The Triumph of Enlightenment
A loyal reader sent in this question: “When injustice seems to triumph, how do you handle it as an enlightened person? So many crazy things go on in the world every day. Please comment.”
Before answering the “how do you handle it” part of your question, let’s look at the ”as an enlightened person” part.
What is it to be an enlightened person? It is to know the truth of who you are.
Who are you? At your inner core, as your Enlightened Self, you are simply being as pure consciousness.
A person has boundaries. Enlightenment is unboundedness. A miracle of our human existence is that as persons we have the capability of experiencing enlightenment.
And as an enlightened person, you are still human. You still have human reactions and emotions.
Things that happen can still provoke a reaction in you. Seeing injustice triumph can make you feel a negative emotion. Seeing justice triumph can make you feel a positive emotion.
But an enlightened person knows that she is not her emotions. She also knows that she is not the world of phenomena that triggers those emotions. She knows who she is.
Emotions change and phenomena change. They have no impact on her changeless Enlightened Self.
Which brings us to the “how do you handle it” part.
In the arena of activity, do what needs to be done. If you see injustice and can effectively do something to correct it, then do something.
But perhaps your question comes from a feeling that you can’t do anything about it. You want to change something unjust that happened and you can’t. You want to prevent all future injustices that might happen and you can’t.
What we all want, all the time, is for outer to match inner. With every action we take, we have an inner intention and we want it to have an outer reflection. We are always trying to make the world in our own image.
When outer doesn’t match inner, we experience distress, frustration, and anger. Like when something unjust in the outer world doesn’t match our inner sense of justice.
Perhaps your question means that you want to hear something that will make it match. “If I could only understand how injustice can triumph, I could reconcile all this.”
There are lots of explanations for the grand and sometimes hidden designs behind confusing events in the world. Answers From Silence is full of them.
For example: “Everyone is on their path of enlightenment, and everything that happens in a person’s life is their path of enlightenment.”
Understanding can help. But enlightenment is not a philosophy. It is the living knowledge of the truth of who you are.
And when that knowledge lives in you, nothing that happens in the world can compromise, endanger, damage, negate, extinguish, or triumph over your Enlightened Self.
—J.C.
