up with many hares, you suddenly stop. And question why you are running so much. Then, you decide to stop running and carry on, but this time, you decide to walk. If you have seen the movie “Forrest Gump,” you’ll remember that moment of profound revelation. Suddenly, you no longer feel like running; not because you are tired, but rather because it is something you’ve done before, and you want to pass on to something new. You’ve had enough. You start to think that there needs to be another way to act in life.
When you are a runner and you stop running, you become something else.
When you are a coach and you stop setting objectives, you become something else.
When you are an entrepreneur and stop focusing on your own interests, you become something else.
That is how I changed my profession in a heartbeat. Many of my clients did not understand. What was I going to do now? I had abandoned them. I self-proclaimed myself as an objectiveless coach. Was I reneging coaching? No, in fact, I was taking it to another level. I wanted to achieve the same thing, even more, but from another disposition: pure consciousness.
Spiritual ambition consists in not settling with a retread ego.
Since I did not expect immediate understanding, I apologized and closed my coaching firm, which by the way filled my schedule with client appointments, and was a very lucrative source of income. I decided that, when everything was going great, it was the ideal moment to pass on to something else, or my own success would devour me.
Yes, my dear reader, I concluded that a good coach cannot have goals. I understood that everything was simpler and that, at most, I could set a single objective for myself. And what could be that single and unique objective that would substitute the avalanche of goals which I and my clients had pursued so strenuously? It did not take long for me to discover that unique objective.
One single thing. The only thing.
I understood that not having objectives is, in itself, an objective. So I would adopt “the objective of not having objectives,” that was it. That way, I could continue to coach, but now as “an inverted coach,” with the sole objective of not having objectives.
One has to be consistent with their principles, or run the risk of losing one’s self. To lose yourself kicks you out of the game.
How I reached that conclusion is unimportant, but the reading of Buddhist texts had an influence in the process. As you know, Buddhism extols the cessation of desire as a key point of its philosophy. But, is that not a desire in and of itself? Of course, I thought, Buddhists desire to not desire. That, right there, is an objective. They affect themselves to disaffection! And they reject aversion! Very contradictory, in my opinion. They also have desires.
Deep down, both them and us, all of us, are deeply confounded. But as I consider them wise, I decided to play along: my objective would be to live free of objectives. And become an “objectiveless enlightened coach.” Period.
You may be wondering: How do I practice having no objectives? I will give you a few hints:
By asking myself: What drives me to achieve it?
Accepting that I never know what is best for myself.
Giving all my steps to love, and letting Him guide me.
Not making decisions for my own benefit.
Not worrying about how the slumber ends.
Accepting that there are some dreams better than others, because they are all unreal.
Not playing my ego’s game.
Letting myself care little for what people think of me.
Let me share with you a most interesting fact:
As an enlightened coach, I was going to set for myself the sole objective of not having objectives. That, in our Western Civilization, is a very provocative paradoxical idea. But, since I have always been contrary to the norm, and I have done very well for myself, I destroyed one of my professional roles (as a coach) and let a new form of facing the search for success kick in, without setting so many objectives. Every time I reached a milestone, I reinvented to reach the next one without falling asleep in the laurels of self-complacency. The best way to succeed more is to question success itself.
I insist that being an “objectiveless coach” requires a lot of vigilance, discipline, and work, so as to not fall into self-complacency and laziness. It is not about letting go of yourself, but rather committing to your “real self.” If humanity had the internal discipline to recognize itself on a daily basis, this book would be completely unnecessary.
Do not forget: we are trained to live in collective hypnosis, believing that happiness depends on achieving something on our own. We have been instructed in the culture of doing, not in the culture of being.
There is something better to “do and achieve,” and it requires that we “be and achieve.”
In that new stadium of leit motiv consciousness, chasing objectives is replaced by being the objective. In the end, you discover that being is enough to have all doors open to achieve what you most desire. Minimum consciousness, minimum results; maximum consciousness, maximum results.
So now, my dear reader, my only objective is to stay awake and not fall back into the slumber that decrees that I have to achieve something on my own, because that will improve my life. I recognize that this lucidity requires much more of me than achieving goals.
Now, the challenge is to achieve everything by doing nothing.
6
LOW-COST ENLIGHTENMENT
My dream is to make enlightenment less of a divine idea, and bring it down to nearer to the ground.
Perhaps some will be upset because I use the term “enlightenment” frivolously, and maybe they are partly right in their reaction. But realize that it is another notion inside an intricate maze of concepts sustained by words that seek to apprehend reality. Something that twice distances us from reality: concepts and words.
Take note that the notion of using “enlightenment” with reverence supposes marking distances and creating separation, perhaps for not feeling as deserving of that condition.
Much has been written about enlightenment, and I am perhaps the least appropriate author to make new contributions to the subject. I am not a mystic, an ascetic, nor a guru... I am simply an author who wishes to propose within his books a very personal vision of life. With this “low-cost enlightenment manual,” I seek to guide you towards the doors of your awakening. If you have a simple insight, I will be pleased. Enlightenment is a recognition, it is neither a change nor an achievement.
“Premium Enlightenment,” consisting in being awake 100% of the time, is something that I will discuss in a future book (if I ever get to experience that state of continuous alertness first hand); even though I intuit that such a level of vibration may be a threat for the physical body, that it could not be stabilized for long, and that it would run the undeniable risk of short-circuit.
So let us leave that aside for the time being. For now, we will focus on “low-cost enlightenment” (plainly “enlightenment,” from here on), which consists of brief and spaced insights of transitory lucidity.
Premium Enlightenment: limitless lucidity.
Low-cost Enlightenment: instants of lucidity.
Therein the use of the term “low-cost,” as insight, epiphany or momentary revelation. And do not worry about the brevity of its duration: although you may awaken only for a nanosecond, and then return to slumber, rest assured that you