What is Enlightenment

I became interested in enlightenment reading Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" about 10 years ago. Prior to that I had absolutely no spiritual interest or knowledge of any kind - I was just a guy, living an OK life. I had fun! I had a good job! I had a nice girlfriend! I wasn't secretly depressed! Yet, this book kickstarted a seeking in me - it became clear that there is more to life than just the physical. It also became clear it is more than the metaphysical.

Everything in this book made so much sense, I could not argue with any of it. It was obvious that what was written was true. I didn't want to read any other books - this book was enough! But slowly, I noticed that, despite understanding and agreeing with everything in this book, I was not enlightened!

Fast forward and many awakening experiences, modalities of awakening, teachers, and total shifts in personality later, I finally arrived at the destination. Enlightenment! But, it was actually very sad for the person - the person I assumed myself to be, also the person who was seeking enlightenment, turned out to be fake. A fraud. This person never really existed. It was all a figment of my imagination.

No person can ever reach enlightenment!

That's because enlightenment means the dissolution of the person. It means giving up everything, every single thought, every single identification, every single idea, about your person. It means taking every single idea of who you are, and tossing it in the garbage bin. A body, a mind, a man, a woman, a son, a father, a mom, a daughter, a worker, a boss - none of these roles is you. Even the metaphysical - a love warrior, an eternal soul, an angel, a healer with a mission, a star seed, a divine unicorn, or a pleiadian - none of these are you either. All of it needs to be tossed in the garbage until nothing remains.

Even as seekers, people tend to remove their old personality only to replace it with a new one. Swapping your suit and 9-5 job for a yoga mat, dreads, and festival hopping - from the point of view of the all, it's the same exact thing. Before you had a rolex, now you have a tribal tattoo - who cares? It's the same thing, personality identification. The spiritual identity needs to be tossed out too.

As Eckhart Tolle said in that book: You can never lose what you are; you can only lose what you are not.

As it turns out, what you are not is pretty much everything you ever thought about. You're not any of that. Once you have emptied out enough - against the mind's protestations, as the mind will always have some excuses to not do that, like "oh but then it would be so boring", or "then what??" - you are enlightened. And then you can go on into completely different levels and modes of living that the person cannot even imagine.

You might ask - who am I to know all this? To this, I am living in the knowing that I exist on many different levels; and this person writing this right now, for no particular reason, is just my current person. I am not Eckhart Tolle; I have experienced the complete dis-identification with the all, pure enlightenment, only in windows, and seeings, and visions - it is not a permanent state for this body.

I don't really mind that at all - for in the true seeing, it becomes clear that all states, levels, and identifications in this planet, or even this universe, are equally loved, equally valid. There truly is no difference between anyone, no such thing could ever be perceived from a true seeing. No one is higher or lower than the next - profound equality of all beings is the true nature of this reality.

If I identify with my person or not, if I have thoughts or not, if I am in samadhi or not, if I recognize God as all there is in this moment, or not, if I am lost, or found - all is only this universe unfolding, this divine creation moving with, through, and towards love.

And so it is. Thanks for listening. You are loved.

❤️