Stages of Enlightenment

“Do you want to know what enlightenment is?” the teacher asked. Instantly the room became pin-drop still as curiosity flamed up a few degrees. A few students nodded, while others found themselves too immersed in suspense to move or even change their expressions.

“It is very simple,” he said. “It is being in light. In-lightened. The more light you have coming through you, the more in-light or in-lightened you are.”

Inside, I felt a little “Aha” trigger go off.

It was one of those statements that when you heard it, it instantly made sense. It made so much sense that it made me feel like I already knew it. So I, along with other students sitting there that night, nodded my head. Nodded our heads as though we were somehow seconding the motion, or giving our teacher a ‘thumbs-up’ that he had gotten it right, as though we were doing some kind of peer review on his teachings, as though we had already known this before he said it.

But once you hear it, it kind of makes sense. Doesn’t it?