The main problem in explaining enlightenment is that you have to use WORDS to do so. It’s similar to explaining a color or an emotion, using just words, it’s kinda tricky to describe it without using the very word you’re describing.
That said, words are a very effective tool when it comes to communication, however, they are only effective if you’re already familiar with the experience you’re describing.
Through education we are all taught to believe that you only really ‘know’ something, if you’re able to use your words when you’re describing it. However, this is a very limited concept of ‘knowing’ something. It’s similar to reading someone’s biography and assuming that you know what their life was like.
Thus, the best way to explain enlightenment in our everyday language is to give it the accurate words that describe the experience. Now before we go further, please understand that this whole topic, blog post and idea is LIMITED by words and by language.
So, if you’ve ever experienced an epiphany, you can say that you’ve had a little awakening. You managed to perceive something in a way that was above any linguistic description and certainly above a logical explanation.
Teachers used to tell us about the ‘light going on’ above our head when we got a brainwave. So, knowing this, the best way to describe enlightenment is to say that it’s the big light bulb above your head when you suddenly have a really good idea. It’s that good idea that seemed to just come out of nowhere.
So why am I not enlightened?
So let’s say that you’ve read everything about this so called ‘enlightenment’, you’ve attended numerous workshops, you’ve practiced meditation… And yet, you still haven’t reached enlightenment, or at least you don’t FEEL like you have. Why is this?
Typically, this is because of your understanding about enlightenment. You may think that you’re not enlightened because you’ve been using the wrong approach.
You can’t easily find the ‘right’ approach to reaching enlightenment because there is no ONE right approach. There are as many different ideas about this as there are teachers. If there was a singular right answer, there would be plenty of enlightened people and the number would grow each day.
But this also doesn’t mean that any road can be chosen, and that it will lead to your enlightenment. This would mean that it doesn’t matter which path you choose, whether Christianity, or Scientology or Wicca, you will definitely become enlightened in one way or another. But that’s not how it works. And you also can’t look to one single person and follow their way unless you follow each step of their life since conception.
You also can’t set it as your ultimate goal because you’ll never reach it. The term itself is inherently ambiguous. Enlightenment can mean either a final destination, or a path, or a state of mind, or even an evolving context.
You also can’t describe it using simple terms such as ‘Oneness with Nature’ or ‘Love’ or ‘The end of Limitation’ or even ‘The End of Evolution’. A better term of enlightenment would be a never-ending process of waking up.
So how do you achieve enlightenment?
As life evolves, so do all the contexts in which you can awaken. So you need to approach it as an ongoing process.
You need to be welcoming of clarity. Think of it as a two-fold process of both moving away and moving toward. You are moving away from your identity with the physical, cultural, mental and social filters that constantly distort your ability to awaken.
Next, you need to generate clarity, enlightenment and wakefulness. Act on the recommendations that you receive. Develop a process of pre-sleep incubation where you are going to set all the intentions for deep sleep and dreaming. And meditate. This way you can intentionally focus on expanding your clarity and it speeds up your process of awakening.
Learn triangulation and how to improve your decision-making. Balance the development of your core lines such as cognition, morality, empathy and self.
Expand your cognitive development by learning to reason, to question and to recognize the logical errors in everyday life. This is a necessary prerequisite for all lasting enlightenment because the way you think determines what sense you make of the things you see.
Expand your sense of self because the broader and more inclusive your self-definition is, the less likely you’ll be in conflict with others. You will also find that life is much easier the more you broaden your sense of self because you can easily get out of your own way.
Act ethically, not because it makes sense or makes you look good, but because you should. But question those rules and follow the ones that are rational, not all of them, even the ones that make no sense.
Evolve your empathy in the evolution of your capacity to expand your sense of self. Make sure you learn the difference between sympathy and empathy and don’t confuse the two terms as they are very different. Empathy is another constantly evolving competency, so make sure you improve all the time.
Enlightenment is a developmental process with no end, and choosing to believe otherwise is choosing to limit all your possibilities for further enlightenment. If you’ve decided that you are already enlightened because you have found the right leader or because you’ve had a mystical experience, you are not going to continue to wake up at the same pace as you did previously.
The harsh truth about this
Look, you’re probably searching through the internet and this article for tips on how to become enlightened, as if there’s a step by step guide on Wikihow (There actually is, can you believe that?).
The problem is that there are many different terms and meanings to the word enlightenment that it really depends on what YOU think the word means. For lots of people it refers to ‘waking up’ in a religious sense, but for others it just means becoming AWAKE to the ways of the world..
For example you might say you’ve become ‘enlightened’ when you open your eyes and realise that meat and dairy are actually DANGEROUS to eat and are very bad for you, and that the industries that profit from selling those food items have been spending millions of dollars to hide that truth from you.
You might say you’re enlightened when you see past cultural differences and start loving people,, even strangers, just because you realise that we’re all sort of the same.. humans are all in this big thing called life together and by loving one another we can move towards a higher consciousness.
There are LOTS of definitions of enlgihtenment so that’s why it’s so hard to figure it out, and sadly you can’t find the answer to ALL questions from a blog post or a Google search, but good luck, and I wish you well on your journey.