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“When the mind is somber, broad daylight gives birth to demons and evil spirits. When the mind is clear, a dark room has its blue sky. That which is self-concious and ulterior is far from the Truth. That which is Mindless, is near.” - Taoist poem.

There’s a common saying in Zen that says after Satori (Enlightenment, there sits the ordinary old man.

Something extraordinary happens through Enlightenment, but nothing at all. Vedanta — the philosophy Buddhism originates from — translates to “the end of knowledge.”

If Enlightenment is the end of knowledge, the end of struggles and the end of suffering, what is left in life? What is there left to do after the struggle is gone? After all, isn’t part of the beauty of life the struggle, the tears, the heartache and finding healing and peace through it all?

If there’s nothing left to do, if there’s nothing left to strive for, what’s the point of living? What’s the point of living when life itself has no point? What’s the point if the game of life isn’t worth playing?

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Okay, to say I’m excited would be a huge understatement. I just finished an exclusive interview with Seamus from RebelZen.com.

A few of the things I talk about include:

• Why your integrity and following your natural rhythms is vastly more important than any bulletproof productivity system.
• Talking shop with God and why it’s OKAY to admit that you’re Enlightened.
• Why writing “list post” personal development articles is on the endangered list and how to use lists properly (without selling your soul).
• The future of Illuminated Mind and how I’m trying to liberate my life and quit my day job

Okay, enough hype. Go here to check out the interview:

Liberation and DIY Enlightenment Interview at Rebel Zen with Jonathan Mead

I would be sincerely grateful for your thoughts and comments. I also highly recommend checking out the articles on Rebel Zen. I see great things in the future for this blog.

Stay tuned for tomorrow where I’ll be talking about what the point of life is after total enlightenment (there’s a point?!).

For more insider, top secret stuff subscribe now to Illuminated Mind.

Each day we fight institutions, advertisers, and social norms for the ownership of our minds. Most of us live our lives with partially free minds. We’ll claim our freedom as long as our comfort zone is not violated. We rebel when the risk is minimal.

To ensure the freedom of your mind, here are 7 rules to help guide you. If you feel like any of these don’t apply to you, please break them.

1. Don’t be a tool.

Conformity and social acceptability is the natural enemy of the free mind.

We live our lives based on templates of what we think we should do. We take jobs we don’t want because they make us feel important (even though they make us hate our lives). We try to fit a role based on society and other peoples expectations. The only way to reclaim the freedom of your mind is to stop living your life by a template and pave your own way.

Most people defer the ownership of their minds simply because they are afraid to be different. They’re afraid of being noticed and they’re afraid of what people will think about them. The only person’s opinion you should care about is your own. Everyone else is secondary.

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People spend vast amounts of time (and sometimes their whole life) wrestling with their minds, trying to figure out if their dreams are practical or ridiculous. Eventually most people give up, because they simply couldn’t make a decision.

The single biggest reason for unaccomplished goals and unfulfilled dreams, is the lack of ability to make a serious commitment. How many times in your life have you not done what you wanted to do, simply because you couldn’t make up your mind?

Putting yourself on auto-response (which I will explain in a minute) is about finding the means to silence your practical mind’s constant decision weighing and follow your heart, no matter how terrifying it may seem.

Most people know what their ideal life would look like. Most people know what they want and how the life of their dreams would look, feel and taste.

So if everyone knows what they want, what stops people from achieving their dreams? What could possibly stop them from leaving a dead end job and dropping unwanted commitments? It’s not that they don’t know what they want, they just don’t know how to get there.

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