Guiding Thought

Divine energy nourishes us, heals us, and brings God into our minds and bodies. Enlightenment moves us, awakens our Soul, and firmly grounds us in all we do. Our energy creates our life experiences; our being is only love and light.

Reflection

I have a confession. I don’t know what enlightenment is, at least I don’t know today, maybe I’ll know tomorrow.

Now knowing what enlightenment is, I feel some puzzlement about the phrase, “Enlightenment moves us, awakens our Soul, and firmly grounds us in all we do.”

For years, I have wondered what the word means; more recently I have been wondering this in the past week due to a newsletter I received from someone who claims to have become enlightened in 1960.

Notice I say, “claims”. Who decides who is enlightened? Can I just decide I am enlightened and start telling people I am, and make it true?

Just today I was reading about two “enlightened” people:  Ramana Maharshi and Dr. Jean Klein. Throughout the articles I was reading, the term “enlightened” was used repeatedly, without an explanation of what it is. Let me be clear: I am not doubting that these people are enlightened, I just want to know what it means to them.

As a social scientist, and researcher, I like it when people define their terms.

How do I know that what one person means by enlightenment is the same as what another person means by it?

What if this one word describes different things to different people? We won’t know unless we talk about what the word means.

I’ve thought (as my own devil’s advocate) that “people ‘just know’ what it is and if you have to ask, it means you’re not enlightened–you just don’t get it”.

OK, that’s fine. I’m not enlightened. That’s ok; lots of people aren’t. But it seems like this line of reasoning leaves a lot of possibility for us regular folk to be taken advantage of by people who say they’re enlightened. Again, let me be clear: I totally get that there are some states of understanding that “there are no words for”. I’ve had a few myself. But just because someone has had an experience of such a state does not make them enlightened…or does it? Perhaps remaining in such a state in a sustained way qualifies as enlightenment. I don’t know.

I also understand that trying to define something like enlightenment is the complete antithesis of enlightenment. I get that too; I talk about it here–it’s called Oneness–being in a state of absolute equality regarding all things. Any definition only serves to divide and separate, and so takes us away from enlightenment (but on the other hand, if enlightenment is Oneness, then everything, including definitions are included in that, right?)

But this does not mean understanding Oneness is enlightenment. If that were the case, then I would be enlightened, and I’ve already concluded I’m not.

Or am I?

If enlightenment is Oneness, then everything I am right here, right now, is included in that, so I am enlightened…right?

If this is true, and I am enlightened right here, right now, then the Guiding Thought makes a little more sense:

Divine energy nourishes us, heals us, and brings God into our minds and bodies. Everything in energy. We live in the Oneness of All, which is Divine energy. This moment, right here, right now, we are in it. This is it. In this moment, we are being nourished and healed by simply being right here, right now in this moment. God is in our minds and bodies right here, right now.

Enlightenment moves us, awakens our Soul, and firmly grounds us in all we do. This is it. Since this is it, this moment is an enlightened moment. Our soul is awake (with this realization) and everything we do is grounded in Enlightenment, since Enlightement is everything, right here, right now–Oneness.

Our energy creates our life experiences; our being is only love and light. We are only Divine energy. Everything is only Divine energy. Divine energy is “our energy” and therefore, of course It creates our life experiences; of course our being is only love and light.

Maybe I know what enlightenment is, after all.

Maybe I am enlightened, right here, right now.

And maybe you are, too, right here, right now.