Enlightenment

You can get ‘enlightened’ by joining a tradition of enlightenment and committing to the practice.

But enlightenment does not belong to any tradition.

Enlightenment is built into the structure of reality.

Enlightenment is simply ever-present consciousness awakened to its own nature.

The Buddha’s gift to humanity was that he demonstrated how to do it . . . how to unpack the structures of mind, of self and other, and awaken to what is there before mind moves . . . before mind creates its ‘ten thousand things’.

This pure ‘enlightened’ consciousness, then, is there before there are Buddhas and it will be there after there are Buddhas.

In fact it is Buddha.

It is our birthright.

It is our very being, just as we are.

The only issue then, is how to awaken to it.

You could don ochre robes and take vows . . . (although Thoreau did say, ‘Beware of any enterprise requiring new clothes’.)

Or, exactly as you are right now, you can fully commit your life to awakening and walk the path that spontaneously unfolds.