What is enlightenment really about?

Trends, fashions, and fads are endemic to the modern world, and this is especially true in a broad area called Spirituality. And now everyone likes to talk about spiritual enlightenment. As with most concepts, so many cooks have their hands in the broth that the original meaning has become quite muddled.

What is enlightenment anyway?

I have been a meditator for a very long time — decades. And I have used the self-enquiry method of meditation for the past seven years because I wanted to know what exists beyond this idea of a personal, egoic mind, or that which I called “I,” or “me.” When I decided to go deepinto this I looked on the internet and in book stores to find someone who knew what he or she was talking about. I did find some great teachers, including Nisargadatta, Ramana, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Anandamayi, Ellie Roozdar, and others. And I weeded out a great deal of the more popular professors of enlightenment and self-realization. Beyond this, I quickly realized that a lot of people, including “teachers,” were using the word enlightenment in different and misguided ways.

I gravitate toward the definition from ancient Indian sages when it comes to enlightenment. Otherwise, the meaning of the word becomes murky and encrusted with all sorts of ideas that could not be further from the truth, including that enlightened people have supernatural powers and that they can transmit their enlightenment to others, for instance.

Simply, then, enlightenment is the full realization that you are not the egoic self, the physical body, or anything at all that is impermanent. That’s all there is. It is a knowingness and not an experience or an ability.

Existence is made up of consciousness, the body, and the mind. And beyond all existence is the silent stillness that is nameless and indescribable.

The egoic self, the “I,” is nothing more than a belief that comes about by an accretion of thoughts. These thoughts come from psychological conditioning, especially in early life. The mind is influenced by parents, teachers, religious leaders, schools, relatives, the media, society, culture, and so on. All of these influences impress themselves upon consciousness so that there arises a belief that we are separate from the whole of consciousness, the wholeness of life. To be enlightened is to realize that this egoic mind is a belief and that it is not you; and you are not related to any object, possession, idea, person, trait, or feeling. You are that which exists prior to all movement and thought. If you could get this egoic mind out of the way then this would be obvious to you.

If you can return to this original meaning of enlightenment then you can better decide what it is that you want. Do you want to be a better person, a calmer person, a more intuitive person, a more powerful or successful person? Or do you want to know who you are devoid of the egoic mind and even prior to consciousness? This knowingness, which cannot be transmitted any more than a feeling can be transmitted, is embodied in enlightenment . All else is phenomena that comes and goes.

I wrote about my own journey in an allegory called 13 Pillars of Enlightenment, but every person’s journey is unique, driven by the desire to know what lies beyond the egoic mind.