"In a moment of grace, an instant out of time, there is the realization that who you truly are has never been touched by any concept. This very instant of realization is, in fact, what the concept of enlightenment points to."
Throughout the millennia, spiritual seekers from all parts of the world have pursued enlightenment as a means of transcending human suffering. What is enlightenment really? What do we really want when we are chasing elusive and transient states of mind? In our willingness to simply be open, it is possible to directly realize our true identity, closer and yet beyond any concept of ignorance or enlightenment.
The word enlightenment is such a beautiful word. It means “filled with light.” Yet we have taken the simplicity and the purity of that definition and tainted it with a complicated list of delineations and proofs as to whether one has, in fact, discovered the light.
Many schools of thought have been developed, both religious and metaphysical, that follow particular definitions of the word. When we drop the word enlightenment, and actually are willing to experience the clear light of our own consciousness, then we discover what is free of any evaluation, any levels, any measurement. Enlightenment is, in reality, so vast that it cannot be measured. And if we stop using particular emotional or circumstantial states as proof of anything, good or bad, then our emotions and our circumstances are discovered to be like the weather passing through the vastness of who we truly are. Emotions are phenomena that come and go while the clear light of consciousness remains unmoving, revealing itself to always be here.
I invite you to experiment with being aware of how you may have conceptualized your own or others’ enlightenment and then just drop that conceptualization. Not substituting a new conceptualization, but simply dropping all ideas of what anything means, for just a moment.
Concepts can be quite useful and appropriate for certain endeavors, but they are in the way when we want to directly experience the always-present truth.
It is ironic how something so precious, fulfilling, and eternal as the clear light of consciousness can subtly get turned into another object of the mind.
When the insight of clear light first arises in a life-stream, it is a revolutionary point in that life. As that awareness continues to emerge and grow, the longing for enlightenment or liberation from false ideas is fueled. Finally, there is the resolve and the courage to begin to turn one's back on the forces that support ignorance and turn toward the force that reveals the truth of awakening.
By some miraculous, mysterious grace, there eventually comes a time when, for an instant, you are struck dumb of all words, all concepts, all searching, all striving, and all identifying yourself as either ignorant and unenlightened or free and enlightened. In that moment of grace, that instant out of time, free of concept yet fully conscious, there is the realization that who you truly are has never been touched by any concept. This very instant of realization is, in fact, what the concept of enlightenment has always pointed to.
The habits of mind, of course, are very strong, and they are likely to reappear: “Oh, I got it, I'm enlightened.” This habit of mind already presupposes that you are some entity separate from the wonder revealed in an instant of the mind ceasing its parade of thoughts. Then, of course, following that is, “Now that I am enlightened, what can I do with it?”, followed closely by “Oh, I lost it, I am ignorant once again and unenlightened.”
The truth of who you are has no need of, no desire for, and no fear of either ignorance or enlightenment. Who you truly are is free of any mental concept. Enlightenment points to realizing that, and ignorance points to not realizing that. The workings of the mind, however, can be subtle. In the moment of clinging to any concept of ignorance or any concept of enlightenment as reality, you are already in the experience of ignorance again.
The great gift that my teacher, Papaji, and his teacher, Ramana Maharshi, offer you is the possibility of simply being still, of not looking to thought as the reference point of who you are. When the mind is still and free of thought, what can be said about what is revealed in stillness? Nothing that has ever been said has truly touched this reality. Words can only point to it. Words such as enlightenment, realization, Self, Truth, God, or Grace all point to the infinite and indefinable pure beingness. Yet the moment any of these words is conceived as a thing, they point away from that.
The reality of being is utterly simple and profound, and this is what has kept it the deepest secret. Eventually, all striving, all practicing, all taking notes, all comparing yourself with others, is realized to be worthless. In this moment of realization, there is ultimate freedom. If there is the slightest mental clinging to even that, then there is once again misidentification.
You will never realize true freedom by searching for it in thought. You may have intellectual understanding, but you will never be satisfied until you open your mind to what is beyond understanding: the absolute truth in the core of our being.
This gift from Ramana through Papaji to you is the possibility of stopping mid-thought and recognizing the deepest truth. You can't make stillness. You are stillness. Be who you are. Be still. Absolutely, completely still.
Make Yourself a Target
From the time we are children, we are trained to manipulate and build the necessary skills for survival in the world. We learn to manipulate and control our natural functions. We learn to manipulate and control our brains so that we can focus and learn. And we make progress in all that. We grow and we learn and hopefully flourish. Yet when we apply the same techniques of learning to spiritual endeavors, we find them to be ultimately useless.
We also attempt to “manifest” what we want in the world, and we may have some success in that, but true spiritual inquiry has nothing to do with manifestation. Manifestation has to do with bringing something here and then keeping it here. That can be useful in terms of power, but it is useless in terms of self-realization.
In the endeavor to discover the truth of who one is, the first, foremost, and final activity needed by your mind is to discover what comes and goes, and from that discovery, to realize what is always here.
Good states and negative states come and go. You are happy, you are sad, you've got it, you've lost it. These are all states. The truth is that any state of mind, whether a state of bliss or a state of unhappiness, will, by the nature of states, come and go. There was a time when it was not here, a time when it is experienced, and a time when it is gone.
In one millisecond of an absolutely still mind, realization, which is already inherent in your being, recognizes itself and infiltrates your mind. Effortlessly, your mind recognizes its source and explodes in wonder at that, falls in love with that. And yes, the byproducts of that recognition can be tremendous. But if we reach for the byproducts, we are reaching for what comes and goes.
Yes, there may be great bliss, but that bliss comes and goes. There may also be an experience of great equanimity, but equanimity, too, comes and goes. There are yogic practices that can train your mind to keep the bliss or the equanimity for longer periods of time, but that is not what I'm pointing to here. Realization, the discovery of the truth of who you are, is not a practice. For this, all you need is to have the desire for it. When that desire, that longing, becomes a raging fire, it will fuel the discipline to tell the truth about what is always here underneath any idea of yourself, any idea of what you want, and if you get what you want, any idea of what you think that will give you. Underneath all of that, you are craving to know the truth of yourself. That craving is necessary, and because you are reading this now, I believe it is present in you. Now, the challenge is: can you make yourself a target for that truth?
When you are absolutely still, the ground of truth can’t be missed. You are saying, “Here I am.” Then the truth has you.
Also available: Enlightenment, a compilation audio for download.
