easy and simple way for you to ChipIn! and help us raise $2,500 by the end of January. This is our goal, and if we make it, keeping the site alive will be a whole heck of a lot easier than if we don't. The ChipIn! technology is easy to use. Even if you can only give $1, we would greatly appreciate it. So if you like the work that Enlightenment.Com has done over the past decade, please help us out there. We give you our hearty thanks thanks, in advance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------4. Enlightenment.Com Branded Merchandise: Shirts and More To Come
And in case you'd like something tangible for helping us out, we are going to try something new and make some T-shirts and other Enlightenment.Com merchandise available for your purchase. We only get a tiny percentage of what's sold here, but what the heck, we thought it would be fun to give it a go. So click on over to CafePress and see what captures your fancy.--------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Globus for 20% Off: A Great Deal on a Great Movie
The photography is unparalleled, the music wells up from the soul of understanding, and the overall experience of watching this finely made film is one of peace, gratitude, and deep appreciation.
Just until the end of December, 2006, we are offering the Globus DVD for 20% off. If you click on over to our catalog page, you can see an enticing trailer and images from the movie.Give yourself and your friends the gift of Globus, and your perception of what is real, true, and beautiful will never quite be the same.
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6. New Dan Millman eBook: An In-Depth Multimedia Offering From a Great Teacher
As long time fans of this site know, Dan Millman, author of The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, is one of my (Jordan's) favorite writers and teachers. Humble by nature, deeply experienced, and I believe quite wise, Dan is all about practical solutions to real-world spiritual problems.
Well, Dan has approached the Internet with the same elegance that he has approached everything else, and has come up with a very engaging e-book that you might want to check out. Called "The Peaceful Warrior E-xperience," you get not only text, but audio and video of Dan taking you through different psycho-spiritual techniques and teachings. Feel free to check out the free chapter that Dan offers.
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7. The Wild Divine: Still an Amazing Interactive Gaming Experience
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8. Some More Great Gift Ideas
- The New QLinks - Yes, they may seem kind of New Agey, but when I'm feeling down or low, I almost always put mine on!
- Anodea Judith's The Illuminated Chakras DVD - It's hard to go wrong with this breathtaking DVD
- Terence McKenna: The Last Interview - If you are a fan of Terence's, and you haven't heard this yet, well, you really should!
- The Digital Zen Alarm Clock - Made by Jordan Gruber's old friend Steve McIntosh, this makes a wonderful, beautiful, and functional gift
- The Tetra-Star Shapeminder - This rarely seen shape* makes an extraordinarily unique gift, and is perfect for those into sacred geometry
- Ken Wilber: Speaking of Everything - This 2 CD audio interview was the first, and in our biased opinion, still the best, interview with Ken Wilber.
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9. Prayers for Ken: A Real-Time Email Request
This just came in:
From: Colin Bigelow Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 9:41 PM
To: ______________
Subject: Ken update
Dear Friends,
Early Wednesday morning Ken was admitted to a local hospital for repeated seizures and an abnormal cardiac pattern. Ken is currently in stable condition in the Intensive Care Unit.Ken does not have a history of seizures, and there was zero warning that something was about to go wrong. In fact, Ken had a fantastic day Tuesday, writing all morning and then meeting with several folks at the loft.
Doctors believe that they understand why these seizures occurred, and the good news is that it’s nothing intrinsically wrong with Ken’s physical well-being. In other words, we have strong reason to believe we can avoid these in the future.
Ken has been sedated since admission to the hospital in order to help prevent additional seizures, and doctors are planning on slowly backing off the sedative in the next day or so.
This is clearly an extremely serious situation, but it does not appear life-threatening, and according to the lead doctor at the hospital, she has no reason to believe that any of these conditions are irreversible.
If you would like to express support for Ken, please pray, do tonglen, or simply hold him in heart and mind with loving-kindness. Ken has always said that these practices work wonders, for both giver and receiver, and all of your love and care will be deeply appreciated by him.
Please do not send flowers; if even a dozen kind souls send flowers, the doctors will have no space to work. And naturally, please do not try and visit Ken in the hospital. Ken is in Intensive Care, and only family or extremely close ties are allowed in, nor is the hospital allowed to disclose that Ken is a patient there.
For the time being, I will be posting short updates on Ken’s condition daily. As might be expected, we are looking at days and weeks in terms of recovery, but even just 48 hours after all of this started, recovery does indeed appear to be the path we’ve already begun.
Please, friends, walk with Ken on this path. Lift him with your heart, touch him with your mind, bless him with your soul, liberate him with your spirit. He will feel you, and you will feel him, and this miracle of we shall embrace us all, radiantly erupting as the bliss-agony of One Heart pulsing in so many bodies. Ken is nearer to you than your own skin; feel him with reckless abandon. Nourish this precious body of our beloved friend with all the love available to you. Let that love open you to infinity….
Prajnaparamita,
Colin
Colin BigelowPersonal Assistant to Ken Wilber
Integral Institute
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10. Consider How Special You Already Are (Compared to Your Favorite Teacher or Guru)
I just watched the movie Godspell with my 7-year-old daughter. She had a lot of questions. “What,” she wanted to know, “made him [Jesus] so special?”
That’s a good question, and it brings up the even better question of what would happen if someone “like that” were to appear amongst us? Or even better yet, are there people like that amongst us now, and we just don’t recognize it? Perhaps we just don’t get it.Of course, some folks who come to a site like this will tell us that their teacher, their guru, is indeed the one. Followers of Sri Kaleshwar, Gurumayi, and Adi Da, would all, I believe, tell us that their teacher is in fact on the level of what we assume Christ was like.
And I wouldn't’t want to attempt to dissuade them.I believe in the Reality Creation Hypothesis. (Or, as my pal Jeramy would say, “mind is the drug.”) Simply, whatever you focus your awareness on tends to become more real for you. And so, if you are the type of person who benefits most greatly from having a guru, and you have found one, and your heart is truly theirs, then congratulations (you finally did succeed).
However, as Carl Jung pointed out long ago, most of us Westerners simply aren’t psychically constituted so that having a guru will work for us. It’s something about freedom, something about democracy, and something about equality. Deep deep down, we bridle against the idea that someone else is God and we aren’t.
The sensible fix, of course, is to recognize that we are, in fact, already God/Goddess/All-That-Is. And that means that we are, in fact, already God/Goddess/All-That-Is just as much as Sri Kaleswar, Gurumayi, or Adi Da is. Or just as much as Ken Wilber, Andrew Cohen, Byron Katie, Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, or Jean Houston is.I mention these particular individuals because I have personally met each of them. They all are or were incredible individuals, off-the-scale contributors to modern psycho-spiritual culture. But they are no more God/Goddess/All-That-Is than you are or I am.
Most of us want to find someone “special,” some teacher or tool or technique that we can deify and place all our faith in. Again, if that works for you, fine. But the real truth is that things are a lot simpler than that. You are already enlightened, if you are only willing to accept it. You are already generated from Source, if only you are willing to experience this. You already what you are looking for, if you are only willing to look deep in your soul’s own mirror and find yourself.Does that mean that these various leaders aren’t special? That’s not what I’m saying. They are special. And some of them undoubtedly generate epiphanies and siddhis and synchronicities at an extraordinary rate. Hanging around such folk, if you have the opportunity, can be very rewarding, instructive, and spiritually uplifting. (And, quite frankly, mind-blowing.)
But fundamentally, these individuals are no different than you or I … because you and I are just as special. And embracing this truth is the really radical opportunity before you and I, even in this very moment.
As Robert Anton Wilson said to me during his Enlightenment.Com interview, he gets this same kind of psycho-spiritual upliftment from listening to music or smelling a flower. Reality itself is all that you need. Or the friends and teachers and family members – and even the "petty tyrants, to cite Castaneda – who are already in your life.The point is: no matter who you are, no matter what circumstance you are in, no matter which gurus or teachers you may or may not have sat with, you already have what you need to be enlightened, for you already are the very enlightenment you seek. And so, with the year coming near to its end, with the Solstice drawing near, I would invite you one more time to consider the words of my favorite poet, Leonard Cohen:
Ring the bell
That still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack
A crack
In everything
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in
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11. Thank You!
Enlightenment.Com is what you make it, and we appreciate everything that you
have helped to make it so far. As we bring more audio and video online, we think that the pathway to EVOLUTION:COMMUNITY:TRANSFORMATION will be somewhat accelerated, and we invite you to join us on that journey.
Blessings to You,
Jordan Gruber, Founder, CEO, and
Editor-in-Chief, Enlightenment.Com
© 2006,
Enlightenment.Com, Inc., and Jordan
Gruber
Access: Public
