The Seminal Moment of Enlightenment

EDITOR'S PICKS

The experience of enlightenment is more often than not, preceded by a period of earnest questioning and seeking the answers to such questions as “who am I, and why am I here?.”  The stunning response when it comes, is that seminal moment called enlightenment.  In an electrifying moment in whichThe I AM,  answers every question without a single word being spoken.

This moment of enlightenment is an exquisite light bulb moment. For me it happened in a split second after hearing a simple often encountered truth for the umpteenth time. The words “We are pure consciousness.” was the simple trigger.  I was home in my living room listening to a recorded course. I had heard those words so many times before and naturally had even uttered them myself on numerous occasions. Yet for some not clearly defined reason,  hearing them again in that moment, became knowing. I experienced a kind of deja vu that left me giddy and breathless as I tried to absorb this awesome awareness that had overtaken my rational mind and senses. I found myself in an incredible state of heightened excitement; my mouth became unbelievably dry and I felt as if the blood was draining away from my limbs. Then I began trembling, literally shaking and feeling as if my knees were about to give way.  With my heart pounding, I walked into the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. I needed to check to see if I still looked the same because I no longer felt the same.

Even though my likeness was there looking back at me, there was some subtle indefinable physical change that had taken place so that I no longer looked exactly the same to myself. I floated back out of the bathroom and decided to sit down on the sofa and quietly and rationally reason through this strange event. But there was simply no going back. With my heart still pounding, the only thought that I could muster was "I am consciousness, I am really that."  Then another thought of"Oh my God," but which God and Where?. "And as Consciousness I am unlimited?." I spent the next several minutes just trying to breathe normally as I waited for my body to calm down. Eventually a kind of rapturous joy crept over me and stayed, mingling with a type of incredulity that absolutely failed to dampen any of my joy.

After my emotions had settled down again, I felt that I could think a little more clearly, but then I was almost overcome by a second surge of excitement that made clear thinking impossible. and for the next twenty minutes perhaps, I fluctuated between overwhelming joy and the inability to think any definite thoughts.

In the search to gain enlightenment, there first is a necessary layer of intellectual reasoning that says "yes I can accept this idea, even if I am not quite sure what this means outside of semantics." This is followed by a series of cognitive and intuitive insights about the nature of reality. The timing and frequency commensurate with the amount of time spent turning inward in meditation, questioning the self and contemplation of information intuited or gleaned from others, and through literature. The process of enlightenment unfolds on these building blocks to culminate in a moment’s flash combining philosophical, mental, emotional and spiritual knowing that replaces the seeker’s previous simple beliefs. It is a moment of profound bliss and knowing, the ultimate insight in a series of enlightening insights.  This unshakeable knowing comes from within, and from that point on, questions from within cease. It is a meeting with pure consciousness.

It is a moment that I wanted to stay in forever, really difficult to describe that moment of bliss an the high that comes with it. My usual self had disappeared mentally and to some extent physically as well, in that I seemed to have loss most of my density. Instead of the usual sense of self with it’s bodily mass, what was left was a hyperreal awareness.  As if I was awareness itself. I I felt electrified., as if I had touched a high voltage live wire and had some how survived, but with after effects. One of which was feeling as if I was right inside a tone or frequency that was both high and low in it’s pitch, something obviously highly unusual. In fact theloud silence would be the best way to describe this. these tones did not register in my hearing but instead in the acute sense of awareness that I was experiencing.  I also had an awareness that my nervous system was overcharged with electricity and that each cell in my body had also had the volume of the energy inside them turned way up.  I felt as if is my head might explode. and my heart was pounding even as my breathing was slowed down. Again highly unusual since these physical changes in the body, would not normally accompany each other.   I also noticed that, it seemed as if some weaker part of me was forcefully willing my breath to continue it’s usual pattern, even though I was acutely aware that there was really no need to breathe.

I wanted to figure out what was happening but my usual thought processes were stalled. And once I surrendered to just experiencing was was happening, then the bliss that came with the experience, just expanded more and more and I remained suspended in that state for a while. for the remainder of the day and the next few days, I found almost impossible to each. I managed to force myself into having small amounts of various liquids as I wandered around my home in a kind of surreal daze. I really wanted to stay in the high however eventually my usual sense feelings and reactions returned.  I found that I easily re-capture some of the extreme bliss again either through my thoughts or in meditation. After a couple of weeks, I began to realize that I needed to learn how to live in more than one dimension; that is to say in the physical everyday world on one hand, and on the other in the dimensions where my pure consciousness existed independent of my body.

I think often of the quote; “before enlightenment chop wood, carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. It is essential to tend to the the details of daily living and interact with others. The alternative though very attractive, I have resolutely decided against at least for the present time. Itwould mean withdrawing from life and society in order to pursue even more and more bliss and higher experiences.  

Learning to live from this new state has been humbling, exciting, and amazing. One of my first important lesson was understanding why humans have not been hampered with the responsibility of having their every thought instantly manifested. The reason being that   we first need to become responsible and develop the ability to control all of our thoughts, not just some. We also have to learn some basic rules of how the universe works. It is very much like learning to drive. After some practice which allows you a certain degree of proficiency and proves that you have the ability to understand and follow the rules of the road. Then you receive your license which gives you permission to go out onto the real roadwhere you finally begin to learn how to drive.

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