Spiritual Enlightenment; The Damndest Thing by Jed McKenna - Book Review

Jed McKenna claims to be enlightened; this is what he says in Spiritual Enlightenment; the damndest thing. I don't know if that is true or not but what I do know is that he has some interesting ideas to share. In this book he said some things that challenged some of my own beliefs and opinions. What really surprised me was that by the end of the book some of my ideas and opinions had changed. Not because I believe that Jed McKenna is some higher spiritual being, I don't really care about this, but because what he said felt convincing; you know that feeling when you read something and you just know it's true.

Who is Jed McKenna?

Jed McKenna is not like your usual enlightened guru; he does not claim to be any type of higher being or to even be holy. He just claims to have realized some truths about the reality of the universe. In fact his real name isn't even Jed McKenna; he writes the books anonymously although there is quite a bit of speculation about the real man behind the books. Unlike any other guru he does not claim that becoming enlightened is such a great thing; in fact he ponders if being caught up in the world may even be preferable. He points to a reality in the universe that most people may not want to hear; there is no self. Nothing new there really; the Buddha said the same thing almost 2,600 years ago.

Jed McKenna is not an atheist but dismisses all religions and philosophies as being practically worthless; people can only find out the truth for themselves. He agrees that all belief systems can be used as a path to enlightenment but that the truth inside them is too obscured for most people to grasp; any philosophy that promotes the idea of a self goes against the realizations spoken of in Spiritual Enlightenment; the damndest thing. Many of his ideas seem to be close to Buddhism but he is as equally dismissive of this as every other belief system. He really does believe that if you see the Buddha on your path you should kill him. He does acknowledge though that the practice of real Zen will take you long way on the journey to enlightenment, but eventually even Buddhism needs to be ditched in order to continue the journey. Mr. McKenna believes that all belief systems should be open to far more scrutiny and that they should be judged on the number of enlightened beings they produce.

Review of Spiritual Enlightenment; the Damndest Thing

The thing that I most took from this book is the idea that there is nothing wrong with us and that the big answers just aren't really there to be found. Life is entertainment that is best enjoyed if you don't ask too many questions and try too hard to find out how it all works. Once you know how a movie is put together then it sort of ruins the enjoyment; the same with life. Jed McKenna believes that self is an illusion and that we are all just characters in poorly acted soap opera. We can have the truth about reality or we can just continue as we are; ultimately it doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

Jed McKenna may be a huge fraud but I don't think that really matters so much; at least not to me. What I don't doubt is that there is a lot of wisdom in his words. I have my own philosophies which I use as tools to make life that bit more enjoyable; this book has reminded me that ultimately all they are is tools and not the truth.