You Will Never Become Enlightened

Nope. Nuh-uh. Never gonna happen. Sorry.

…but first we need to clarify what is meant by the word “you.”

By “you” I mean your separate self, the individual who has a name, gender, eye color, and nationality.

See, when most people start learning a new skill or developing a new talent, it’s “me” who does the hard work to hopefully accomplish the goal. This is what self-improvement is all about. You know… “You can lose 20 pounds in 30 days!” or “You can become a millionaire!”

Enlightenment is very different in this respect. “You” don’t become enlightened. It’s not a quality or characteristic you can learn, develop, or obtain.

Enlightenment is the realization of your true nature as the One.

It’s the realization of what you already are, beyond the illusion. It’s not becoming something new that you aren’t now.

Enlightenment is the realization of the Self. Self-realization. The false self that is identified with various characteristics that make it separate and distinct from the All… that is the false self that must totally be disidentified with.

The idea of becoming an “enlightened person” is itself fundamentally flawed. When you look at a person who has awakened, what you’re seeing is Consciousness itself communicating through a physical body. It’s not a mind or ego or collection of thoughts that are being blabbered out by the body. There is only the One speaking to the One.

“Okay cool. So I’ll become Consciousness.”

You can’t become Consciousness because you already ARE Consciousness.

The “problem,” if you will, is that there is a false mind-made self pretending to be something other than what it is… confident, shy, happy, sad, masculine, feminine…

In Reality, there isn’t a separate I that tries to be something other than itself. See, we traditionally think that the process moves from unenlightenment to enlightenment and in appearance, that is how it works.

There’s nothing special you have to do, no skills you have to obtain, nothing more to learn, nowhere you have to go.

The mythical “stairway to heaven” is an illusion. Heaven, like enlightenment, is right here, right now. Really.

Enlightenment is the realization is that there’s nothing you have to do and no one you have to become, except to be exactly who you are right now.

“But I’m being myself! I’m doing what I love. I’m honest and open with people. I never try to change who I am to get the approval of others. I’m being authentic. Shouldn’t I automatically become enlightened, according to that statement?”

You’re identifying with the false you. The one that does things in this world, the actor on the stage, the experiencer of this physical world. None of things are you. They are things the body and mind does as it acts upon the stage of Life. This actor can play many roles, but no matter what role the actor is playing, you are still you.

Who is the You that is unchanging, eternal, and forever present?

THAT is the real you. That is the Self. The Self is always here regardless of external appearances. Enlightenment is not the actor, the false self, becoming the true Self.

It is the complete and total dissolution of the false self as the one that’s identified with. It’s about seeing through the illusion of separation and no longer buying into it.

Enlightenment is the realization of who you truly are: The One. The Unified All That Is. The Infinite.