“It’s The Journey That Counts.” Or Is It?

There is a wise, insightful saying in currency these days. You may hear variations of it such as, “It’s the journey that counts,” “It’s the journey,” or, “What counts is the journey.”

The idea behind the saying is this: if you only think about the goal that you are working toward, you may fail to notice, appreciate, and benefit from what you experience during the process of reaching that goal.

True enough.

Some people even say “What counts is the journey” as if it discounted the importance and validity of having a goal. In a switch of perspective, it turns out that the journey is the goal.

Wisdom often makes its appearance as a switch of perspective or even a complete reversal of thinking. This often yields a surprising burst of insight.

But to be surprising is not enough. To be valuable, such a switch also has to be true.

If “What counts is the journey” has been helpful to you, I have no wish to take that away from you.

Nonetheless, I would like to clarify something.

The journey is not the goal. Only the goal is the goal.

You may enjoy the ride to the next town to visit your friend, but don’t you feel good when you get there?

The point at which the goal is no longer the goal is when you fulfill it. Then it becomes your new environment.

I would say that you should not discount the goal in favor of the journey. If you have no goal, you won’t be able to fulfill anything.

As I said in Answers From Silence, “Uniting with your Enlightened Self is the completion of your quest.”

It’s really nice to reach the goal. And I’m sure you will.

—J.C.

Is Jeffrey Chappell Enlightened?

Answers From Silence traces the author’s growth of consciousness, a process that eventually culminates in “crossing over a line to an entirely new mode of existence.” This seems to be saying that, by the end of the book, Jeffrey Chappell is enlightened.

“Enlightenment” can mean many things to many people. And that can be a problem. I have actually been advised not even to use the word “enlightenment” for this reason.

But I do provide a definition of enlightenment in Answers From Silence: “Enlightenment is the shift of identity from that which is bound by time and space to that which is eternal.” And I did experience a shift of identity from that which is bound by time and space to that which is eternal.

So according to that, the answer to the question posed in the title of this article is “yes”.

But there is a twist to it. The shift of identity was a shift away from identifying with Jeffrey Chappell. Instead, I identify with eternal being as consciousness. Jeffrey Chappell is the unenlightened part that was left behind.

So according to that, the answer to the question posed in the title of this article is “no”.

As I have said elsewhere, I am not trying to be a wise guy. I am only relaying the truth of the experience.

But why am I relaying that? To advertise something about myself? To get some sort of special, reverential treatment? The answer to these questions is “no”.

Enlightenment is not an ego trip. In a way, it is the antithesis of that.

I wrote Answers From Silence for you. If I am advertising anything, it’s the fact that this transformation does actually happen in our current society. Enlightenment is on your doorstep. It is available today to anyone, in all walks of life.

If you have a special, reverential feeling about someone who is enlightened, then you would best apply that in the direction of yourself, which is to say your own Enlightened Self. It is a feeling that I encourage you to have about you, not about me.

And then to have it about everyone.

—J.C.