This book is a manual for enlightenment.

You may ask, in what way is it a manual? Well, its main objective is mental training. While you read this book, you will be training towards a way of thinking completely different than the one the world has taught you to employ. Its result is, inevitably, enlightenment, because it will invite you to awaken from the dream in which humanity slumbers.

Far from being a procedural instrument, instructions, or guidelines, this work reveals the author’s experience as a consciousness coach. Its contents demand more practical proof than mental understanding, and more ability than intelligence. It is not a book to be wholly understood, but rather a tool to understand one’s self.

To me, an enlightened individual is the one who has learned to know their self. Period. It is that simple: an enlightened individual is a person that has awaken from the slumber of ego, and has, for the first time, recognized their own state of being. I have, in a single paragraph, described the essence of the book; I assure you and encourage, however, since I am certain that you would like to learn more, to please continue reading.

As you know, one light will light another light.

In my case, I was fortunate enough to embrace Amma Sri Mata Amritanan - damayi Devi, known throughout the world as Amma, or Mother, for her disinterested love and compassion towards all beings. Amma has dedicated her entire life to alleviate the pain of the poor, and the physically and emotionally disabled. This woman inspires and transforms with her bodily embrace (visit Embracing the World, her NGO).

Amma visited Barcelona several times; and once, when she was dispensing embraces to those who needed them (which she did for days, in a sporting arena filled to the brim with people), I was fortunate enough to receive my Darshan. To be hugged by Amma! Even though I held no expectations, nor felt any devotion for her, I must say that, in her arms, I could feel infinite love in the same instant in which our hearts were joined.

In her arms, I discovered non-space and non-time, as well as unconditional love. And the certainty that I had with her was that I would return that immeasurable emotion on the day that I leave this life; I felt that love was what would await me upon my passing, and that I wanted to feel that sensation again, because it was real, because it felt like home. Amma extinguished my sense of bewilderment outright. All of this happened in merely seconds (no further time was required).

And this absolute and instant certainty has accompanied me ever since. True story.

For two seconds I had been awake or enlightened.

Years before, I had felt something similar. One day, during my daily routines, I suddenly and spontaneously visualised a church confessional, which I entered. Instantly, I was surrounded by an inextinguishable, penetrating and loving light, without space or time, with intense warmth and brightness which, for the first time, made me feel what Love really was. Even though I experienced this ever so briefly, that unequivocal sensation of freedom from all limitations has always been with me.

Since then, I have felt very sure about myself, even at times of general uncertainty and change. It is something that stays with you forever. That certainty has allowed me to dare to try or face anything; because I know who walks beside me.

For another two seconds, I was again awake. Two plus two: a grand total of four seconds of enlightenment.

I assure you that this is more than enough to last a whole lifetime. Because it is not a matter of how long this enlightenment is, but rather about the eternal emotional footprint it marks in you.

That is how it happened, in my case. I unmasked my ego in my practice as a coach, which is why I titled this book “The Enlightened Coach.” However, what you will discover can be applied to anyone, whatever their livelihood or lifestyle.

This is not a book for coaches, consultants, or mentors... this is a book for anyone born on this planet who aspires to have a meaningful life. This book is for anyone who believes that there needs to be a path different that struggling for what you desire.

In my case, I went from wanting it all, the whole pack, to not wanting anything for myself. I will explain what this means further on. Before you pity me, or think that I have gone insane, I should clarify that I am quite happy, and have not fallen into disillusion or inactivity.

As a coach, I was prepared to help accomplish the wishes of other people. And mine too! It was fun to prove how far I could go using the coaching technique, because it works. In truth, I went very far. I got the kind of life that I wanted and, one by one, my dreams were being fulfilled.

But achieving it all seemed a little ambitious.

Please, do not misinterpret me. I did not feel greed, nor vanity, nor an outburst of pride... I simply perceived that such a career would be an endless one. I moved inside a wheel that never stopped, setting goals and achieving results endlessly. This could, surely, make any person happy, but it seemed to me of little importance. Because, apart from fulfilling my mundane desires, I really wanted to know who or what was the cause of those amazing results.

I was successful, but that was not enough: I needed to know what was behind those predictable miracles. I wanted to get inside the universal kitchen and know who was the cook of every course in front of me.

That is, truly, being ambitious.

I wanted to know the source of everything known; wake up from the slumber-nightmare; know how the horn of abundance functioned. Like Forrest Gump, that fictional character that suddenly, after questioning why he ran, stopped one day, I too searched for another way of materializing desire. It made no sense to do so many things, so much effort, so many plans, so many objectives, so much work, and so much ego.

Now I know I do not have to do anything.

But I have also arrived at one conclusion, a paradox: to afford the luxury of renouncing your desires, and even freeing yourself of them, you have to have proved to yourself that you can attain them! In other words: to transcend success, first you have to have had success.

It was at that moment that I decided to give all my wishes to Love, to the Presence which is the source of all things I sensed in myself. Hang on tight: I accepted that, in reality, I did not know what was best for me, and that I was wrong almost every single time I tried to guess. I achieved many goals, thanks to the fact that I mastered the science of success, but once I verified that I was able to attain what I desired, I had the conviction that there had to be something much better than making my wishes come true.

Yes, you have read correctly: there is something much better than achieving your desires.

My first step was consecrating all the deeds I did toward Love. My ego was cast aside, giving way to my “I Am.” I handed my future life to the Divinity, the Absolute, the Enlightened, the Being, the Real, to Love... My second step was to entrust my goals to the Presence, the One, the will of God. And that relaxed me: I no longer had to make decisions, it was simply a matter of following the internal guide of Love.

I starting delegating in God. It is something I can really recommend, for it is very liberating. From that day, I stopped running, like Gump (bottom line is, why so much running?). I abandoned conventional coaching and started the era of Supercoaching, “conscious coaching” or “enlightened coaching.”

To abbreviate, I will say that a series of changes in my life led me to think that I was awaking from a deep slumber. It had been, of course, in recent years, a beautiful dream; but that did not make it less of a fictitious dreamscape.

Let us understand: it was not that I did not want anything, since wanting nothing is already wanting something. I wanted one thing... only one: to wake up. To make this life truly worth living. To awaken and stay awake became my sole objective, and I continued to pursue it. It took a long time for me to acquire that mental clarity, and I was not willing to replace it with my ego’s newest yearning, so I gave that goal all my effort.

You hand your life to God, and God grants you life. What happens next is that you enter a state of Grace (I will speak of this further toward the end of the book), which provides everything you may need, and more. Door that previously remained shut are suddenly wide open, and opportunities you had never even dreamt of suddenly reveal themselves to you.

However, this does not imply that everything will happen, because you do not need for everything that goes through your head to happen; but everything that really matters does happen.

I became an “enlightened coach,” without base and personal desires, perhaps not able to attain more things, but certainly able to attain those I valued. Three great differences distanced me from my past self:

1. An immense inner peace, without conflicts, upon acknowledging that I was guided and accompanied by an inconceivable loving intelligence.
2. An immense relaxation and calmness, since I no longer needed to struggle at all, everything happened with ease.
3. An immense certainty and security, since I knew who or what walked beside me.

For this to happen, I first had to free myself from myself, and from my agenda. Thankfully, it was not something hard to give up, nor an elevated price to pay, compared with the reward.

I am conscious that you cannot ask an urbanite to lead the life of an ascetic. I do not lead such a life. Many times, traditional spiritual recipes are designed for a world and culture that no longer exist, much less in the Western Hemisphere. But it is in the day-to-day where we need to practice what we learn in the sacred texts.

We all have families to take care of, demanding jobs, and gas tanks to fill up, complicated social lives, and live surrounded by an ever increasing complexity that barely allows us a breather to invest time in the big questions:

• Who am I?
• Where do I come from?
• What is the sense of everything?

This book will answer those questions. This book only asks for a few hours in exchange for infinity.

Today, the Western Hemisphere and, perhaps, the whole world, is full of people disillusioned with spiritual fast food (religion), people who seek low-cost enlightenment, that does not demand the sacrifice of modern and urban lifestyles. So I set my mind toward writing an enjoyable and light book about awakening and low-cost enlightenment, without sacrifices or radical changes.

This book develops an idea that is shocking to most: you are not who you think you are. In a certain way, you are an impostor, a phony; please do not misinterpret my meaning, since it is not ill-willed. You have usurped your real identity. But I will emplace you in front of the mirror, to show you who or what you really are.

I have tried to simplify complex oriental concepts. In the glossary, at the end of the book, I offer a clarifying overview of these concepts.

The first key to understanding this book is to consider, at every moment, that there is no separation (duality), that there are no dual individuals. And, given that there is no separate self, then there is no need to improve it. If you are able to recall your reading, everything will be very clear. We will return to this essential point later on. The second key is that life is impersonal, there are no individuals.

There is nothing external to your own self. The quality of reality is absolute correlation. The quality of slumber is absolute disaggregation. Fortunately, he who slumbers is safe from any of his dreams. There is nothing that can damage him.

You will verify that I repeat some fundamental concepts, modifying their formulation, in several chapters. I do so deliberately, so that the secrets offered in this book are understood and, by repetition, the reader can learn them.

You cannot conform yourself with simply reading this book: you must also experience it, put it into practice. All information is composed of second-hand notions, while experience is first-hand knowledge. While you read it, observe and recognise within yourself that which you have read. The text is like a piece of clothing: put it on, feel it against your skin, see how it looks.

I do not recommend reading this book while your ego seats beside you. It was not written for your ego. Give your ego the day off; ego cannot be enlightened, because it is an obstacle for the light.

I do not want this book to entail a mental exercise, it makes no sense to read it from start to finish to agree or disagree with it. Nor to reaffirm that you may have learned in the past. By experience, I know that almost everyone wants results without payment, without making the necessary effort, completely free of charge. This manual for enlightenment has a low-cost, but it does have a price. The price is to stop being your “own self,” which is not asking too much, and let go of the script that tells you how the world and its inhabitants must be.

There are people who have read some of my books and ask: Now what do I do? Or worse still: Why don’t you write another book explaining how to put this book into practice? My answer is that nothing needs to be done, that is why there is no homework. These people have read from their ego, who thinks that the books have to solve their lives.

When I was a conventional coach, I gave out tasks, or “homework,” designed agendas and action plans... no more, as an “enlightened coach,” I only propose consciousness. No more, no less.

What I can assure you of is that, when you have awaken, everything will clear up on its own. When you stop struggling to solve your life, all your doubts will be resolved (you were not born to perfect or solve your life).

And remember: you can read a medication label a thousand times, but you will never benefit from it if you do not take the medication. Do not simply settle with reading this book, it is better if you “take it” daily. Words are not enough, nothing will beat your personal experience. I cannot convince you of who or what you are, eventually, you will have to experiment to find out.

And, a final tale: one morning, in December 2017, in which I had finished writing this book, with the last paragraph of the last chapter, my eyes filled with tears. Not because I had achieved a goal... what this book describes is not even mine - but rather for the beauty of the three final chapters, that completely overwhelmed me with emotion.

I do not know if everything you will read is the truth, but I offer it anyway, because I believe it to be.

Raimon Samso, entrepreneurial author.

www.raimonsamso.com