Question: Did you continue to meditate after you were enlightened? Some people say that once you are enlightened, it’s over; it’s the end . . .
Linda: It’s never over – it never ends. After realisation, I saw that there was still residual past in me, and meditating and teaching accentuated that. I felt it. It would highlight anything that was there, and it gave me this desire to be even more pure. I didn’t feel completely honest sometimes sitting up there when there was still some impurity there, and I would express it at times. I just wanted to be completely pure – not for me, but for ‘this’. Before that, I was meditating for me. I wanted to feel OK. I thought I wanted something for me. And then when it happens you realise you haven’t been doing it for you. It’s for ‘this’- for humanity. So, after realisation the intention behind wanting to become more pure changes. But then you get to a point where you just have to accept, ‘I’m human’, and with that there is an even deeper realisation, an even deeper acceptance of everything.
So, this was a deeper stage of enlightenment, and it took 7 years for me to get to this stage. You have to come to terms with the absolute and the relative. And, that’s a huge thing. Then there’s a much deeper sense of ease, acceptance and union.
Question: Is this union with something else?
Linda: There’s nothing else. That’s what I realised. There’s nothing else. There’s just union. So, I’ve got no idea who I am and that’s fine. I accept that. I’m not thinking who I am; there’s no self-consciousness; there’s nothing happening, in a way, but there is. It’s impossible to describe, really . . .
Question: What about paths more geared toward self-inquiry where many say, e.g. it’s very yes-or no; you’re either enlightened or you’re not?
Linda: Well, in my experience, as I’ve just described, that wasn’t the case. There is this point that I would call enlightenment where the majority of the fear goes – maybe 99.9% of fear goes. For me, it was quite obvious that that was it. And at that time, no, I didn’t feel there was anything else. I just felt, ‘Wow, this is it.’ But now, I see a lot happens. It actually takes you a long time to come to terms with that. A lot more happens . . .
And there is this second stage, second realisation. I’ve had lots of deeper realisations, but what I’ve spent the last nine years doing, other than teaching, is absorbing more energy. I would still get surges of energy – really big surges of energy. And, I’d have a feeling like, ‘My God, this is huge, this whole thing.’ But, then it would just get bigger. And, this was post enlightenment. So, it wasn’t that it stopped – it kept going. And, it did take a fair bit of humility to accept that there was more to do. So, if you ever say, ‘No, this is it,’ you’re closing yourself and limiting yourself once again, on a different level. But, there definitely is more. I can say that without a doubt. And, I had periods where I was a bit arrogant about it and feel, ‘This is it, there’s nothing else’, but just as there is no beginning, there is no end. This is eternity.