An enlightened human being can potentially change the world forever

Enlightenment is the moment and event when a “human” realizes he or she never existed as a separate entity from Consciousness. At that moment, they realize they are only Consciousness, and never were anything *but* Consciousness.

Therefore, they would literally have to say, “I’m not a human who has attained enlightenment. The human has disappeared, or more accurately, was never there in the first place. So I didn’t reach enlightenment, I just dropped the illusion that there was ever anything separate from enlightenment & Consciousness.

In many ways, this can be a good indicator of whether a person is actually a “realized Being” or not. If they say, “I studied, meditated, did the spiritual work & practices, and the result is, after “x” amount of time, I reached enlightenment,” they probably didn’t. I don’t like to use the term “enlightenment.”

However I would prefer to say, "Everything is already awakened, enlightened". We all abide, full-time, in Pure Consciousness, Pure Being. The only distinction is that some “locations” of Consciousness seem to know they abide there, while others seem to think they still abide in their body-mind. Consciousness totally savors and enjoys both perspectives, it is both perspectives. So there’s no enlightenment and no problem.

My understanding of spiritual enlightenment is when a person becomes conscious through personal experience of the ultimate nature of their inner being. It is an insight that breaks the wall of intellectual thinking and our five senses. It is an understanding we are energetic beings with our seven energy centers, our chakras; how our thoughts, emotions, and actions, positive and negative, create our reality; we are trying to find our way home in a inseparable physical and the metaphysical world.

And we all have the ability, but the question is do we have the will. How many would take the path as Gautam Buddha or Jesus Christ, who were enlightened souls. Buddha was a prince that could have been King, and Jesus chose to be crucified. Both showed us we will not achieve enlightenment by merely hoping for it. Love others unconditionally as you love yourself, wisdom, compassion, being of service to others, nurture and care for all of nature and most importantly, loving our Creator, are qualities of an enlightened person.

Our spiritual Gurus of all ages tell us the same thing. They may show us the way, but is it our personal journey to take. It is our basic nature to seek the truth, to discover our true selves, and through prayer, meditation and contemplation, is the path to spiritual enlightenment. Therefore, most of he people, when discussing enlightenment will tell you what it is not: it is not the state of anxiety, it is not the feeling of shame, it is not negative internal chatter, it is not a feeling of lonely separation, it is not agony as in mental anguish and despair. Now to try and describe what enlightenment represents to many people: peace and equanimity, satisfaction, loving kindness, tender joy, ecstasy in simplicity.

There are other examples like comfort with the present moment, no desire to leave the current context we find ourselves in, a sense of pleasantness and ease, geniality, generosity, and gratitude. Maybe my definitions are way off for you, but that’s sort of the thing about it, it can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. By my own definition, I would say all babies are enlightened. They exhibit for us what it means to be happy with the little things (as long as they are comfortable).

They may not yet understand how to create peace in strife in their own mind, but they are required to communicate pain in some form so they are given the attention they need to survive. So they cry when they’re distraught. Enter choice: as children we start to realize that there is internal will, that we have the freedom to move our joints and bodies and thoughts in different directions from the ones around us. Enter adolescence: a growing sense of separation or distance from the world around us, the mental chatter grows in importance because we start to feel the urgency of making the ‘right’ cultural choices.

Enter adulthood: no longer are we here to be taught by others what to do or think, with freedom comes responsibility and accountability for all our own actions. No longer is anyone else to blame for what we do or what we fail to do. To put it another way I believe enlightenment is the process of a child growing into the realization that their life, in reality, is all their own. It’s the realization that not one other person, or set of people, or institutions, or situations, or experiences, or systems, or histories, or influences, is responsible for who they are and what they do. It is taking, keeping, and maintaining your own life happily.

It’s not settling for your life, it’s settling into your life and then expanding it from a comfortable base of identity. Enlightenment is exhibited when a person is happy with who they are inclusive of all the day to day responsibilities that life entails. I don’t think it’s much more than that. So in the end, yes I certainly do believe enlightenment is possible for humans, because even if it’s not about particular examples of named individuals, I can definitely imagine there are other people out there who are actually happy with every responsibility they’ve taken on in their life, and wouldn’t rather be someone else.Cheers!