“Attain enlightenment” can sound like a special status or an ego trip.
‘Attain enlightenment,’ that’s what many spiritual seekers aim for.
- But what if enlightenment is as natural as a flower opening to the sunlight?
- What if attaining enlightenment means there is nothing for the ego left to claim or identify as?
- What if attaining enlightenment is simply realizing you are ordinary open awareness, made of causeless joy.
Attaining natural enlightenment is about freeing the mind and body from the tyranny of the false self. This is why enlightenment is often called liberation and freedom.
Enlightenment is not an experience or a goal; it’s not how to still a busy mind; it is the intuitive, natural recognition of our true nature. When we realize the true self, we are freed from the influence of the false self. The false self causes a lot of suffering.
When I asked Wisdom in a Wisdom Well Meditation for intuitive guidance on “How to attain enlightenment,” these are the insights that arose.
“How to reach enlightenment.”
WISDOM:
“By realizing that your true self is already always free, you can give the gift of this freedom to the body and mind.
“This frees life to flow naturally, with purpose and in service.
“When the false self is in power, life does not flow freely or naturally. The false self blocks off intuition, and the mind pushes and pulls, trying to manipulate words and actions. This causes suffering.
“Each heart has an inner guidance system, the highest inner teacher is available to all, but because most are focused on thoughts, they miss the voice of the inner teacher.
“The inner teacher is calling you home to the true self, its function is to enlighten.
The purpose of your inner teacher is to enlighten.
“There is no individual person to attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is the process of intuitively realizing and revealing the true self to itself. This self-knowledge is a gift for the body and mind.
“Once enlightenment has gifted the body and mind, it is obvious to that mind that there is no individual to claim enlightenment.
“When the seed of interest in the true self is germinated, the call to the truth is sounded.
“For some this is experienced as longing for truth, for others longing for lasting peace, happiness and wisdom. This is the first movement to attain enlightenment. It is a movement of the mind inwards.
“Surrender is helpful because it opens the heart and mind. When the heart and mind are open, there is the chance the inner teacher can be heard.
“The inner teacher is made of pure knowing. It is different from thoughts that arise from the surface limited mind. The inner teacher is the same inner teacher that all minds discover, translated into different languages and cultures.
Many wisdom wells, one water.
COMMENT TEACHING:
The mind drops a bucket into the well and translates the water into its own words and images, colored by its unique conditioning, language and culture.
This is why when you find your inner teacher, the truth sounds the same as the truth found by all sages, regardless of culture, language or background. Though the translation is different, you sense intuitively this is wisdom.
Wisdom recognizes wisdom. Truth recognizes truth.
On this path to attain enlightenment, the ignorant mind is given the wisdom of self-knowledge. This self-knowledge transforms dark into light, ignorance into understanding. In this understanding the mind sees itself as the self it was seeking.
Just as a flower opens to the sun, eventually all souls open to seek the truth. This path to attain enlightenment is natural. Nature is not an easy teacher. Seeds have to break open to grow.
Enlightenment is a dying process.
It asks us to surrender the false self and embodiment of true seeing and being.
If you are sincere in your desire for truth and weary of the world as a source of happiness, then follow the call to attain enlightenment.
