What The Word "Enlightenment" Does Right

However, I will consider a couple of things to enlightenment. There are a couple of things

that the word enlightenment gets right about awakening or spiritual realization, although

even those words are problematic. The first is the transformation aspect. So it's pretty

undeniable that spiritual weakening does transform people, not theoretically but very practically,

very observably. If you meet people who have some degree of spiritual awakening or enlightenment,

you'll notice that their behaviour and their personality and their presence can be markedly

different from the average person. And often other people notice this, even people who aren't

spiritual in any way, they will notice this. And this is undeniable and I can myself say that

this has happened to me and other people notice it. It doesn't feel like a badge that I need to

wear. It feels like I'm just being the way I want to be, but people notice. And this is good

because it inspires students to get started and it provides a certain direction for them.

So using the word enlightenment captures this aspect of transformation which can be a positive

thing as long as we don't create fantasies around what the transformation means and we're going

to cover that more as we go on. It also captures the insight component of awakening because

look at the word enlightenment, enlighten, it really means to shine a light on something or to

illuminate something. Now obviously that's metaphorical but what it really means is to reveal or to

clarify something. And of course, awakening clarifies several aspects of being human, it clarifies

your real identity, it clarifies the nature of consciousness, the nature of perception, and it

clarifies the nature of personality. And this way of using the word enlightenment is central to

awakening, this revealing or this clarification. And if we don't communicate this somehow, well,

you're not really communicating anything because this is a central aspect of awakening. So

the word enlightenment, two things that it does do very well are the transformation aspect

of spiritual awakening 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.