The Word "Enlightenment" Creates False Expectations

0:00The word enlightenment, two things that it does do very well are the transformation aspect of spiritual weakening which is very observable and practical and undeniable in many cases and the insight part of it which is simply central to the whole thing. But let's go back a bit to the downsides. The other problem with the word enlightenment is it creates false expectations in many ways. For one thing, it can apply a single moment of insight because you use the word enlightenment as though it's a single thing. It implies a climactic shift which is really there can be shifts, sudden shifts, but enlightenment is just a process. It's kind of like learning to play an instrument. You don't know if a son just learned to play an instrument.

1:03It builds up over time and it goes deeper and it goes broader and there is really no end and enlightenment is the same. It implies a monumental discovery, you know, it implies this sort of like grand revelation, which of course, you can have moments of that. I've had moments of that plenty of them, but that doesn't really help you integrate into daily life because it sort of has you seeking. It's kind of like enlightenment. It must be this grand thing. It must be far out there, but actually in ultimate instance, it's a very grounded thing. It's a very immediate thing. It implies a rival, which is problematic because enlightenment is just a process. It's an ongoing process. It can imply becoming special, you know, the word enlightenment. I'm enlightened. You know, it's

2:06it has that kind of ego-boosting aspect to it. And it implies a state. It implies something you reach and you never move from, which again, very, very problematic. Let me give you a kind of metaphor that I used to describe the downsides of using this word or this particular aspect of it. It sounds like you make enlightenment sound like a very sort of cut and dry process. Like let's turn on the enlightenment oven, let's put the train with for 30 minutes, you know, let's meditate for X amount of years or whatever, and then we're going to get a cake and it's done. And that just is it's not really capturing the nuances. The reality of awakening is quite different from what the word enlightenment may imply.

3:10There can be moments of joyful recognition, as I said, but they're not the main event. And usually awakening is gradual. It's perceptual. And it's a rewiring of the perceptual system. It's it's not this grand discovery in essence. It often happens intermittently so you can be, you know, doing a spiritual practice for months and not really notice any progress. And in all of a sudden, you have a shift and you have a sudden insight or you have a sudden shift. It's a very messy process. You know, there's ups and downs and there's jumps forward and there's regression backwards and there's no real guarantee of what it's going to look like. It's this continually shifting process. And it's got a very different tone about it to what

4:14the word enlightenment may imply. It's more grounding and sober and steady and ordinary than, you know, the idea of like this amazing transformation, sudden kind of like realization or insight or any kind of ideas about becoming some supernatural spiritual being. You know, these things are very tempting and they're very kind of attractive to our mind, but the actual reality of it is much more grounded, not necessarily mundane in the kind of boring sense, but just more grounded and more sober. It's a sobering process.