| There is No-One to Enlighten |
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| Tom Stuart | |||
| Wednesday, 20 January 2010 | |||
  Enlightenment is an incredibly tricky word. Look at it and see what it implies: an individual who is illuminated by some great truth. It connotes a particular state of being, one which needs to be reached in the future, at the end of some kind of protracted process or development. Hence we have the spiritual search, the path to 'enlightenment', the long struggle against the 'ego', etcetera, in order to reach that exalted state. Well guess what? It never happens. The search goes on and on and the individual is no more 'enlightened' than he was at the start. Why? The search, by definition, makes self-realization impossible by abstracting it into thought. In a search there is the anticipation or hope of finding something. This is imagined in thought to be somewhere in the distant future. This thought is appealing and has great resonance with a mind conditioned to believe thought's games. But what is thought. Thought is simply a movement occuring in the present moment, and the present moment is precisely the thing you have been looking for, that exalted 'enlightenment'. Sadly, you have never found it because you have constantly abstracted it into the future through thought, and thus made it impossible for you to acquire, for the future is never here. Self-realization can only occur when the searching ends, when total acceptance reigns, when it is seen that the present moment is self-realization, that everything happening now is what you are. Then peace and all those qualities you have been looking for will flourish. It's as simple as that. So the search creates the suffering that is endless because it is always abstracted into the future. It is a desire that cannot be satisfied. But it is the desire itself that creates the suffering, not the seemingly illusory object of that desire. It is the movement of desire itself. Be present and see that the movement of desire is one like any other. I tell you now sincerely that the movement of desire or any other movement of thought for that matter is no different in essence to the buzzing of a fly's wing, or the crunching of popcorn in a crowded cinema or the sound of a bus door opening. In essence they are all one. You are simply giving too much attention to thought. Be present, accept all that arises, for all that arises is what you are. That is the realization you have been abstracting constantly into the future. There is no-one to enlighten because the individual identity resides in thought, but you are beyond thought. You are the field in which thought and all other movements occur, and that is already 'enlightened'. 'You' just haven't seen it yet. Stay present, be stubborn, don't fall victim to illusion.
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