Enlightenment Town. Jeffery Paine

      

      More praise for Enlightenment Town

       “I am not a religious man. Perhaps my few years incarcerated in a South Indian missionary boarding school cured me of this quest. But as Jeffery Paine intimates, even those of us who are ‘postreligious’ nevertheless seek some ‘hallowed understanding’ of the human condition. Paine writes such vivid stories about Crestone’s eclectic spiritual characters that, I have to confess, I am charmed beyond belief.”

      — Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and author of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

       “Who knew that among the mountains of Colorado there exists a town devoted to enlightenment — and boasting twenty-five religious centers, coexisting in perfect amity? How is that possible? In Enlightenment Town, Jeffery Paine takes us on a journey to meets its unforgettable inhabitants in Airstream trailers, disused mineshafts, and quiet retreats, across nineteen years. Fascinating, beautifully written, often funny, sometimes weird — you will love this modern Thoreau.”

      — Nigel Hamilton, award-winning biographer of JFK, Thomas Mann, Bill Clinton, Bernard Montgomery, FDR, and others and senior fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Boston

       “With warmth, wit, and tenderness, Jeffery Paine introduces us to a remarkable community where the secular and the sacred exist side by side — often indistinguishably. What is it about a small mountain town in Colorado that has drawn Buddhists, Christian mystics, Sufis, and a host of other denominations to live together, not with mere tolerance but with something approaching transcendence? Whatever their secret, the residents of what Paine calls a ‘Wild West Jerusalem’ have lessons for all of us.”

      — Tim Folger, science journalist and series editor of The Best American Science and Nature Writing

       “Whenever we open our hearts with unconditional love and illumine our brains with boundless wisdom, everything arises as the world of enlightenment. Enlightenment Town portrays a true land of Dharma, where this can happen.”

      — Tulku Thondup, author of The Healing Power of Mind and The Heart of Unconditional Love

       “In Enlightenment Town, Jeffery Paine takes us on pilgrimage into the heart of what it means to be human. In Crestone, Colorado, home to the world’s most religiously diverse community, we venture high into the mountains on sacred vision quests and into cathartic sweat lodges, and join spiritual activists ‘on the path.’ We leave behind the old stale debate of religion vs. atheism — and belief vs. nonbelief — as we see people living their enlightenment. Joining this pilgrimage, you will be well rewarded.”

      — Matteo Pistono, author of In the Shadow of the Buddha and Meditation

       “Enlightenment Town is a lively meditation on the nature of religion and an inquiry into the dynamics of spirituality, articulated with genuine compassion, empathy, and warm, humane humor. A personal and heartfelt exploration of the spiritual, Jeffery Paine’s quest situates him in the town of Crestone, high in the mountains of central Colorado, where he interacts with a quirky cast of fascinating characters, spiritual beings from diverse traditions — Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, Carmelite Christian, Jewish, Taoist, Native American — all of whom have something profoundly in common and each of whom teaches Paine something about the myriad meanings of our relationships with nature and other human beings. As the journey progresses, Paine begins to understand and show us the ways in which everything, no matter how mundane, may be appreciated in some way as sacred.”

      — Lee Siegel, author of Love in a Dead Language, Trance-Migrations, and other books

New World Library14 Pamaron WayNovato, California 94949

      Copyright © 2018 by Jeffery Paine

      All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, or other — without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

      Text design by Tona Pearce-Myers

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

      First printing, May 2018

      ISBN 978-1-60868-574-5

      Ebook ISBN 978-1-60868-575-2

      Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is proud to be a Gold Certified Environmentally Responsible Publisher. Publisher certification awarded by Green Press Initiative. www.greenpressinitiative.org

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       This book is dedicated to

       the men and women and children

       and mountains and streams

       of Crestone.

       God Appears and God is Light

       To those poor Souls who dwell in Night,

       But does a Human Form Display

       To those who Dwell in Realms of day.

       — William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”

      Contents

Overture

Part I: Town

1. A Dream Awakens

2. Where the Hell Am I? A Tour

Part II: Religion

3. “Gimme That Old-Time Religion!” Or Is the New-Time Better?

       4. More Religions Than One

       5. Fewer Than One

       Part III: Postreligious Varieties of Experience in Crestone

       6. An Ordinary Thursday in Crestone

       7. A Sacred Relationship to the Natural World?

       8. Equanimity: Spirituality without