Seeking Enlightenment?

Are you sometimes tempted to wonder about the great teachers who achieved enlightenment and left their words of wisdom to encourage the rest of humanity to achieve the same exalted state of completion? It’s a whispered reminder that resonates in our hearts because we know at some deep, uncharted level that there has to be a better way to experience this great adventure we call life. And that’s because life can be very puzzling, difficult, absurd and frequently overwhelming. How much better would everything be if we could only step into the shoes of those illuminated seekers of truth and perceive everything as it really is? The question is - how do we get there? ?

If Enlightenment is the great goal of human existence, should we bravely accept the ultimate quest, abandon our hearths and homes and careers and dedicate our lives to the pursuit of wisdom in some lofty ashram, far from the daily distractions that keep us bound to the relentless toil of the grindstone? It’s very tempting to want to escape from the pressures of daily life. The ancient sources of wisdom, however, held that this ultimate expression of human potential is not a product of running away from our responsibilities. Enlightenment, they wrote, is nothing other than our natural condition. We cannot run away from what we truly are. No matter how precious we might believe enlightenment to be, the state of eternal bliss is not a commodity to be acquired. It is not conditional on where we are. It isn’t even connected to who we think we are. It’s the revelation that manifests when the mind ceases to project its illusions onto the raw fabric of the world. It’s what remains when all thoughts, feelings, reactions and movement of the mind become still. It’s the purity of being when the ego is dissolved and the familiar layers of our personal sense of identity slip away. This process of becoming still takes practice yet the great teachers repeated that there is nothing to seek because there is no seeker and there is nothing to be sought. In the stillness of eternity, all that remains is the absolute, unchanging and unalterable reality.

So, feel free to cancel your ticket to the ashram. Use this moment, this perfect expression of the present, to breathe a little more deeply and notice who exactly is thinking your thoughts and feeling your emotions. The more you search for the answer, the less there will be to find. Your pathway to enlightenment is where you are right now. Feel free to enjoy the journey.

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