What Is Enlightenment

 

What does it really mean to be enlightened? It just means that you are aware. It is not a shift in living as much as it is a shift in thinking. Everything really remains the same on many levels. The change is in your responses to the things that continue to happen as usual. Enlightenment does not give you an edge; it takes the edge off.

What I mean is this: you may have wanted to find a way to become more successful and you may have heard about manifesting or creative-visualization. So you may have found some books on these subjects and, perhaps you read them. While these very books may help you on a path to enlightenment, they are not always the keys to the attainment of material gain. You may feel enlightened after a really good breakfast, but, at some point in the afternoon, you may feel hungry again. The body is still a body and it will need some of your attention. Enlightenment does not relieve us of a body and present us with a spiritual form to occupy; it lets us see that we have a body and a spirit too. Through enlightenment, we begin to see that we have an inner and an outer being. Inwardly, we could feel hunger or we could feel sickness or even pain. Outwardly, we could see how the world affects us and how we affect the world. Enlightenment just reveals the congruency of our inner and outer experience.

We learn that we are waves on an ever-present ocean of being. We learn that we are the ocean. Even so, we find we cannot avoid the highs and lows of our wave-like experience. If a loved one dies, we find ourselves as sad as ever. The fact that we know our loved one is still a part of the same, vast ocean we are a part of will not take away our pain. This is because we are still occupying the pain-body. This is normal and it is only a problem for those who feel that they are their pain.

You and I are not the pain we have felt or are feeling. We are aware of that pain and the pain is real. However, we can endure more pain and find more peace, by opening our eyes to more than the pain. It’s not about ignoring the pain and focusing on the good-feelings; it is about embracing the pain and the good feelings simultaneously. Awareness does not come with an eraser; it comes with a pencil. It’s not about making anything disappear; it is about drawing more of what we’d like to see happen in our lives.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” ~ Paul’s letter to The Galatians. KJV

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” ~ Paul’s letter to The Philippians KJV

This is awareness. It is not one fact, one magic word, one magic answer, but awareness is a knowing.

Before awareness, it is not unusual to see a problem and identify with it. With enlightenment, it is not unusual to see a problem as a smaller situation among a much greater reality which includes better situations.

Pain is pain and pain is felt by everyone who has pain. But joy is a constant and pain is not. That’s enlightening.

It is not that an enlightened person cannot see a problem; it’s that they see a problem as less of a problem in the midst of all of that which is not problematic. That’s enlightening.

Enlightenment is not a spiritual work which suddenly empowers a believer with some new formula in a bottle. It’s not something you place a drop of on a wound. Wounds don’t disappear for enlightened individuals; they just diminish in size when compared to all of that which is not a wound.

Enlightenment is the juxtaposing of pain and pleasure, of good and evil, of night and day, of heaven and hell. And when someone is enlightened, there’s an experience from the inside, that works like an X-ray, only backwards. It is like a full color, fluoroscope on the inside of an individual, pointing to the outside, showing all of the beauty, wonder, goodness, flow, excitement, pending-joy, pending-love, pending thrill and pure potential and infinite opportunity eternally.

When you go to the doctor and the doctor performs an X-ray, she or he will likely hold it up to a light to show you an area of concern. “See that,” she says, “We will want to keep an eye on that.”

Of course, the doctor didn’t have to encourage you to keep an eye on a tumor. If you have ever seen one on an X-ray, it’s hard to forget.

But there might come a time when you will want to know about what you should be keeping an eye on with regards to your outside. A guru would likely hold up a picture of a flower and say, “Consider this lily.”

“Okay,” You might reply, “So what am I looking at here?”

“This flower represents something growing in this area.” Says the doctor, “We need to keep an eye on this flower because it looks like there is a happiness-tumor growing over there. It looks bigger than it did a year ago.”

“Oh no,” you say, “Do we need to get rid of it?”

But inner tumors are masses of cells invading an area of your inside. You may have to have one removed. Outer tumors are different. If you go down a street where gangs are known to hang out, you may find an outer tumor you will want to avoid. The way to heal one such tumor is to avoid that street and go down another street where flowers are known to grow wildly and out of control.

With every physical choice you will ever make, you are affecting your outside health.

You’ll only develop an incurable tumor if you don’t treat your outer body with better choices.