“I’m not yet adequately evolved spiritually to become enlightened.”
“I don’t want to give up the things that enlightenment requires me to give up.”
“My ego is a powerful adversary that I have to conquer in a titanic inner battle before I can reach enlightenment.”
“Enlightenment is for famous saints, not for an everyday person like me.”
“The collective consciousness of the people on this planet is too violent and materialistic to allow me to rise above it and become enlightened.”
“I need to work out all of my psychological problems first, and then I will be clear enough for enlightenment to happen.”
“After I’m enlightened, all of the people and things that I love are going to seem different to me. I feel sad about losing them.”
“In order to experience the pure consciousness of enlightenment I must stop thoughts from happening, but I can’t overcome the tyrrany of thought.”
“Enlightenment happens so rarely. It could never happen to me in this lifetime.”
“I’m starting to raise a family and build a career. All of those responsibilities will sidetrack me from becoming enlightened.”
People can find even more obstacles to add to the list.
All of these obstacles are perceived as being sufficient to defeat enlightenment.
All of them are invalid.
There are no obstacles to enlightenment.
That is because there are no obstacles to something that is ultimately inevitable.
In that case, the question is: why can’t you just stop waiting and hoping and striving, and say to enlightenment, “Take me, I’m yours,” and have it happen?
It’s because of the mistakes that are being made. The mistakes are:
—believing that you desire enlightenment, and
—believing that you have an individual existence, like a branch believing that it is separate from the tree.
Enlightenment corrects these mistakes.
Answers From Silence says, “You might think that you desire enlightenment. Actually, enlightenment desires you. When you are pushing toward it, you are misperceiving. It is actually pulling you.”
And when you are enlightened, you won’t be enlightened individually. You will be enlightenment, enlightenment will be you, and there will be nothing there but enlightenment.
Beyond that, you may subsequently come to recognize that you were never there at all but instead that divinity was projecting you the whole time. “You” were the offshoot.
And the obstacles to enlightenment were never there either.
—JC
reminds me of the Auden poem – seek him in the kingdom of anxiety: you will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.
Beautiful, thanks!
Jeffrey this is a particularly relishable post from you.
So much to love here. Especially that “ultimately inevitable” part.
And, of course, my favorite part of “Answers from Silence”:
“You might think that you desire enlightenment. Actually, enlightenment desires you. When you are pushing toward it, you are misperceiving. It is actually pulling you.”
Thank you so much for this ineffable blog, Jeffrey.