You’ve probably heard of the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”, a science fiction epic by Stanley Kubrick that begins with the evolution of the man-ape and ends with an acid trip in outer space. But have you heard of the book? I had it recommended to me by a friend, and reading it had some rather unforeseen consequenses. You know how many spiritual gurus talk about how we are something bigger than this body and mind we normally refer to us “me”? This “something bigger” is often called things like Higher Self, Brahman or God, and the goal of many spiritual students, including myself, is to let go of the false identification with the body/mind and realize that you are this “something bigger”.

Well, the book goes into this big time. The ending, which is mostly a lot of colors in the movie, is among the most mind-blowing fiction I’ve ever read. Afterwards, I felt I understood so much more of what is meant by all this talk about God/Spirit/Higher Self. I also realized, or began to realize, that the only thing keeping us from the experience of God (I’m going to use the word “God” for this from now on), is the ideas, theories and thoughts we project on the world. If we would just be still and listen even for a second, we would hear the sound of God.

It’s like a conversation between two people, where one of them is going “BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH”, and the other waits, patiently and lovingly, for his turn to speak. Spiritual Enlightenment is shutting up for a moment, and actually listening to what God has to say.

And so that is what I did, or attempted, the night I finished “2001: A Space Odyssey”. I closed my eyes, and stared, but not for anything visual. I listened, but not for sounds. I waited. And there it was.

Or at least a tiny glimpse, because pretty soon the mind went right back to “BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH” again, and so I kind of fell in and out of it for a minute, and then returned to the world of body/mind.

And this is when you wait for a description of this “something bigger”, and I give you the same answer as all those spiritual gurus: it’s undescribable. It’s beyond the minds ability for comprehension. It simply is.

So, thank you, Universe, for this first little glimpse of your greatness. I’m really looking forward to whatever follows. If you’d like to check out “2001: A Space Odyssey” for yourself, I recommend this version, but remember that this is not a complete guide to experiencing the first taste of Spiritual Enlightenment. Probably more important, was the understanding I had gathered from people like Ariel Bravy and the previous lessons learned in life. What the novel did, was tie it all together, adding the incredible imagination and storytelling of Arthur C. Clarke, to really get the point across.

I wish you all a super-exciting 2009!

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