YOU ARE NOT YOUR MIND
THE GREATEST OBSTACLE
TO ENLIGHTENMENT
Enlightenment — what is that?
A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over
thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. "Spare some change?"
mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. "I have
nothing to give you," said the stranger. Then he asked: "What's that
you are sitting on?" "Nothing," replied the beggar. "Just
an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember."
"Ever looked inside?" asked the stranger. "No," said the
beggar. "What's the point?
There's nothing in there." "Have a look
inside," insisted the stranger. The beggar managed to pry open the lid.
With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with
gold.
I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is
telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but
somewhere even closer: inside yourself.
"But I am not a beggar," I can hear you say.
Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the
radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars,
even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of
pleasure or ful-fillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a
treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely
greater than anything the world can offer.
The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some
superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is
simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being.
It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable
and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you
and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name
and form. The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion
of separation, from yourself and from the world around you. You then perceive
yourself, consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment. Fear arises,
and conflict within and without becomes the norm.
I love the Buddha's simple definition of enlightenment as
"the end of suffering." There is nothing
superhuman in that, is there? Of course, as a definition, it is incomplete. It
only tells you what enlightenment is not: no suffering. But what's left when
there is no more suffering? The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence
implies that you'll have to find out for yourself. He uses a negative
definition so that the mind cannot make it into something to believe in or into
a superhuman accomplishment, a goal that is impossible for you to attain.
Despite this precaution, the majority of Buddhists still believe that
enlightenment is for the Buddha, not for them, at least not
in this lifetime.
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