“Close your eyes … fall in Love … stay there!” – Rumi
Enlightenment can be thought of as a state of being. Simply to be. This state of being or consciousness can be tuned in to or out of, it is always within reach, ever-present as the here and now. “Enlightenment or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs but the recognition of what already is,” Alan Watts. It is to feel with your very being that you are love, light, and life itself. To feel strongly that you are connected with all life. It is the realization that many of the processes that take place within your own body are not isolated to only you.
In the words of Alan Watts:
“You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing”
Illustrating this is the fact that the oxygen that we inhale was ‘exhaled’ (produced through the process of photosynthesis) by a plant, in turn, the carbon dioxide that we exhale is absorbed/‘inhaled’ by the plant. In this way, even the process of our own breathing is a collective effort between us and nature. We may even say that it is one process.
Another example of this type of relationship is the relationship between a bee and a flower. Even though the bee and the flower are thought of as two separate organisms, the one is completely dependent on the other, no more or less than your brain is dependent on your heart for oxygen.
From a purely, biological, and chemical point of view, even the cells, and chemicals in your own body is mostly, ‘other’ than you. If say you ate an apple, for example, the molecules that were part of the apple just a few minutes ago are now part of your body.
Understanding this concept, and experiencing it yourself within your own awareness may differ. Through experiencing something ourselves, we learn and understand things from a different perspective. Through experience, we learn empathy as well.
“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them” – Charles Bukowski
Empathy can facilitate, experiencing the ‘other,’ or another person or organism as being you, part of you, or connected to you, or at the very least, as being like you in his, or her sense of self as this organism having a particular experience, here and now, even though that individual may look, and think very differently from what you define as ‘you.’ Through empathy, we are able to feel, even if in imagination what the other feels in that particular moment.
Awakening is defined as a revival of interest or attention, a recognition, realization, or coming into awareness. Enlightenment, on the other hand, is defined as the state of having knowledge or understanding. Thus, we can say that to become enlightened, is simply a realization, of understanding, that is already within you.
“The seed of enlightenment is there in every being. It is the realization that you are eluding” – Sanhguru
We can add endless quotes from numerous publications and/or accredited people to further “You have no need to travel anywhere, journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light” Rumi. Travel within to the source, to find that you are home, that you have arrived. “Enlightenment is not an attainment or an achievement. It is a homecoming. Your senses give you the impression that you are experiencing the outside, but you have never experienced the outside. When you realize that all that you experience is within, that absolute homecoming is enlightenment” ( Sandhguru).
To wake up, to be a light, accept that WE are all the same light, reflected as individual rays of perceived reality through the prism of this unique life experience at this moment in time.
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change" - Wayne Dyer -
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”
— Carl Jung