Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing

Author: Jed McKenna

       Reviewed by Theresa Welsh

The reviews for this book with the strange title are unusually enthusiastic. The publisher's website provides testimonials from people who think this Jed McKenna guy can really deliver the goods on Spiritual Enlightenment. So, being a lifelong seeker, I accepted an offer to receive a review copy. An attractive trade paperback book from Wisefool Press arrived at my house and I began reading.

Not Your Ordinary Guru
I was surprised to find myself reading the words of someone claiming to live in a house in rural Iowa along with an amazing woman named Sonaya who more of less manages things, and assorted hangers-on who are there searching for enlightenment. No guru in a turban. No ritualistic rites. No laundry list of beliefs. I also found that Jed is part of something called nondualism, which he mentions from time to time. The first-person narrative consists of Jed talking mainly about the people who come to him for help in getting enlightened. The conversations are his way of telling us, the readers, about enlightenment. These conversations happen in various parts of the house and grounds. Jed has a private bedroom with a luxurious bathroom, the house has a TV room where Jed watches the same stuff as the rest of us non-enlightened people, and he also amuses himself playing video games like Lara Croft. For real fun, Jed likes to jump out of airplanes.

Since he doesn't sound like any of the usual guru-types, how do we know that Jed is really enlightened? Because he says so. Over and over. Jed leaves us in no doubt that he is an enlightened human being. And just what does that mean? Well, that's the point of the book. As I read the pages of this book, I realized that for me, "seeking" has never been about enlightenment. In fact, after reading Jed's book, I'm pretty sure I don't want to be enlightened, as least not yet. Enlightened people have nothing left to seek. But that's not the worst part of it. The worst part of it is that they also haven't found any of the things I've been seeking.

So Just What is Enlightenment?
I want to know how the world was created, what the universe is really like, how human beings came to exist and why, and where we are all going when we shed our bodies. What is the point of our existence? It seems that to the enlightened, these questions no longer matter. The enlightened person sees no difference between himself and the universe. He has left behind the character that used to be himself. He is no longer playing the role of himself, so all the things that mattered to himself are just not important any more.

Jed makes plain that being enlightened is not the same thing as a spiritual (or peak) experience. He is ok with people having those experiences and even admits to having them himself, but, nice as they are, those experiences are not enlightenment. Enlightenment is much more boring. It is a state of being that once achieved does not go away. A spiritual high lasts a brief time and though it can be life-changing, it is not a state of being. It is not enlightenment. Jed feels that most people on a path to enlightenment go through the search for spiritual wisdom and many achieve a higher state of consciousness, but most do not take it further than that. And for good reason. Enlightenment comes at a price. You have to shed your most profound beliefs, give up the props that keep you going each day, and arrive at a place where "you" does not exist. You are no longer playing a role in the theater, and you are no longer even in the theater because the theater too is an illusion. This is not a happy thing, enlightenment.

Jed the Teacher - Is He Effective?
Does Jed get his message across? Yes, if you read the whole book, you do come to at least some understanding of what enlightenment really is. That is, if you accept the idea of enlightenment. And if you believe there really is a Jed McKenna. I kept wondering, as I read the words of this book, if I was being had. Is this book just a hoax, and there really is no Jed, no Sonaya cooking up veggies and rice in a rural farmhouse in Iowa? The whole scenario sounds so improbable, and in my unenlightened way, I kept wondering how Jed earned money, who paid the bills for the house? He says the seekers who come and stay there bring gifts, but the gifts he requests and gets are books or flowers. Hard to pay the gas bill with books and flowers.

I realize my objections just show that I wasn't concentrating on the main point, which is how to become enlightened. Jed does tell us a lot about enlightenment. So does it matter if the house and the characters are not real? After all, none of us is real. Our egos are an illusion and in a nondual way of seeing, we are all one. So fictional characters are as real -- or as non-real -- as us. Jed is clearly educated in Eastern mysticism and knows the jargon. It seems most of the seekers who come to him have been practicing Zen or something like it. The book has poetry sprinkled throughout, which I enjoyed and which often makes a point better than a narrative conversation. I especially like the Walt Whitman -- I had not realized he wrote such profound stuff. So, whatever the non-enlightened reality of the scenario Jed presents, he succeeds in teaching us after all.

I cannot say whether you should click over to amazon.com and buy this book or not. To quote an old saying, When the student is ready, the teacher appears. If you think you can learn from Jed, buy the book.

Go to the amazon.com page for Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing

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