The Enlightenment Project: How I Went From Depressed to Blessed, and You Can Too

By jonathan robinson

Is it possible for YOU to become an enlightened, awake being? If so, what are the best and easiest ways to get there?

 

Jonathan Robinson has interviewed over 100 highly awake teachers for his bestselling books and popular podcast. In his encounters with people such as the Dalai Lama, Byron Katie, De

• Language: English
• Publisher: roy jonathan robinson
• Release date: Jul 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781792393600

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

In 2011, author Gretchen Rubin came out with a book called, The Happiness Project. It became #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. The book details her learning project about various Positive Psychology methods and trying them out to see what worked for her. As I read her book, I realized I’ve undertaken a similar project to seek enlightenment. That quest led me to interview over 100 spiritual leaders, ranging from The Dalai Lama and Deepak Chopra, to the late Mother Teresa, Wayne Dyer, and Ram Dass.

Furthermore, I’ve meditated over 15,000 hours and tried at least 75 different spiritual methods. Along the way, I’ve learned what has worked for me and others, and what has not, in the quest for enlightenment. As you will read, my enlightenment project has led me to learn many life-transforming lessons and live some amazing adventures.

In the last couple of decades, much has been learned about enlightenment or awakening (I often use these terms interchangeably). In fact, some of the lessons, ideas, and methods I reveal in this book come from the research of Dr. Jeffery Martin—a Harvard-trained psychologist. Dr. Martin has interviewed over 1200 awakened people to find out what their experience of life is, as well as what led to their new state of consciousness. In his interviews and research, he has learned that enlightenment is not as rare or as difficult to achieve as most people believe.

Dr. Martin also discovered that there are many different levels and varieties of awakening, and each type has advantages and disadvantages. In addition, Dr. Martin and other researchers noticed that most awakened people have used certain precise methods and learned specific lessons along their journey. In this book, I try to describe what enlightened people report as the most common and effective ideas, methods, and lessons they have learned along their path.

From personal experience, I can tell you that the quest for enlightenment can be both transformational and surprising. While growing up, I was a deeply depressed and suicidal teenager who had no friends. My highly dysfunctional family life led me to have a mid-life crisis at the ripe old age of twelve. I turned to self-help books, drugs, spiritual teachers, meditation, and any other personal transformation methods I could find. Gradually, my mind and life transformed. Looking back, I see I could have saved myself a lot of time and trouble had I known what I know now. My hope is that as you read about the wisdom I’ve gained from many teachers, as well as the miraculous lessons I’ve lived along the way, you’ll be aided in your own quest for enlightenment.

I’ve structured this book so that each chapter explores what I believe to be a critical factor to a successful enlightenment project. In Part I, I explore some of the ideas and methods I consider foundational to any spiritual search. In Part II, I talk about various ways awakening can be practiced in one’s daily life activities and relationships. In Part III, I discuss ideas and challenges that advanced practitioners tend to face on their journeys beyond the norm. You’ll find chapters that discuss everything from spiritual teachers and meditation to making money and overcoming fears and past conditioning.

Along with exploring the ingredients of a productive enlightenment project, I have included many stories from my own life, as well as stories of my interactions with famous teachers. A good story is more than just entertainment. It can also act like a hypnotic spell that seeps into one’s life in mysterious ways. The stories here, while sometimes quite astonishing, are each true events I have lived. From these experiences, I’ve learned incredibly valuable lessons. Therefore, at the end of each chapter, I attempt to distill valuable lessons I’ve learned from my enlightenment project into a couple of sentences, along with a couple of thought-provoking questions. I hope these stories, lessons, and questions seep into your own life and provide plenty of inspiration while you pursue your own enlightenment project. …May you enjoy the ride…

PART I

READY FOR LIFTOFF

On any journey, there are things you need to have for your expedition to be successful. The same is true on the spiritual journey. In these first six chapters, I discuss what I believe to be several foundational elements to a fruitful pursuit of enlightenment. Each chapter offers stories, methods, and ideas for key things people need when attempting to liftoff to higher states of consciousness. Sometimes just one new idea or method can make the difference between feeling hopelessly grounded—or feeling like you’re well on your way to higher realms.

WHEN THE STUDENT IS READY. . .

If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.

—Yogi Berra

I think we are all on a hero’s journey. Our common journey entails going from a life identified with our ego to a life identified with our divinity, soul, or awareness. (I often use these terms interchangeably). In interviews I’ve done with dozens of awakened people, I’ve learned that at the heart of enlightenment is a shift of identity. American spiritual teacher, Adyashanti, defines enlightenment simply as, Perceiving without the lens of the ego. Normally, we identify almost exclusively with our ego-personality. Yet, enlightened people experience that they either don’t have a separate sense of self, or that it’s not at all who they are. Rather, they identify with being pure awareness, consciousness, their soul, or pure love. Their newfound identity is accompanied by rather consistent feelings of peace, love, or even bliss. This shift in identity can come quickly or slowly, but it often has a clear starting point.

So…I have a question for you: How would you say your search for enlightenment, God, awakening, or whatever you might call It began? It’s a fascinating question to ask spiritual seekers. After asking hundreds of people this question in my seminars and retreats, I’ve noticed five common categories to the answers I’ve received. Most people who consciously begin a spiritual search began it due to:

Some traumatic crisis or painful event, such as the death of a loved one or a deep depression.

An encounter with a certain person who somehow stoked their desire for something more.

An experience of seeing that there is more than meets the eye going on, often due to taking psychedelic drugs or a near-death experience.

A spontaneous experience of seeing the unity of all things, often as the result of being in nature.

A spiritual experience due to a spiritual group, method, or event.

It has been said, When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Sometimes the teacher is a person, and sometimes it’s an event in one’s life. Perhaps you can identify your own teacher in the above categories that nudged you into your own enlightenment project. An effective teacher is anything or anyone who can take you from where you currently are and somehow transport you to a higher level of consciousness and understanding. While a teacher can be found in a book or life event, I believe the most helpful teachers tend to be flesh and blood human beings with whom we interact.

It is a great blessing to find a teacher who can inspire you to your next level of spiritual awakening. Nowadays, gurus are not as in vogue as they once were. At one time, people understood that if you wanted to progress on the spiritual path, a teacher was pretty much a necessity. Yet, in recent decades, people often think they don’t need such guidance. Fortunately, you don’t need to go to India or a retreat to find a teacher that’s right for you. In fact, if your hunger for spiritual growth is strong enough, I believe a teacher or teaching will become apparent to you rather quickly.

As for me, my first teacher literally saved my life. He was my 7th-grade English teacher, Mr. Downing. When I was twelve years old, my family moved from Los Angeles to San Jose, California. I didn’t know anybody in my new school, and I sank into a deep depression. Nowadays, in America, about 50,000 people die of suicide each year. I was almost one of those casualties. I would come home from school each day and think of ways to kill myself. I finally set a date to do the deed—by jumping off a bridge, but my plan was interrupted two days before my suicide date. On that day, Mr. Downing asked me to stay after class. I figured I was in trouble, but I didn’t know why that might be the case. It really didn’t matter. After all, I figured I only had a couple more days to live.

When the class was all cleared out of students, Mr. Downing told me to have a seat. I refused to look at him because I knew he had penetrating eyes. After a long silence, he finally spoke. He said, Jonathan, I sense that you’re feeling really, really bad right now, but I want you to know how much I care about you. You’re a good kid, very smart, and you have a sensitive heart. I don’t know what’s going on exactly, but I know that if you can make it through this rough patch, you’re going to have an amazing life. I just want you to know that. You might be feeling hopeless now, but that’s going to change. You’re special in ways you may not be able to see now, but I can see it. I want you to know that if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here for you.

As I listened to Mr. Downing’s words, tears flowed from my eyes. I was too afraid to reveal my plan to end my life, but before leaving his classroom, I managed to give Mr. Downing a hug and thank him for his caring. That night, I decided I’d put off my plan to kill myself. I somehow managed to make it through the rest of the year without jumping off a bridge. Thirty years later, I found Mr. Downing via the Internet. On the phone, I told him that I was a former student and that I had something to give him. We arranged to have lunch together, and at lunch, I told him the story of how he saved my life. This time, we both cried. It was a moment I will never forget.

If you have a person like Mr. Downing, whose act of kindness made a significant difference in your life, I encourage you to thank him or her in person. Such an encounter will surely be healing for both of you.

As I mentioned before, teachers can come in all shapes and sizes. They can even be certain life events–instead of people. Whatever helps you to evolve to a higher level of awareness is a teacher. The statement, When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, is true because we’re always surrounded by potential teachers. Yet, it’s only when we are looking for the next step that we begin to recognize the opportunities all around us.

Once I decided not to kill myself, I was keen to find someone else who could inspire me. My next teacher was my Uncle, Lew Horwitz. Uncle Lew was a banker, but a most unusual banker. Other than his day job, he was both a hypnotist and an amateur magician. I was enthralled by his extracurricular talents, and he became my first long-term mentor. It all started when Uncle Lew performed a hypnosis show with various family members in attendance. Amongst other things, he hypnotized my normally shy sister into thinking she was Mick Jagger. As she belted out, I can’t get no satisfaction, a new world of satisfaction opened up for me.

I was astounded that in a few minutes of talking to my sister, my Uncle could completely change who she thought she was.

Well, I wanted to be Mick Jagger, or really anyone other than my depressed, suicidal self—so I started learning about hypnosis from my Uncle Lew.

While I believe that teachers are a critical ingredient in the spiritual growth process, there are also downsides to some teachers. For example, certain teachers charge a lot of money for their teachings or create very authoritarian rules, cults, or disciplines that can be unhealthy to their students. To make good use of a teacher, one must attempt to do two things simultaneously that are in many ways contradictory. First, you must be fully open to the teaching and experiment with its ideas and methods to the best of your ability. Second, you must not lose your sense of good judgment and instead continue to act on what you think is best. Easier said than done.

In this culture, we tend to think that spiritual teachers must be fully enlightened beings. Yet, my first teachers were not famous gurus, but simply my Uncle and a teacher at school. Later in my life, I would go on to meet many great gurus such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Transcendental Meditation), Sai Baba, Muktananda, Krishnamurti, The Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Adyashanti, Byron Katie, Rupert Spira, and many others. Through all these encounters, I came to know that certain teachers had abilities and experiences way beyond the norm. Yet at the same time, they had very human faults as well. Despite their shortcomings, I yearned to know what they knew about consciousness.

In the early days of one’s quest for enlightenment, I think it can be helpful to shop around for a teacher. Find out who and what is available, and experiment with different methods, teachers, and teachings. For several years I did that, and I found my tour of teachers and their teachings to be eye-opening. Yet, after a while, I realized that digging many shallow wells was not getting me to the depths I wanted in my inner life. Soon after this realization, my main life teacher appeared. I saw a poster on my college campus announcing that the founder of the Fourth Way School of Oregon was starting a self-study group for students of consciousness. Fortunately, I had heard of the Fourth Way, which referred to a method for finding enlightenment within an ordinary lifestyle. I attended the lecture of a man named Justin Gold. Thus began an intense 26-year-long training with a spiritual master.

When I heard Justin talk at the first lecture I attended, I knew there was something different about him. At the time, he had only a handful of students, so it was hard to know what to make of his claims of being a credible spiritual teacher. However, he never asked for any money (a good sign as far as I was concerned), so I kept attending his meetings. After maybe three months of weekly meetings, he asked me if I was ready to take the next step. I didn’t know what that meant, but I said yes. Then he told me to look into his left eye for five seconds so he could send me energy that would help me to know how he experienced the world. I did as he instructed. Within ten minutes, I felt like I was melting into being one with the Universe. I had previously tried many drugs in my life, but this was quite different—and better. I swam in this feeling of oneness for about 24 hours. I felt totally quiet inside, like being bathed in liquid love. I was impressed.

When people ask me why I spent 26 years literally living and working with my teacher, I tell them it’s hard to explain if you haven’t had that experience. A good spiritual teacher can lead you to places that you simply could not get to on your own. Yet, you don’t need to find a fully enlightened being to benefit from having a teacher. The teacher that’s right for you is the one that both inspires you and helps you to learn what you’re most interested in learning. People often have the mistaken notion that a spiritual teacher must be some famous guru, have special powers, or be a perfect human being. None of that is true. All you need is someone who has experience or knowledge in an area you’d like to learn. Simple. We don’t require that someone who teaches us golf be the best in the world or be a perfect human being. Nor should we require that a teacher of consciousness have every aspect of their life in perfect harmony.

Indeed, it could be said that who you find as a teacher is not of great importance. More important than who you choose as a teacher is your hunger to learn, as well as your clarity as to what specifically you’d like to learn. The greatest spiritual master is of no use to someone who is distracted, full of excuses, or doesn’t know what they want. On the other hand, a truly sincere student can learn from practically anyone or any situation.

Many years ago, I led a spiritual group of 30 students who would watch movies that conveyed a powerful message. After they’d watch a movie, I’d have them write down what they learned from viewing the profound movie I had presented to them. During one week, I was going to be away, so I gave what I thought was the movie, Gandhi, to a friend to play for this group of people. Little did I know, but the actual movie in the DVD sleeve was the movie, Men in Black 2.

In case you haven’t seen it, Men in Black 2 was blasted by critics and audiences alike for being both stupid and boring. However, this group of people was conditioned to see the profound message within any movie I presented to them. Evidently, their intention to see something profound in Men in Black 2 overwhelmed the inanity of the actual movie. Virtually everyone wrote glowing reviews of what they had learned from this movie. One participant even reported, "Men in Black 2’s message has dramatically impacted how I see the world in a positive way. It was transformative."

The reason I tell you this funny story is because it shows how powerful an intention to learn can be in affecting how we view or experience something. If your hunger for inner peace or awakening is strong enough, daily life becomes a constant search for new insights that can aid in that journey. The lessons you gather may come from listening to the still, small voice within, or perhaps a traditional spiritual teacher or teaching. Yet, if your hunger is both potent and persistent, almost any book, person, or situation can be a catalyst for moving you forward on the spiritual path.

So, at this point, the question you may want to ask yourself is, What exactly do I seek? This question is really the foundation of a spiritual search, and it continues to be THE key question along the spiritual journey. Of course, what you seek may change over time. Early in my enlightenment project, my primary goal was to be less depressed. Eventually, that morphed into how to experience deep inner peace, love, and bliss. Nowadays, I seem to be focused on how I can be of greater service.

It’s hard to hit a target if you don’t know what that target is. I learned this lesson back in college when my roommate, Tony, challenged me to a one-on-one basketball game. Tony was on the varsity basketball team, so such a game was likely to be a slaughter. Yet, I said to Tony, I’ll play you a game of one-on-one as long as I get to bring out a one-ounce gadget and place it anywhere on the court. Somewhat perplexed, Tony agreed to my terms.

When at the court, I took out my one-ounce gadget, which was a blindfold, and strategically placed it over Tony’s eyes. Then I announced, Let the game begin. Admittedly, it was still somewhat close! Yet, I managed to beat one of the best basketball players in Los Angeles because I knew where to aim my efforts, and Tony did not. This lesson taught me that, when pursuing any goal, knowing your exact target is more important than how much talent or skill you may have.

Once you have an idea of what you’re looking to learn or what you’re aiming for, finding an appropriate