Photo by Sam Mgrdichian on Unsplash
Enlightenment means different things to different people; most of us have different versions of what it is and how it occurs. In some descriptions it happens in an instant, perhaps as a realization of something, or as a result of doing a certain practice, or by a divine intervention.
What the term means to me is the ancient and even timeless universal process of the return of consciousness to its source. Although there are different versions of enlightenment, that’s fine, it’s just worth recognizing that we don’t all necessarily mean the same thing when we say it.
It would be great if we could all be conscious of the present moment and connect with the universal source consciousness and hence become enlightened, realizing we are all one, all that is and will be, and there’s nothing more to do. The problem with this though is that there is no fundamental change to the nature of consciousness nor does in return to its source – in other words, nothing actually happens. It helps to understand something more about the nature of consciousness than thinking or theorizing about it can give, and that requires personal esoteric experience.
To give some examples: to know a little of source consciousness, you could leave your body and temporarily enter the illuminated void, or Samadhi, existing in the light that casts no shadows and merge into the oneness beyond thought; that’s a certain kind of OBE, which is very different to a NDE or astral projection. Or better still, you could go through the process of the return to source yourself and merge your consciousness with the cosmic Son, and merge it with the emanation of the source and have the permanent bliss of Samadhi in your consciousness always.
Consciousness is not fundamentally changed by any realization of the mind, or by being aware of the now as in neither of these does it reach enlightenment. Instead it continues to be trapped within the subconscious.
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Thank you for clarifying, as there seems to be quite a few people out there who claim that enlightenment can essentially come in an instant, almost seemingly by chance. Well, that sounds nice and easy and might explain why they have so many high-paying followers!
Obviously enlightenment in the sense that it’s often mentioned here is as the result of lots of hard work and dedication; through trying, I’ve seen clearly it’s not something that one could ever achieve simply by practising some form of spirituality just when one feels like it, and essentially carrying on with life and one’s feelings, emotions, and state of mind otherwise. I think the example of not just being in the present moment, but also studying dreams really speaks for itself – it makes clear the spiritual state of a person, despite external appearances and what others might think of them.
Hi David, yeah it seems like it is quite common to confuse insights of consciousness with ideas from egos, as both of those things reach a person beyond their understanding of their “rational mind” and can’t be properly studied and understood by modern philosophy or psychology.
Thank you very much for this article Belsebuub. Found it very interesting and inspiring
Thanks for clarifying this Belsebuub. There really are all kinds of different definitions of enlightenment floating around out there as you say and I know this is confusing for a lot of people who want to know more about it. It was very confusing to me before I came in contact with your work and the practices that have helped me to gain my own understanding of what enlightenment really is.
It is unfortunate that so many people teach so many things without really knowing or just to profit from it. I have personally met many people who have been led astray.
It reminds me of this picture called “The Wrong Path” by Louis Janmot.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XAJX6JW_864/T8ymLhZSR4I/AAAAAAAABdY/9XXPwYAPAN0/s1600/The+wrong+path+-+Louis+Janmot.jpg
I love this picture because it reminds me of all the teachers and paths I had to sift through before I could find out what enlightenment was and how to achieve it. It moves me in a very special way because I know how so many people knowingly and unknowingly are ready and waiting to take us off the path. It really resonates with me and reflects the experience I’ve have throughout my life and also what I am getting out of this article.
It is so hard to understand enlightenment when so many people define it in different ways and believe or claim they have achieved it, especially for a seeker without enough experience to decipher the truth.
Having gone through a very small portion of freeing the consciousness, the process of enlightenment really resonates with me as you have explained it. From my limited experience, it is possible to free bits of the trapped consciousness and become more able to act correctly as you go along. It makes sense that if you continue to chip away like this, as long as you go in the right direction, you are in the actually in the process of enlightenment. With this in mind, it makes no sense that enlightenment would happen in an instant or as an epiphany.
Time is a valuable gift….. yes. It feels like we are in overtime, getting extra chances in a game that has had it’s time. This statement really struck me and I am so grateful for the time that I have in this life. I am especially grateful for this website.
Thanks.
what a moving picture Michelle! Thanks for sharing.
I really like that painting as well, Michelle. Very fitting to the subject.
Thank you Belsebuub, your insights seem to really help me to be more patient with my inner work, see things from a larger perspective, as well as to keep hope and faith.
I can especially relate to your explanations about self-observation. It is such a simple skill that can easily be underestimated and replaced by other ideas. But without self-observation, unless the mind is concentrated, the egos just take away the spiritual.
It appears to be so vital to get self-observation working extremely well, to be able to actually pass the tests and the initiations on the Path, where all egos are gradually stirred up to manifest.
Thank you Belsebuub for this clear article on such a difficult topic that gets so misunderstood in these days. As you said, people have various ideas about what enlightenment means today, and without direct spiritual experience then there are very many theories in the society about it, which one can easily get lost in.
From my incipient esoteric experience I can also see that this process indeed takes a lot of time, and that it is incredibly hard to keep awareness going for a sustained periods of time. The thing that keeps me personally going is the feeling of freedom I get after a certain psychological defect has been reduced and I feel the strength and peace of my consciousness, as well as the connection to the higher worlds. In those moments, I can see that it really does not make any sense to trade my consciousness for any of the temporary inner states, not matter how tempting they may be.
Wishing everyone a lot of inner strength and clear guidance on their journeys back “home”. :-)
Plenty to investigate – thank you.
Thanks Belsebuub for this article. I think you made some really good points about enlightenment, especially in the beginning of this article.
I think putting it out there that there that it’s possible to go beyond just experiencing really profound spiritual experiences is important, since these experiences are always just temporary and that enlightenment is something more.
I’ve seen from my own personal spiritual experiences with being conscious of the present moment, connecting to the universal source of consciousness and feeling one with everything, having incredible lucid dreams and out-of-body experiences, and getting a glimpse of entering Samadhi, it’s like these experiences were all really good, gave me new insights and inspirations about life and consciousness, and gave me a boost overall. However the feeling from those sorts of experiences doesn’t last forever and eventually I go back to feeling ‘normal’, back to low states, negativity, irritation, etc coming in and taking my peace away.
It’s been through the transformative techniques you talked about, self-knowledge & dying to the subconscious egos, and practicing alchemy, that I’ve noticed a more lasting spiritual peaceful feeling within. It’s not to say that I don’t fall victim to my emotions or subconscious, that still happens. Now though it’s like this peaceful feeling is always there, running in the background and it’s becoming easier and easier for me to return to it, and the emotions and subconscious attack less and less, and the lasting peaceful feeling slowly grows. This lasting spiritual feeling has built up over time, with the continual practice of those techniques. I can see from my experiences that there is something more beyond just having profound spiritual experiences, that it’s possible to grow and transform the consciousness inside and create something that is more. I’m not ‘enlightened’ or anything, far from it, however from all this I can see and understand how enlightenment works and indeed how it takes time.
That’s a really inspiring comment, Jenny, thanks! I feel like I’ve had to work for a while to reach the ‘baseline’ state of, say, a ‘good’ person, or average person, and even that has been such a relief from the way I used to be. I look forward to the day when I can really feel more than OK, actually feel spiritual, and actually enlighten.
Thank you Belsebuub.
A lot of philosophers think the sub-conscious is a good thing and it’s where lots of knowledge is stored… And they say such things as you need to program the sub-conscious by hypnotherapy or repeating an incantation over and over for example.
This seems much inferior to me but still how does this still bring the desired results to these people. Is it just that the knowledge is coming from their consciousness which is trapped inside the sub-conscious but because they are so submerged in their egos(Sub-conscious) they are not aware of how the knowledge is coming to them. So they think the knowledge is coming from their sub-conscious which is actually their consciousness. And their normal state which they believe to be in consciousness is actually their sub-conscious?
Sorry if this does not make sense.
Hello David,
Your first point could be argued; their are many people who claim to be philosophers who aren’t.
It’s hard to follow the questions in your second point. Could you simplify?
I suppose it really depends on who these “philosophers” are and what exactly they’re saying. It’s too large / delicate of an area to draw the same conclusions for everyone. I see what you mean though, and I guess it’s possible that some people can be referring to consciousness while calling it the sub-conscious based on their own terminology. I suppose also though that the definition of “desired results” is a key thing here, as these may vary from person to person or amongst different schools of thought. Ultimately, I feel that a person working towards enlightenment in a sincere and dedicated way will be able to figure out / get inner guidance on what steps they need to make to get there.