Much of what is written below is written with line breaks that are there for a purpose.  The end of each line is an opportunity to pause and to contemplate what you have just read before moving on to the next segment.

The world seems a mess.  Anxiety seems to be running rampant. The world seems to be imploding.

Is it time to wake up from the ignorant dream?

Has the time come to claim our fully loving nature?

How do we do this?

How do we become what be came here to become?

In the claiming of love comes the release of the imaginary ego,

That counter-productive imagination that sucks our loving energy, but only if we feed it.

Collectively, we have fed it by identifying with it, as if it is who we are.

We are challenged to see and feel and know that we are not that ignorant ego.

To do this, the true challenge---positively-stated---is to claim our true power.

Ego perverts the definition of true power.

For true power can only be an aspect of that which is based in love.

What is it to be in one’s true, full power, all the time?

It is to see, feel, taste and hear and trust the love in every experience,

And then do our best to practice always the fully loving response, in every moment.

It is too see the love in the most beautiful of creatures just as you see the opportunity

To practice it when confronted with the face of an angry, violent zealot.

It is to hear the love in the silence of meditation which is a ticket, of sorts,

To loving consciousness when practiced with optimum frequency and duration.

It is to hear it in the drone of a loud ambulance or fire truck siren,

As an opportunity to send love to someone who may be injured.

It is to taste the love in the most flavorful culinary delight just as you can choose loving patience and presence when you taste something extremely bitter, spicy or otherwise challenging.

It is trusting that whatever occurs in my experience can be accepted with grace,

Allowing  me to be more fully at peace with myself and my world.

We are collectively on our way to integrating this trust.

This is what I trust: That there are basically two kinds of experiences along the path.  One is the kind of experience that is easy to enjoy, easy to appreciate: the caress of your lover, the witnessing of the most kaleidoscopic of sunsets.

That brand of loving experience is easy to love unless you have bought into the foolish idea, fomented by misguided parents, political leaders and religions, that you are unworthy of experiencing joy and contentment.  I challenge you not to condemn those who would have you believe such lies, but to simply steer your life clear of their influence.

The other kind of experience that has been not so easy in the past to deal with is the emotionallychallenging one.  It’s when your world seems to scold you, judge you, manipulate you, ignore you, hate you or otherwise challenges you to be with what is just as it is. It is usually the opportunity to practice giving love to either yourself or another or both of you, or to just be calm in your response.  It’s your opportunity to respond to life with love.

While the term “enlightenment” can be defined in many ways, here is a simple way that might make sense to you:

There are three steps to it.

(1)  First is to deeply understand what true love and true power are.

Artificial love is a product of pity, guilt, obligation, condition, domination , manipulation or repression of the heart’s expression.  True love is unconditional.   False power is based in the false self of ego, enforced by the same factors shown above that make artificial power unreal.  All real power is loving power.

(2) Feeling worthy of living completely as a reflection of that kind of power.

(3)  Prioritzing your practice of fully loving power.

This means more and more ruthlessly choosing awareness, discipline and trust.

Are you willing to choose this, or would you just rather remain oblivious to your own deep power?

Please close your eyes now and contemplate what you have just read.

Press your pause button now and ask your heart: "Is it time for me to wake up from the ignorant dream?"