What is enlightenment to you?

This question is posed "to you" because any attempt to claim a universal or all-encompassing definition of enlightenment will quickly be dispelled. The fact is, enlightenment can mean an infinite number of things in an infinite number of ways, just like almost any word. The meaning is in the mind of the beholder.

In general, enlightenment is exactly as a definition may read: to shine light on darkness. The darkness can be anything. It can be external, personally internal, or universally spiritual. This all depends on the consciousness experiencing the enlightenment. It can be fleeting or it can be permanent. It can be life-changing or it can be a blip on the radar of the day. It can occur once or it can repeat in different ways many times over.

The key to understanding this grand search for enlightenment so many people seem to be looking for is to know that it is personal and unique for each person. Your enlightenment may be a moment of clarity or it may occur on your death bed when every single moment of your life suddenly makes sense. Nobody truly knows until they know.

The fallacy in the search is to hold onto the thought that, one you arrive and are "enlightened", you are done with the search, rejoice! Expansion within this human experience is a long and arduous journey. The exploration of who we are and what we are here to do is never ending. Just when you think you've found "it", another door will open up.

The truth in this search is that every new door we are most likely experience in the future currently resides in the dark. Most often, we don't even know what we're looking for until we find it... and it's often unexpected, unpredictable, and powerfully more profound than we may think it will be today.

This is the joy in the journey: the darkness, the unknown, the mystery of expansion. One of the greatest moments one can experience is when the truth of eternal existence is understood. This journey never ends, we exist in perpetuity.

And with that in mind, hunt for your darkness. Look for the unknown and explore all those dark corners, those fears, the resistance you've previously avoided or run away from. Anything you resist in life will ALWAYS remain, demand attention, and control you until you decide to face it and shine the light on it.

Facing personal fears dis-empowers them; you'll find it is never as bad as you think. The less darkness we have, the more light we have. This is a zero sum game. We either know something or we don't. The more we know, the less we don't know. So let's go hunting for the darkness and shine the light!