Enlightenment
What is it Like to be Enlightened?
Many people have an experience of enlightenment. It simply means they transcend the limitations of thought and conditioning for perhaps a moment in time. These moments or periods of enlightenment usually leave a marked impression or deep insights into the nature of oneself or of life.
There are stages in the process however, and the very beginnings are in an extension of intuition, or the transcendence of the senses and physical boundaries created by your body. One of the stages for many people is a sort of cleansing, a discharge of what has been called in the East as Karma - influences from the past we still cling to or are held by. In todays terms this would be thought of as clearing out old traumas and cultural conditioning.
But to be enlightened in a grand sense will mean that you have moved beyond time and space in a demonstrable way. The limitations of the physical senses and the body will no longer hold you to the same degree. Your ego will have melted its boundaries and incorporate more awareness of all living things. The ability to place your awareness at any point on the globe or universe, or to tap into a cosmic fount of knowledge, to be able to heal or have profound insight into the body and mind of others will be available. This does not mean you will be 'famous' or widely known. The enlightened person may live simply and be the person you know down the road.
In the end, the physical body will be transformed, so there will be nothing of it left to die.
But the spirit of Life, The Tao as it is called in the East, is infinitely creative, so there can be no end to enlightenment. No beginning - no end. Not this. Not that. Action in non action.
This life is just a describer, and one of the things it sees is that this state does not belong to anyone. It's not something you can get from someone. It's who everyone is. From here, the highest volume is the sound of the infinite ocean that we all are. Suzanne Sega.
Since there is nothing to meditate on, there is no meditation.
Since there is nowhere to go astray, there is no going astray.
Although there is an innumerable variety of profound practices, they do not exist for your mind in its true state.
Since there are no two such things as practice and practitioner, if, by those who practice or do not practice, the practitioner of practice is seen to not exist, thereupon the goal of practice is reached and also the end of practice itself.
-Padmasambhava
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