Perspective

Enlightenment is not new. What is it? You can look up definitions and literature and scriptures to your heart's content, so I will not duplicate any of that. Is it real? As a friend or family member, you might be asking this. It is like when meditation was first studied, one of the questions was: Is it Sleep? So, a question you might have is: Is enlightenment Insanity? Well, 'sana' literally means 'health', so it is actually the healthiest state to be in.

Actually, it is not a state... Oh, this is going to get interesting...

Long ago, the Buddha was asked, "What are you? Are you a god? An angel? A devil? What?" And he answered: "I am awake." So it means being awake - really present - to what actually is, and not a conception of it. Primarily, it means that the ego, one's self-concept, is not in the way any more. A modern name for this is Self-Realization, which sounds like something that everyone can grow toward, and it is.

Hmm, the ego... poses a problem, since psychologically we are told that a person without an ego would be insane, or catatonic or something. Very disorganized, at least. But think of it this way: you need a car to travel distances quickly, right? The car has its problems, it needs things, and breaks down, and is inconvenient. Wouldn't it be vastly superior if you could travel without the car? Yes. So the ego has its problems and limitations... It is a vehicle in a sense, and so if it could be unnecessary, we would prefer that. It is possible. Just suppose that it is and keep reading. Take a leap of faith on behalf of whomever you are reading this for.

In all faiths and spiritual traditions, the idea of enlightenment is recognized. For some, it is the goal, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen. For others, it is seen as basically impossible: Christianity comes to mind. The people who insist that only Jesus can have Christ Consciousness (against what Jesus actually said) have really missed the point of their preceptor.

But if someone becomes enlightened it can pose problems. They might do things that the culture is hard-pressed to allow. For example, Mansur al Halleh uttered the words "an al Haqq", essentially: "I am the Truth", which is equivalent in Islam to "I am God", and is therefore a blasphemy. Most people including the spiritual scholars and leaders were willing to let it go, but some folks kept bringing it up and so because an ordinary person could not say such a thing (it really would be disrespectful if they did) then for the sake of example, they had to kill him. And he danced through the streets to his execution, because it was all the same to him.

Sometimes I feel that way too. If you know someone who can say things like that to you face-on and they are in every way that you can tell, sane, then you are dealing with a person whose ego is "on vacation". Is that the same as enlightenment? Keep reading.