*** Tantra And Enlightenment: Illumination-The Absolute Brightness of Being

Illumination—The Absolute Brightness of Being

We are Al Link and Pala Copeland. We have been practicing Tantric sacred sexuality since 1987 and teaching since 1997. Al had the enlightenment experience in January 2008 and within minutes made a direct transmission to Pala. This came after almost 40 years of spiritual seeking (Al) and over 20 years of following the Tantric spiritual path (Al and Pala together). Our mission is to help couples learn how to create love for a lifetime together, by instructing them in the arts of Tantric sacred sexuality, using their relationship as a spiritual practice. We refer to our unique spiritual path as Enlightenment for Two™.

We have demonstrated that sacred sexuality can be a path to enlightenment, but not in the usual sense of cause and effect. Tantric sacred sexuality does not cause enlightenment, but it can lead directly to the illumination experience returning you to the enlightened state. Without any question Enlightenment for Two™ is attainable by ordinary people (Pala and I are ordinary people), and the practices leading to it include Tantric sacred sexuality.

Enlightenment means “to light within.” You could not possibly find enlightenment any other place but within yourself—enlightenment is simply remembering who you really are, the realization of your high Self. Trying to remember who you really are is your spiritual practice (whatever form that takes), and actually remembering who you really are is enlightenment. The moment of enlightenment is illumination—the absolute brightness of being. The light does not come in from outside of yourself. Light shines within you—you are light (consciousness, love). “…the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)

Remembering who you really are is a radical shift from “aware of” with senses, emotion and thought (a state of separation between the small self and the other—everything outside of your bag of skin), to “I AM.” I AM is “Knowledge Through Identity” as described by Franklin Merrill Wolfe. “I AM” is “THAT” which you are without beginning or end. In this illuminated awareness, all that you perceive, feel and think is not other than yourself, not something your separate self becomes aware of, but rather all that you perceive, feel and think is your high Self revealing itself to you. Meditating on this underlined sentence, and “getting it” is all that is needed to initiate the illumination opening to full enlightenment.

Spiritual practice does not cause enlightenment, although most typically enlightenment does follow after sustained spiritual practice, but this is not in any way the usual cause and effect. It is more like, the rooster crows and then the sun comes up. In fact nothing can cause enlightenment; there is no way to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the way, all ways, always. Enlightenment is everything. Enlightenment IS.

Any spiritual practice undertaken with love, humility, gratitude, intense desire and faith can cause the illumination. The illumination is the act of remembering who you really are, returning you to your enlightened state. The enlightened state is not brought into existence for the first time by this illumination, rather it is as if a veil is lifted and you are home, where you always were and always will be. You know yourself to be what you always were, but had forgotten.

Spiritual practice is most effective when it is a celebration with humility and gratitude to the possibility (held in consciousness as an act of faith) of God-consciousness. The lower cannot command the higher. Nevertheless, it is important, and for most a necessity, to select a spiritual practice, any spiritual practice, and follow that path with heart (don Juan’s instruction). A spiritual practice is only a method by which the lower self is assisted to remember the higher Self. A spiritual practice is anything that helps you remember who you really are.

You don’t realize enlightenment by escaping your life, but by living it fully. Your entire life becomes your spiritual path, and every action in your life becomes a prayer, a meditation, and a spiritual practice. In essence this is the Tantric spiritual path. You use your body as a vehicle for spiritual awakening. You do not try to deny your body or escape from it as if it were a prison.

Enlightenment for Two™, our Tantric spiritual path, is not difficult. In fact it may well be the simplest, most direct route leading to the moment of illumination available to human beings on the planet today.