How to deal with Zen Enlightenment by Write-At- Home

Things You'll Need:
•Nothing

Step 1
 The first thing you realize after you achieve Zen enlightenment is how stupid you seeemed to have been before you became awakened - that's because you realize you had been enlightened the whole time anyway,and you just didn't know it. But that's not a problem. It's just an observation, and you'll quickly come to terms with it.

Step 2
 The biggest problem many people discover after becoming enlightened is that most of the people who surround you in your every day life are still asleep, or not enlightened. It's like you're the only one who is not a walking zombie of some kind -- yet, all these sleeping zombies think YOU are the one who is lost of confused about life. It's like what Mr. Spock said in a "Star Trek" episode: "In a world of the insane, it is the sane man who would appear insane." Anyway, you should not try to wake these people up -- or you can if you want to - -either way is fine. Just make sure that you see what you are doing.

Step 3
 After enlightenment, a lot of things seem rather petty or ridiculous, such as your job. So, should you quit your job after you achieve enlightenment? This really has nothing to do with whether you are enlightened or not. If your job is petty and ridiculous, then just realize that fact, which you will anyway. You may decide to do some other, more meaningful job, or stay in your old petty job. Observe what you are doing, which ever way you choose to go.

Step 4
 If you were miderable before you were enlightened, even though you were already enlightened and didn't know it, and you find yourself still miserable, that's natural. To see that you are miserable is what it's all about. If you are miserable then be miserable. That's what being enlighted is all about -- if you are enlightened, you'll know that.

Step 5
 Most people who become enlighted have a spouse or significant other who remains unenlightened. This is no problem what-so-ever, and there is nothing you have to do to deal with the situation. Remember, your spouse is already enlightened, even if they don't know it. Your relationship with your spouse stays the same. You'll see that.

Step 6
 What about politics? What if you were a liberal at the time you became enlightened? You will still be a liberal, unless you decide to change. What if you were a conservative before you became enlightened? You will still be a conservative after enlightenment, and that won't change, unless you want it to. What if you were a moderate and dead in the center of the political spectrum when you achieved enlightenment? Guess what -- nothing has changed.

Step 7
 What if you continue to meditate after you achieve Zen enlightnement, and while you are meditating, a golden ball of energy floats into your meditation room, and the golden ball of energy declares that is it "a god" with important information for you? What should you do? Just listen to what "the god" tells you and weigh that information in the same way that you would weigh any other information. It's not a big deal.

Step 8
 After enlightenment, some people become worried that they will become megalomaniacs and think they are "God" but, in fact, this has nothing in particular to do with being enlightened, or not being enlightened. If you come to believe that you may be "God" after enightenment, you may choose to seek pychiatric care, or not. It depends on how much trouble it causes you. But even if it causes you trouble to believe you are "God" then you just deal with it in the way you choose to.

Step 9
 Some people also worry that after awakening to Zen enightenment, they'll fall back asleep and lose their enlightenment. However, this hardly matters because everyone is enlightended all the time whether they know it or not. After you achieve enlightenment, you realize how incredibly and radically easy it was to do so. Thus, even if you slip back into your old way of looking at your existence, it will be fantastically easy to awaken again. In fact, you may decide to fall back out of enlightenment anyway, just for the fun of it. It's okay, because you can come back any time.

Step 10
 What if you feel cheated and bitter after realizing that Zen enlightenment is nothing much at all? Well, that's natural. A lot of us feel stupid sometimes about lame things we used to think or did. If you feel cheated, that's not good or bad, it's just feeling cheated. You may also feel just great about being enlightened. That's fine, too.

Written By Write-at-home
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