Some people are content with a simple 3D materialistic life, drifting day in-and-out of the matrix sold to us by societal programming. Others eventually see through the cracks in the cultural facades and become “seekers,” enticed by the ideas of “enlightenment” and/or “awakening.” Yet, there are ALOT of misconceptions about these ‘states of being’ / ‘levels of spiritual achievement…’
I was reading a book on Aleister Crowley & his Thelema ‘philosophy/doctrine,’ when this quote jumped out with a piercing resonance so perfectly articulating the matter:
“Spiritual attainment is not a point-event, a single moment in time where we are forever-after an enlightened being. We must inevitably come crashing back to our earthly egos, though perhaps with a better command and control of it, and fight the many forces that might pervert its best intentions.”
Amen.
And this is something that can’t just really be learned through a book…
Now, it’d be wise to begin with some discernment around the whole “enlightenment” thing, given the distortion of subjectivity that has been integral to the conception of ‘what it is’ for most. Chances are, the majority who might actually say they’re enlightened may more likely be in the grips of an ego trip, so their accounts of the state might best be taken with a grain of salt. And even those who’ve ‘attained the state’ and may have done their best to articulate it, the communication is surely limited by language itself, one’s capacity to translate a richness of experience not possible to be transmitted completely in language, and/or several layers of mistranslation as others have attempted to relay their accounts & teachings. No doubt, that’s surely all at least part of why there are so many misconceptions of “enlightenment.”
And perhaps it’s impossible to objectively analyze what I perceive as common conceptions of others - even if having observed the same patterns at play in the way collectives approach the (or any) subject, there may always still be some degree of my own projections cast into whatever conclusions are ultimately arrived at. Nonetheless…
Many think of “enlightenment” as some all-blissful peak of achievement accompanying a transcendence of worldly worries, like some ultimate achievement, an end goal unto itself which shall deliver exemption from the hardships of “unenlightened” life. We’ve put those who’ve “achieved” it up on pedestals and have strived to follow in their footsteps, while failing to grasp the full ramifications of what “enlightenment” actually is and/or means.
We can also substitute the word “enlightenment” for “awakening” in this overarching viewpoint - seeing many similarities in the outlooks on each. Surely, there are contexts where one word/concept fits more specifically than the other - i.e. “enlightenment” pertaining to more traditional Buddhist & “spiritual” realms, “awakening” often more embraced in “new-age” circles and dolled up with more modern thinking, or even the domain of “conspiracy theorists” exploring rabbit holes and gobbling red-pills. With 8 billion people on this planet, there is certainly a wide spectrum of both individual circumstances and group dynamics that have their own distinct takes on either enlightenment or awakening, so it’s impossible to accurate generalize for all cases. Though regardless, this is to explore some common threads amongst many.
Speaking from my own experience, I related much to these ideas of what “enlightenment/awakening” was (supposed to be). Or hell, perhaps I could just humble myself enough to admit I was subconsciously programmed with similar ideas as countless others. Yet, upon embarking into the life experience to actually eventually reach some of those states others have/would categorize as them, *the ‘reality’ turned out alot different than the expectations;
Again, while it may be encroaching into serious ego territory to make any claims of “having awakened” or “achieved enlightenment,” I’ve at the least dipped my toes in on more than one occasion. The most apparent, in a few of the 15 ayahuasca ceremonies I’d done. And yes, it’s another fine line to make declarations, given the Neptunian realms accessed through psychedelics are known to contain equal amounts of delusion as the Divine blissful oneness shit. Though there have certainly been moments of elevation up to higher vantage points, plugged into the ‘quantum mainframe,’ accessing the “enlightened/awakened” states. Or all psychedelically-assisted rocket trips aside, there’ve certainly been periods of feeling “awakened” and seeing things from a much larger than normal perspective. However, as Colin D. Campbell so perfectly articulated in our opening quote, those are not states which one remains high AF in indefinitely… ultimately, we are still here in the human experience, and gotta ‘come back’ to conduct our business in the 3D and deal with everything that comes with/in it.
As the classic saying goes, ”before enlightenment, chop wood & carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood & carry water.”
Yet even with that saying, there’s so much room for misunderstanding and overromanticizing. Or even with the more modern approach to “awakening,” there seems a common bias towards looking at either from the side of the light, positive, glory, good, etc - rather than the objective balanced yin & yang with not just the Piscean heights, but Scorpionic depths of darkness.*
Especially in some “new age” circles, there is not only a common seeking for the blissful highs of “enlightenment/awakening,” but an equal if not greater amount of escapism - people not truly wanting to immerse fully in the realities of this realm with its vast complexities, but “ascend to 5D” or get beamed up to a different dimension with nothing but rainbows, unicorns, sugar-coated everything, and endless smiles. This is neither enlightenment nor awakening.
The Buddha’s journey to enlightenment didn’t remove him from the harsh 3D realities of disease, poverty and death… it entailed facing them head on - removing himself from the walled garden isolating him inside the carefully-controlled environment of his princedom, venturing into the dirty & dark of earth, and coming to accept of & peace with it.
Or consider the boddhisatvas - beings who’ve ‘attained enlightenment.’ The path of these masters was never one of retirement in a heaven-like bliss bubble, hanging out on cloud nine all day. It was to descend back into the human plane and contribute their frequency to the elevation of all living beings before finally calling it a “success.”
As different as the world may be in this day age from back then, many of the principles at play here remain the same. The path of “awakening” via red pills in 2023 doesn’t end with any badge of “wokeness” and a pat on the back… the light we’re accessing has still got to shine deeper & deeper into darker & darker recesses of all the perversion of culture & institutions. It’s not, “bam, you’re woke, here’s a celebratory donut and everything is now magically gonna be a utopia where all our egoic desires will be catered to by big-tittied exotic models every day all day” - we still got human shit to tend to. There’s bills to pay, inner & outer work to do, problems & conflicts to solve, challenges to undergo, etc, etc.
Once again…
“Spiritual attainment is not a point-event, a single moment in time where we are forever-after an enlightened being. We must inevitably come crashing back to our earthly egos, though perhaps with a better command and control of it, and fight the many forces that might pervert its best intentions.”
No matter how much people wanna believe “the great awakening” is gonna usher in medbeds to cure every ailment and NESARA/GESARA to do away with income tax and give everywhere free money, you can attain enlightenment here & now… and your body is still gonna have its frailties, and you’re putting yourself at risk of imprisonment for tax evasion if choosing not to file/pay taxes.
“Enlightenment” does not exempt anyone from the challenges in relationships and worldly affairs. “Awakening” doesn’t grant a free pass when “the going gets tough.” Nor do either automatically make one a “good person” - we much each still live up to our responsibilities and standards of integrity and outstanding conduct in our business & personal endeavours.
Blah, blah, blah.
IYKYK. And if not… well, we don’t know what what we don’t know, irregardless of what level/degree of “awakening” or “enlightenment” we’ve “attained/achieved” or dipped our toes into.
Or some shit.
Insert your own appeasing conclusion here. 😼🤷♂️💫
I honestly don't know much about any of that. For me, I would see enlightenment in the same vein as contentment. Perhaps you finally achieve it when you stop looking for it and you are just at peace knowing you are never going to know all the answers. Then again, we are curious by nature, so that could be why it is so hard to achieve. As you said, the people who have actually gotten there should be at a point where they don't care enough to brag about it.
ahhh, there ya are! was wondering if you were still alive as haven't seen ya around in a while, haha.
It's the beginning of the school year so things have been nuts. I'm finally starting to settle back into the routine.