Enlightenment For Ordinary Folk: A Peace-Of-Mind Handbook

By Gary Blonder

We are all seeking peace of mind, but where will we find it? In having all our dreams come true? In some mystic haven in Tibet? In developing some spiritual mystic power? Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master Gary Blonder believes it can be found in Enlightenment. In this challenging and controversial book, arguing from current scientific understanding and both ancient and modern philosophy, he shows how anyone can achieve Enlightenment, without signing up to any specific spirituality, guru or religion, and discover for themselves who and what they really are. This book could radically change your life and how you see it forever! Most importantly, you can win life’s ultimate prize – peace of mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gary Blonder
• Release date: Feb 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310322259

Gary Blonder

Gary David Blonder is a professional clinical Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master who lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, with his wife Alison and grown-up son Sebastian. Gary is a Dyestuff Chemist by training, and after 13 years in dyestuff manufacture re-trained as a schoolteacher and then moved on into the retail industry before re-training again to become a qualified Hypnotherapist in 2008. He now works from home in his purpose-built consulting-room. Gary is a follower of West Ham United FC and enjoys Real Ale, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Gothic culture and rock and heavy metal music. Always a keen seeker of knowledge, he also is an amateur Historian, Geographer and General Knowledge student. Gary if asked will tell you that he has already achieved his ambition, which is to know who he really is.

Book preview

ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK

Enlightenment For Ordinary Folk

A Peace Of Mind Handbook

Gary Blonder

Copyright 2013 Gary Blonder

Published at Smashwords

We are all seeking peace of mind, but where will we find it? In having all our dreams come true? In some mystic haven in Tibet? In developing some spiritual mystic power? Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master Gary Blonder believes it can be found in Enlightenment. In this challenging and controversial book, arguing from current scientific understanding and both ancient and modern philosophy, he shows how anyone can achieve Enlightenment, without signing up to any specific spirituality, guru or religion, and discover for themselves who and what they really are. This book could radically change your life and how you see it forever! Most importantly, you can win life’s ultimate prize – peace of mind.

CONTENTS

Introduction – About This Book

PART A – THE BASIC PRINCIPLES

1. LIFE’S ULTIMATE PRIZE IS WITHIN YOUR GRASP

2. ENLIGHTENMENT – DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

3. THERE’S NOTHING THERE

4. THERE’S NOBODY READING THIS, THERE IS JUST READING

5. YOU AND YOUR EGO, THE PLAYER AND THE CHARACTER

PART B – THE ESSENTIAL DISCIPLINES

6. WHAT’S THE POINT? – CHOOSING YOUR PURPOSE

7. CALMING THE MIND

8. THE DISCIPLINES OF CONCENTRATION, GROUNDING AND PURPOSE

9. REGAINING YOUR GRIP – GETTING BACK TO GROUND

10. INTUITION – THE WORLD’S BEST GURU

11. PREFERENCE OR PURPOSE? – RESOLVING THE CONFUSION

12. THE THREE R’S – Reading, Ritual and Reflection

13. THE SATORI MOMENT

14. OVER TO YOU

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book is the result of a lifetime of experience. It is the book that I wish was available to me when I was a young man. It has two purposes – to offer an explanation for life’s most deepest and fundamental questions based on both personal experience and current scientific understanding, and secondly to provide a method of obtaining permanent peace of mind regardless of the circumstances you may be facing.

For a book making such major claims, it is surprisingly short. This is for a simple reason – it contains no waffle. The stories, allegories and asides are the absolute bare minimum necessary. Many a self-help book begins with a publisher giving an author a set number of pages to fill. This book however says only what needs to be said then finishes.

This book is not a Buddhist work, but it does agree with Buddhism in its central assertion – that in order to obtain perpetual peace of mind, one must experience ENLIGHTENMENT, the experience of realizing how things really are. That therefore is exactly what this book is designed to help you do.

The book is divided neatly into two halves – a theory and a practical section. In the first section, we look at the nuts and bolts of what the universe is made of, established through scientific discovery, and then we go beyond this into Philosophy to draw conclusions that provide the most likely explanation for what science has observed.

The conclusions are shocking and contrary to how it feels, but embracing them are key to experiencing Enlightenment.

The second section is a guide of practical things to do in order for you to go beyond simply accepting concepts and to experience the reality physically and emotionally. When you see everything how it really is, you will no longer be afraid and peace of mind will be your everyday experience forever.

It won’t happen overnight! Disciplines need to be learned and persisted with in order to experience Enlightenment. This book is meant to be an interesting read, but reading it alone will not achieve the objective – you must do what it says! From the bottom of my heart I wish you success in following the path to the end.

PART A

THE

BASIC

PRINCIPLES

UNDERSTANDING

HOW IT ALL

REALLY IS

1. LIFE’S ULTIMATE PRIZE IS WITHIN YOUR GRASP

If the mythical Genie Of The Lamp suddenly popped out of the teapot you were polishing, and because he was in a bad mood offered you only ONE wish, what would you choose? What is the ONE THING you would pick that would be better having than anything else?

In a particular episode of the sci-fi TV drama The X-Files, Agent Mulder is lucky enough to get three wishes from a female Genie. In a noble but foolish decision, his first wish is PEACE ON EARTH. In an instant, all living things vanish except him, because that is the only way there can be total peace on Earth. His second wish is therefore spent reversing the first.

He then spends some time trying to find a third wish that didn’t have any kind of catch, but he can’t find one. In the end, he asks the Genie what she herself would wish for, and without hesitation she states that it would be to be an ordinary human. Mulder spends his last wish on granting her that humanity. In doing so, he discovers life’s ultimate prize, at least temporarily – peace of mind. How? He found that fulfilling the dream of another brought him more fulfilment than anything he could have wished for himself.

Everything that everyone wants is in reality not what they really want – it’s what they think will bring them happiness. In most cases, when people get what they’re chasing, they find that any happiness attached is not self-sustaining. You might for example meet the love of your life, and for a while just being with that person is all you need, but after a while it gets kinda dull just staring into the other’s eyes.

It’s an odd paradox how people keep chasing things like sex, romance, getting high, fame, success, political power and wealth, despite overwhelming evidence in the pages of every showbiz gossip magazine that people who have these things on tap are no happier than you.

Don’t get me wrong, it is of course better to have nice things. As movie star Mae West once said:

I’ve seen rich and I’ve seen poor, and believe me honey, rich is best! However, comfort, though worth having, does not in itself bring happiness. There are plenty of people in comfortable misery! Millionaire presenter Chris Evans once said:

I got to the top, and there was nothing there

Ex-Beatle George Harrison said:

I’ve had fame, and it’s boring!

Both these people then went in search