In The Flow With Lauri Albert: What Exactly Is Enlightenment?

What exactly is enlightenment and why do you want it? Let's meditate and figure it out together!

Today's mantra/ chant is 'Om Mani Padme Hum' and it couldn't be more appropriate! In simple terms it means "The jewel is in the lotus." The Dalai Lama describes this as a most powerful mantra, and when we consider that lotus flowers firmly root themselves in mud, we realize how much that translates to our own lives. We are the beauty that comes out of all of our experiences - great and challenging.

Transcript

So good morning everybody.

My name is Lori Albert and I am in such a beautiful mood today.

You guys know I love to meditate and you guys know that I am just into all things spiritual,

Right?

I want to try something new today but I'll get to that I guess in a minute.

I am filled with so much love this morning.

I can't even begin to tell you.

I just feel,

I feel like love.

I feel like I love the world.

It's just amazing.

Isn't it amazing?

Isn't it beautiful when you wake up in the morning and you think and your first thought is,

Oh my gosh,

Love,

You know?

Ah,

Love that.

So today what I want to talk about,

I'm gonna get right into it because it's a lot to unpack in a very short period of time because you know we do this very shortly,

Right?

And I may do something longer at some point.

So I was asking my guides what I should talk about today or whatever and isn't it interesting if you really let go and trust God,

Spirit,

Universe,

Whatever you want to call it,

That the answer is calm,

Right?

So yesterday I was,

You know,

I am taking a currently taking a course with Krishna Das and he talks a lot about,

You know,

His experiences with Ram Dass and these other gurus,

Right?

And so I was thinking yesterday,

What exactly is enlightenment?

Because that's like a term that's thrown around a lot,

You know?

So I was like,

What is enlightenment?

So I actually did like a ton of research.

I mean,

We think we know what enlightenment is,

Right?

But do we really?

Like what is enlightenment and why do we want it so bad?

Like what,

Why?

What about it is so important that we should all strive for it,

Right?

So what I came up with,

You know,

In terms of it,

Keeping it simple,

In trying to keep it simple,

Enlightenment is really a purification of your mind.

And when I say purification,

I mean,

It's,

It's like getting rid of all the fear,

All the doubt,

All the jealousy,

All the anxiety,

Getting rid of everything and just having a pure mind,

Which is impossible to do it,

You know,

In a sense,

It's like,

Kind of impossible to do.

And,

You know,

Even Buddha tried,

He worked really hard for his enlightenment,

You know?

So,

Um,

I found a quote that I wanted to share,

And this is like such a serious teaching.

And this is the Dalai Lama.

And this is what he said.

There is only one important point you must keep in your mind and let it be your guide.

No matter what people call you,

You are just who you are.

Keep to this truth.

You must ask yourself,

How is it you want to live your life?

We live and we die.

This is the truth that we can only face alone.

No one can help us,

Not even the Buddha.

So consider carefully what prevents you from living the way you want to live your life.

Wow.

And again,

That's like a big thing to take in quickly like this,

Right?

But we have to figure out what it is that we want in our life.

Do we want enlightenment?

What is,

What really is going to take for us to get there?

In this society today,

Can we,

Is it even possible to gain enlightenment?

I don't know.

We have to figure out what we want for our lives.

And that's the beautiful part.

And,

You know,

This quarantine has really had me really thinking about that.

What is it that I really want for my life?

Do you know for you?

It's very,

It's a very strong and powerful topic,

Right?

So today I'm going to do something a little bit different.

You guys know I love to chant,

Right?

I love,

I just love the sing-songy sort of nature to it because obviously I'm a musician.

So,

You know,

That makes me,

It interests me,

Right?

Today what we're gonna do is we're going to chant.

Now here's the thing before you get all like,

Oh my god,

What are we doing?

What's that?

You know,

Before you get all like worked up about it,

You can do it in your head.

If you're worried that people are gonna hear you or whatever,

You can do it in your head,

Right?

Or you can do it out loud.

In a better way,

In a better idea,

You can do it out loud.

And what we,

What I chose today,

And I was actually told to do this,

I got absolute confirmation that this was what I was supposed to do this morning.

Isn't it amazing?

Like I said before,

When you like let go and allow spirit to just be and you let it,

You let spirit take over your life,

It's amazing,

Right?

Okay,

So the mantra that we are going to chant today is,

I'm gonna actually,

I'm gonna sing it as I'm saying it.

It's a very famous one.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Okay,

And what that is,

Is Om Mani Padme Hum.

I hope you guys can understand that.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

And what that means is,

The actual literal translation of it is,

The jewel is in the lotus.

And ironically,

We were talking about the lotus just yesterday,

Right?

I was talking about the lotus and about how it's such an incredibly beautiful flower,

But it,

Its roots are ingrained into the mud.

So the mud is what keeps it who it is,

Right?

So if we,

If we look at it in terms of that,

In terms of our own lives,

The mud and all of our experiences is what created who we are right now.

And that's why this particular mantra is so beautiful.

Because it,

We realize who we are,

Why we are.

It's because of our experiences and the mud that we have had to go through.

And how we came out on the other side.

Wow,

So powerful,

Right?

Okay,

So let's all get comfortable.

Let's all get comfortable.

Let's take a nice long,

Slow,

Deep breath in.

Breathe in.

And hold it and breathe out.

Beautiful.

Great job.

Let's get ourselves comfortable and relaxed.

And you don't need to worry about chanting or anything like that.

We don't need to worry about any of that,

Right?

So what we're doing is we're just doing another mantra.

And we're going to continually say it.

That's all it's going to be.

Let's let our eyes flick closed.

And just because I'm in such an amazingly great mood today,

Let's do this.

Let's figure out what are our three things that we're grateful for today.

Let's start our day off really right.

What are you grateful for?

I had such an uplifting conversation last night with somebody.

I'm so grateful for that.

I'm grateful that I got a really great night's sleep.

And I'm grateful for my spirit room and the joy that it's bringing me,

The peace that it's bringing me.

I could go on.

That's what we do.

We go on with our gratitude,

Right?

You can continue going on with that as long as possible,

As long as you'd like.

As we get ready to begin our chanting,

Let's take one one more thought as to who are we really?

Who are we?

If there was one word to describe you or two words to describe you when you are at your best,

Who are you?

That is the path to enlightenment.

To me,

That is the path.

So we are going to start the chant.

And we're not going to do it for very long.

I just want to get you guys acclimated to what chanting is and how beautiful it is.

And the words are Om Mani Padme Hum.

You can just join in anytime you feel comfortable.

And if you don't feel comfortable doing it,

You can just say the words in your head or sing it in your head.

It's absolutely okay.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Lives to live in the Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Ohm Mani Padme Hum Absolutely beautiful.

Let's start bringing our awareness back to our bodies.

Come back to wherever this mantra took you.

Let's take a nice long deep breath in.

Deep breath in through our nose and hold it and release.

And when you feel comfortable you can open your eyes.

Ohm Mani Padme Hum We are the lotus and the jewel is in the lotus.

We are the jewel.

How beautiful.

How absolutely beautiful.

So thank you for joining me today.

It was so much fun chanting with you.

You can continue that on all throughout the day.

It's a very famous chant if you want to look it up.

The Dalai Lama,

He said it's a very important chant.

And it doesn't matter what the sounds are.

This is what he says.

It doesn't matter what the sounds are.

It just matters that you keep doing it.

And you start to find that realization as to who you are.

So it's just beautiful.

Anyway,

Thank you for joining.

I love being here with you each and every day.

Namaste everybody.

Have a beautiful,

Wonderful day.