Enlightenment? Or emotional freedom?
Have you ever wanted to slap a guru? I know I have.
Bless their hearts, they do their best to convey eternal, ineffable truths to the rest of us, patiently pointing again and again toward inconvenient truths we don’t understand and/or would prefer not to see.
Here is one of the truths I successfully ignored or misinterpreted for at least a dozen years: Enlightenment is not the happiness pill it’s mistakenly made out to be.
There is a persistent idea that enlightenment and emotional freedom are the same thing. In fact, one has nothing to do with the other, and while they can sometimes go together, they don’t have to. Naturally that didn’t stop me from chasing enlightenment anyway, because I so wanted to be released from my own inner turmoil.
There is a persistent idea that enlightenment and emotional freedom are the same thing. In fact, one has nothing to do with the other, and while they can sometimes go together, they don’t have to.
As a grimly determined spiritual seeker, nothing frustrated me more than hearing some serenely enlightened guy say, “Enlightenment is here right now. You yourself are already enlightened.”
Great. Thank you. Now my despair is complete.
Although he no doubt meant well, I translated this bit of news to mean there’s an epic party going on somewhere inside my own house, but I’m not cool enough to know where it is. Or if I know the party’s location, apparently it takes some kind of secret handshake to get past the doorman.
What’s the secret handshake, Enlightened Guy?
Can’t tell ya. It’s secret.
What the enlightened guru guy was saying is true, of course: You’re enlightened right now, exactly as you are. But it’s really not so mystical or inexplicable as all that.
Because here's a basic, bare bones definition of enlightenment: One who abides in present moment awareness.
That’s it. As a stripped down, rudimentary description, an awakened person is somebody who always knows themselves as the sky instead of the clouds. It doesn’t mean you won’t experience weather. It just means you’ll witness it from the sky’s perspective.
And why do those enlightened guru guys insist you already are that? Because there is a portion of you—the real you, the unchanging you—that is always already aware, and always already present. And it’s this already-ness quality of your true self that they are pointing to.
So, the good news is: You’ve got this. We all do. Present moment awareness is your birthright and mine. Maybe you're not quite ready to abide in spacious, sky-like awareness full time just yet, (or maybe you are) but either way, you can visit anytime you want to.
The party inside your house is happening right now, in other words, and your real self would love you to come. Even the doorman is hoping you’ll show up. After all, the shindig is being thrown in your honor. Attending the event is just a matter of building up that present awareness muscle.
For a couple of free audio meditation exercises designed to help build that present awareness muscle, go here and scroll down to Becoming Familiar with Radiant Awareness, and then, Awareness in the Present Moment.
PS: Oh, and emotional freedom? That's a totally different houseparty--and it's one that's not to be missed...But that's a subject for some other newsletter.