In my last blog, I touched on the difference between believing something and knowing something. The word enlightenment seems to be used too carelessly, and tossed around too frequently these days. I was inspired to write this blog to explain what the definition of enlightenment means to me; as well as give guidance to people on this path. For the record, I am not enlightened but I am on the path to enlightenment myself lol.
And before I get started, I must post my advisory label:
And before I get started, I must post my advisory label:
I encourage people to keep this in the back of their minds as they navigate the road to enlightenment. You will encounter many false prophets, true prophets, and people with good intentions- but are misguided, mislead or misinterpreting. One of the biggest challenges on the road to enlightenment is not inputting your personal beliefs and stating them as facts. To truly be enlightened, one must have no judgments, ignorance, or prejudice. This is near impossible as our ego tries to take over; and the closer we get to enlightenment, the more our knowing becomes a personal belief.
To be enlightened is to spiritually know and understand free of ignorance, false beliefs or prejudice. People who are enlightened can honor each person as they walk their own path, and not infringe their personal beliefs on to them, but accept what ever form that carries truth for them. To be enlightened is when you can be simultaneously outside yourself, while still connected to your inner Spirit- the observer and the observed are One, connected to every living organism.
Pretend you are at the foot of a mountain and your friend calls and tells you that there is a flying elephant on the other side of the mountain where she is. From where you are, there is simply no way that you can know whether or not your friend is actually looking at a flying elephant. They might describe it in great detail or even say they are trying to tame it so they can fly over to you, so you can see it for yourself; but the best you can ever do is to believe that they are looking at a flying elephant, you will never know.
All of a sudden a flying elephant comes through the clouds and lands right beside you. Now YOU are looking at a flying elephant! You still don’t know if your friend was actually looking at a flying elephant; but at least now you can start asking specific questions and looking for specific responses from her. You might be able to ascertain that she is indeed looking at a flying elephant very similar to yours, or else you might conclude that her flying elephant is very different from yours; while accepting that she is indeed looking at a flying elephant. Whatever the case, you still won’t really know whether or not she is looking at a flying elephant.
The purpose of this story was to say that you can’t ever know for sure whether someone else is enlightened. Even more importantly, it does not matter if they are or if they are or not. What does matter is that YOU will know whether or not you are looking at a flying elephant aka whether or not you are enlightened. Rumi, a 13th Century Persian poet and teacher of Sufism, said “The sensual eye is just like the palm of the hand. The palm has not the means of covering the whole of the beast.” There is MUCH to learn before one can say they are enlightened, and as long as they are still learning, they are BECOMING enlightened. This is not a bad thing! They can be at a higher level of consciousness, or farther along on the path to awakening, but they haven't reached it yet. Actually, Buddhist believe that if you say you are enlightened, you are not, because being enlightened means that you know you will never reach enlightenment. Kind of like how in Shamanism they say if you call yourself a Shaman, you are not a Shaman.
This brings me to revisit my "advisory label". It is more than just telling you to not believe everything you hear, it is TELLING you that enlightenment has to agree with your own reasoning aka YOUR HIGHER SELF. People who are enlightened don't need to seek knowledge from books, websites- even other people. That knowledge is CHANNELED to them via their Higher Self. Ask an enlightened person an "unanswered" question. If they give you a response and don't say their source was from their Higher Self, then they are not enlightened. This is why enlightenment is so hard to obtain, because not everyone can reach this level. But it should not matter whether you are enlightened or not; that is a useless title for a long destination. The only thing that matters is that you awaken and continue to awaken. That you learn and continue to seek knowledge.
There are many paths that lead to enlightenment. Some people may be able to read something and apply what they know. Some people may have to take multiple spiritual approaches and practices to develop the understanding. The most important thing that matters and that is imperative to know, is that no one can TEACH you enlightenment- it has to be EXPERIENCED and LIVED for yourself. All of my teachers and coaches and advisors can only get me so far. They can give me the understanding on how things work, they can teach me the tools needed to experience things- they can even lead me in the direction all short of holding my hand and doing it for me. But I will never be enlightened if I can't APPLY everything that has been given. Applying it has its benefits, because once you reach enlightenment, when you have unity between your soul and the Divinity within, then the Source or Great Creator Spirit may even work through you as a benefit to others.
Enlightenment can be obtained, and it all starts with faith and knowing. In my next blog, I will discuss the different levels of enlightenment, as well as the importance of faith. I will then wrap it up in a 3rd blog with seeing the big picture and how to live your own life, true to yourself.
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