If you're an avid student of New Age spirituality, you will
doubtless have come across the notion that you are "already
enlightened", but you just don't know it?…
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Well, I'm here to give you a wake up call. Sorry, but it isn't
true. The fact of the matter is that despite what your favorite
famous New Age guru may tell you, I'm not enlightened and, based
on the laws of probability, neither are you.
Now, if I just rained on your parade, or otherwise ruined your
day by telling you that, I apologize. However, the truth is
always better than some made-up fantasy.
Think about it for a moment…
If it was really this easy, then what have all the Buddhist monks
throughout countless millennia been wasting their time doing?
Why are they giving up their worldly careers, their homes, their
families, and secluding themselves in a life of constant
self-examination; studying endless scriptures, meditating for
many hours a day? Why would there even BE a Buddha in the first
place, if it was just as easy as reading the latest $9 self-help
book from the latest reformed drug/alcohol addict
psychotherapeutic self-help spiritual author?
Sorry. Enlightenment just doesn't just come for the asking. I'm
going with the Dalai Lama on this one when he says meditating for
20 minutes a day during teabreaks won't cut it, and that
achieving Enlightenment is a DIFFICULT thing that takes constant
mindful effort. I'm going with Dick Sutphen who says that
although he's met just about everybody in the spiritual self-help
movement, he hasn't met a single person whom he would call
enlightened.
So how could people get it so wrong? How could we have been
persuaded that Enlightenment is so "easy"? There are several
levels to this.
The first is that people always want the quick and easy answer,
and they will flock to anyone who will give it to them. This is a
well known psychological fact in Copywriting and Marketing.
Skilled advertisers exploit it all the time. Use words like
"quickly" and "easily" and it will increase sales. Guaranteed.
People in America in particular, and throughout the Western world
in general, always want the "magic pill". They want to be
writers, but they really don't want to do the hard work of
actually writing: they want to "have written". When it comes to
Enlightenment, they don't want the hard work and effort
necessary. They want the latest magic pill.
But hey! I've got something even better for you. Guess what? You
don't even have to take the pill. You're "already enlightened",
but you just don't know it yet!
The second aspect to this confusion is that it IS actually true
that the seed of Enlightenment dwells within us all. It just
needs constant watering to bring it to full fruition. If this
were not so, then Enlightenment would have to be something
totally "other" than us: something that invades us one day from
the outside and takes over. However, it isn't. It is within us in
dormant form and is our very nature. It is the task of Buddhism
and other profound spiritual systems to progressively clear away
the debris of ignorance, wrong thinking, and wrong living that
keeps it from blooming fully within us.
That is certainly true. However, from a practical standpoint, it
is completely useless to know this merely intellectually. The key
is to make this come alive, and THAT takes work. It may be the
work of a lifetime and, more likely, many lifetimes. Buddhism
teaches that many Buddhas made the vow to achieve Enlightenment
countless MILLIONS of lifetimes before they actually achieved it!
Hence, to mistake the essence of Enlightenment, which we all
possess within ourselves, as being equal to full Enlightenment is
a very big mistake indeed. The human body is about 75% water,
but just try drinking your mother's cheek instead of kissing it.
Matter is 99.9999% empty space, but just try walking THROUGH your
front door instead of opening it first!
It's the same with Enlightenment. It may be your very essence,
but it is useless to merely know this superficially. Facts may be
facts. However, an intellectual truth is not the same as the
practical realization of that truth. Similarly, the essence of
Enlightenment may live deep down within you, obscured by
ignorance and delusion. However, just because that is the case,
it is still a huge error to then claim that you are "already
enlightened".
So why do many of the leading New Age spiritual teachers maintain
this position? Well, there is an amazing superficiality in the
West, and this sort of philosophy caters to it. Indeed, it is
actually another example of it. People don't want to have to give
up anything. They don't want to make any sacrifices. They don't
want to hear about hard work. They want to have their cake AND
eat it. They want to "have it all". They want to be "already
enlightened", and just "not know it". How lovely!
If you tell them it's easy, you will get rich and successful. If
you tell them it's hard, you won't. Does that sound cynical?
Maybe it is. But just imagine the cynicism of telling people the
job is already done, when it has not even begun! It seems that
the Buddha really did not have to leave his royal palace and
spend years in hardship seeking the truth, as well as countless
days and nights under the Bodhi tree in the depths of meditation.
He could have just remained in his palace, enjoying himself, and
read a $10 self-help book by a johnny-come-lately author. Then he
could "have it all".
We are all so easily deceived in the West, because there is such
an enormous spiritual void. People want fast and easy answers;
spiritual "fast food". They want to be told what they already
want to hear, and there is no shortage of people prepared to do
just that.
By a Darwinian selection process, these people rise to the top of
the self-help market because they are giving it what it wants to
hear. The people who are perhaps more realistic about
Enlightenment, and what it takes, are rather less popular. Their
books go out of print due to lack of demand, or get filed under
"Buddhism", or else you'll find them tucked away and gathering
dust at the back of the shop, at the bottom of a pile of equally
unpopular items.
The fact is that if you wish to make progress at anything,
spirituality included, you're going to have to do something
highly unpopular…
You're going to have to WORK at it and keep working at it. You're
going to have to make some hard choices about how you spend your
time, and your life. You're going to have to get SERIOUS. And
when I say "you", I am talking about me too.
But if you think you're "already enlightened" and there's nothing
more to do, good luck! Enjoy yourself. Chances are though that
next time around….
You'll be reborn as a bed bug!
Copyright Asoka Selvarajah 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Asoka Selvarajah is a writer on personal growth and spirituality, and the author of "The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your Higher Self". His work helps people achieve their full potential, deepen their understanding of mystical truth, and discover their soul's purpose. You can subscribe to his FREE ezine, and get his FREE ebook "Inner Light Outer Wealth" at:
http://www.aksworld.com/AspireToWisdom.htm?imk=Blog
You have permission to reproduce this article in your ezine, website or offline publication as long as you do so in its entirety, and include both the copyright notice and the resource box at the bottom.
Filed under General, Metaphysical, News, Personal Growth by 
One of the key ways for a person to make a lot of money is
through creating and selling information products to targeted
markets. The explosion of courses and books showing people how to
solve a myriad problems proves that this is truly the information
age. Moreover, the demand for such products will only increase.
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The problem is simply this. How do you actually create an
information product? There are essentially three main ways: (1)
You write it yourself from scratch, (2) you have someone else
write it for you (also known as Ghostwriting), or (3) you use
existing copyright-free public domain materials. It is the latter
option that we will discuss here.
There are very strong reasons for going down the public domain
route. For a start, there are excellent materials available.
Other people have taken the time and effort to research and write
on a specific subject, and now you can avail yourself of this
material for free.
By public domain, we mean material that is available for anyone
to use. Some material is placed deliberately into the public
domain. An example would be much of the educational material
produced by the US government. However, some material enters the
public domain for other specific reasons. In general, there are 4
classes of public domain material:
1) Generic information, e.g. facts, numbers, ideas, titles, etc.
Not of much use to you from a product creation standpoint!
2) Materials deliberately placed in the public domain. Certain
musicians have place their work in the public domain. P.T.
Barnum's autobiography was placed in the public domain.
3) Many works by the US government and its subsidiaries. All
Federal works are public domain.
4) Previously coprighted works that have fallen into the public
domain. THIS is the major area of interest (although you can also
use a lot of material from the government too).
An excellent example of how a public domain work has been used to
create great riches in the modern day would be Wallace D.
Wattles' "The Science Of Getting Rich". Success coach Bob Proctor
has created an enormous course, complete with audio cassettes and
workbook around this material. It sells for 495 dollars. Online,
there are many different people offering a course based on this
book, in one form or another. You could do so too.
However, the field is much wider than this. There is public
domain material available on almost every conceivable subject,
from numerology to flower-arranging, from cats to stock trading.
There are many variations of what you can do with public domain
material. You can simply offer it in book form, just as it is.
You could modify it, by adding new material you wrote yourself,
and then copyright the new composite work. You can record the
material into audio format, and then sell it as an audio
cassette/CD course. You could even make videos of the material,
or give a live seminar based around it.
The possibilities are endless, and the profits are potentially
enormous. The key issues, however, are to (a) find the public
domain material in the first place, (b) establish that the
material really IS public domain and that you are not enfringing
anyone's copyright,, and (c) create a saleable product to an
interested target market that has money to spen and a desire to
spend it.
Previously, (a) was a big issue as there was a great mystery as
to where this public domain material was hiding. However, with
the advent of the online world, much of it is easy to find. Try
typing the phrase "public domain" into a search engine. This
alone will reveal a lot of material that you can use.
Establishing the legal side is important in order to prevent
yourself from falling into serious trouble later on. Fortunately,
there are specialized legal firms who can, for a relatively small
fee, perform a copyright search for you and establish if a
specific work really IS public domain or not.
Finding a market for your product remains one of the most
important matters of all. Before even embarking on creating your
product, you need to do sufficient research to ensure that there
is an easily locatable target money, keen on your information,
and with money to spend on it. An example of such a market would
be golfers. A bad market for infoproducts would be unemployed
broke people. Sure, there are plenty of them. However, they don't
have any money to buy any products you come up with. No, not even
a book on how to get out of debt!
Overall, if you wish to make money through helping people,
information products are an excellent way. If you don't wish to
create it yourself, then public domain is definitely a
recommended route. The work is already written – often very well
written – and all you have to do is adapt it to the modern world,
and market it in a creative way.
Copyright 2005. Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved.
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Resources That Can Help:
Yanik Silver offers an excellent resource on the subject of
creating and profiting from Public Domain material. if you are
interested in learning more, you should sign up for his material
at:
Filed under General, News, Personal Growth by
Further to my earlier article on this blog about public domain information product creation, here are some common questions answered on the subject:
(1) Are there any restrictions to my use of public domain
material?
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Not really. You can use it pretty well any way you wish. I guess
it's stretching the boundary to put your own name onto material
that someone else wrote, but pretty well everything else is fair
game.
The key though is to make sure that it really IS public domain.
Otherwise, you will eventually run into trouble. An excellent
resource that discusses all aspects of public domain product
creation is:
http://www.innercirclesecrets.com/PDCourse.htm
(2) Can I really make mòney with public domain material?
Well, that depends on you. I don't know you, so I really can't
say. Maybe you will and maybe you won't.
All I can say is that there are many people who have been
extremely successful at doing it. Bob Proctor sells a course
based upon "The Science Of Getting Rich" which is priced at
$497, and he also runs a live seminar based on the material. Matt
Furey makes huge money from his Farmer Burns wrestling video
course, priced at $597, all based on a public domain book!
If you look hard enough, you can find material that you can turn
into a salable course. The only limitation to being successful
at it is your imagination, plus the willingness to do some hard
work.
(3) Where can you get Public Domain material?
Many places. With the advent of the internet, you can now visit
several different sites online and find valuable public domain
works, all without ever leaving the comfort of your armchair.
Many can be downloaded. In other cases, you can buy a copy of the
original book, and have the pages transferred to digital format.
Yanik Silver is a major expert on public domain. He reveals
dozens of websites that already house public domain music,
images, video, writings and more. Plus, he gives you links to
multiple government web sites with high-quality public domain
information on them that you can grab right away…
http://www.innercirclesecrets.com/PDCourse.htm
(4) How do I check that a work I think is public domain, really
is? I don't want to get into any trouble!
If you are in doubt, you have a legal specialist do a copyright
search on the work in question. There are many such legal firms
dealing with this kind of work. In Yanik Silver's public domain
material, he recommends one who does the job for a very cheap
price.
The bottom line is that it's straightforward to get the work
checked and have yourself legally covered.
(5) How do I get started?
My recommendation is that you invest in Yanik Silver's Public
Domain course. He has two, but the smaller one should be what you
need to get you started. If you then find that this is a
direction you want to pursue further, then you can invest in his
large course (I have both and can assure you that they are both
excellent). You can find full details of Yanik's public domain
course at:
http://www.innercirclesecrets.com/PDCourse.htm
Regards,
Asoka Selvarajah
Filed under General, News, Personal Growth by
