12 steps to freedom

Freedom is to know what is going on within ourselves, so that we know why we do stuff. But freedom is a hard thing to do, and maybe that's why a lot of people use the word 'enlightenment' instead. But they are the same thing. Freedom is enlightenment. Enlightenment is freedom.

There are exceedingly many ways towards enlightenment. However, there are basic stuff that we all need to let go of. This 12-step guide is based in part on anapanasatti meditation, but almost entirely without any reference to spirituality.

The 12 steps consists of 3 levels with 4 steps in each. First level is about the getting your body to stay silent for longer periods of time.

Second level is about your emotional life and release yourself from the control that emotions have over your experience of life and the way you live it.

Third level is about the mind, and is the most subtle of them all. Can you make your mind stay silent?

How long will it take?
There's just no way of telling. You will know when you arrive at enlightenment, but until then, you'll probably realize quite often, that you need to go back to an earlier level or step.

For instance, even though you have complete bodily silence the experiences on level 2 (emotions) will probably cause your body to react. That is perfect, because any disturbance of your bodily silence is an indicator that tells you, that you've found some friction in your emotional life.

You can go through all 12 steps in one meditation, but it will probably not get you to enlightenment. That's ok though - just remember that you must practice every step until you're master it. And if you think that you master it already, do the step anyway, even for a short while, just to make sure.

How to meditate?
Basically, meditation is all about listening to what goes on inside of you. If you're a skeptical person who don't believe in spirituality, don't worry - this will not make you into a born again happy hippie. But it will bring you a much better balance in life, and just like you can become healthy and bodily balanced through training and eating right, meditation will bring your mind to stable ground and make it easy to keep it there; even when everyone else is panicking or stressing out.

A lot of guides about meditation recommends that you spend 20-30 minutes a day, every day on meditation. The truth is, you don't have to. They also recommend that you find a quiet spot and maybe play some 'spiritual' music. If that is good for you, go right ahead. But you probably don't need to.

Here's the only thing that you have to do, when meditating: You be quiet and pay attention to what's going on inside you. If you don't know how to do this, read this link (coming soon).

So, lets get started already. Here is a link to the first level.