[A friend] was talking about Maharishi being fully
enlightened, and thus finished with Karma - thus not having to come back to
this plane. It does sound as though he was/is an exceptional and fun being.

We talked again about the three levels of Karma - instant, emerging later in
this lifetime, and the repercussions for a future life. And inevitable.
I get that, and, although I have no idea what, I feel there is yet another
level. There is something even 'bigger' than that.

While I was attempting to explain to him what I was experiencing, it was as
though 'something/somebody' took over. My eyes were streaming with tears.
I looked down, and it was as though 'they' were looking 'down' to us and
saying, very, very gently, and lovingly, that this time is over. We have to
start realising that everybody, every creature, and everything is equal, and
thus 'sacred.' We must wake up and start treating everybody, every creature,
and everything with respect. That was the overwhelming sensation - respect.

I am not saying I 'know' this, this is where I seem to have got to so far.

When a being is 'enlightened' they have woken up to a certain level of
realisation - and thus are no longer subject to the 'laws' of cause and
effect - karma. They do not accumulate further karma/consequences, and thus
do not have to return to this plane of consciousness.

But although they are now free of the circle of life and death, the body is
still subject to the results of past events.
This may be why when the body of a being who is accepted as enlightened gets
ill, the being does not cure it, but just lets the phenomenon play out -
often resulting in what we call death.

And at another level, there are reports of enlightened beings who's bodies
do not decompose after death. They have reached such a state of purity that
the usual cycle of such events do not effect the body.

At another level it is said that there are beings who reach such a state of
purity that the body does not die - but dissolves - what might be called
ascension. There is such total acceptance, that all the 'individual'
'life-trons' that come together to form the body also dissolve into 'where
they have come from.'

Then, other beings who dissolve into what we call formlessness, who, through
a subtle level of desire to assist other humans, retain the capability of
taking physical form.

I met a South African woman who was living in seclusion in South-West
Australia. She said when she read of such beings in the volumes of "Masters
of the Himalayas' she decided to go and meet them. It took nine years of
tests, frustrations, and eventually resolve to let things be as they are,
before she met them. The purity of her 'desire' formed the energy for them
to manifest into a form that we call human.

Then, a state totally beyond any desire in any form -
and dissolving back into the unformed.

Can you imagine? When even a glimpse of this process is experienced -
through a Satori, or near death experience, the importance given to 'worldly
events' - pride, jealousy, fame, possessions, revenge, resentments,
malicious gossip, being seen and accepted for 'who we are' - all that
becomes just amusing nonsense.

Those who 'attain' say the awakening is a gift, and, most often they have
devoted their lives to seeking what is beyond the mundane.

And, maybe, it is nothing like this at all! Maybe it is just the way we see
it, or, maybe, it is way, way beyond what even enlightened ones can imagine.
I suppose we will eventually find out - one way of another.

What I have come to is that awakening is more likely if life is lived,
unseriously, unconditionally, to the full.
Then, even if awakening does not happen -
it doesn't matter because you are having fun!

Happy funning...