Ross Edwards: Coach, Author, FounderThis short text is an extract from Chapter 2 of my upcoming book, The Boundless Body, published with Collective Ink Books.
Now that we have covered the five levels of experience, in particular the body experience corresponding to each of those levels, it is time to briefly define what enlightenment is in this context. This term, “enlightenment,” is often used in multiple scenarios, some of which have little to do with classical spiritual enlightenment, and when it is used for this end, it is often made cloudy and ambiguous, leading people to concoct all kinds of fantasies about enlightened people. Fortunately, our five levels solve this issue, because they enable us to clearly define enlightenment.
Another factor is that most spiritual systems tend to view enlightenment either as ever-present, and therefore fundamentally unattainable, or as the crowning achievement of their particular contemplative path. That is, they present the spiritual path either as a pathless path or as an one of ascension. In my mind, neither pathless nor ascension schools are fully adequate in and of themselves. The pathless schools spend much time telling us that Source is already ever-present and that we already fully know it. They like to tell us this so that we do not eternally delay the topic and to cut through our usual mental habits, which have us believe we are inherently flawed or incomplete and drive us to take some action so we can become more complete in the future. This linear thinking is somewhat antithetical to spiritual life, and it can be wonderfully refreshing and relaxing to know that enlightenment is right before us, right now. This is a powerful message.
That said, after telling us there is nowhere to go and nothing to achieve, they proceed to give us a slew of meditation practices to master, which are sometimes rather elaborate and advanced. Why master the practices if we are already masters? Why put the work in to be able to comprehend these practices if we already possess their promised fruits? This is a contradiction that is tricky for spiritual seekers to understand. Also, the pathless schools may feed laziness, procrastination and complacency through their explanations and pointers: “If I’m already there, why do I need to work?”
Though the pathless schools are not perfect, the ascension schools also fall into traps. For one thing, they tend to overlook the wonderful fact that Source is indeed ever-present, having practitioners eternally delay their realisation. In postponing it for some other moment when they feel more evolved and prepared, practitioners may feel that they are forever on a treadmill, chasing an illusory destination. They may fall into the paraphernalia of the path and the spiritual life, forgetting about its true, ultimately simple essence. They may be more given to idolising their teachers and gurus, believing that to be like them one day would require thousands of hours of effort, and the teachers gladly welcome the admiration. The ascension schools may promote humility but may also leave practitioners with a never-ending sense of dissatisfaction, seeking and hopelessness: “I’ll never be enlightened like my master.” However, what the ascension schools do capture is the mundane, somewhat disappointing fact of spirituality: it usually requires many years of work to reach the deep levels of enlightenment. They are also willing to admit and embrace human ignorance, andthen to offer us a hard-nosed methodology for overcoming it.
On a practical level, we must take the lead of the ascension schools and recognise the need for spiritual practice and the resulting competence hierarchy. We do need to practise regardless of our underlying philosophy, and despite their discrepancies, both schools are aware of this. The great spiritual masters from all schools practise for thousands of hours. Neuroscience tells us that the benefits of meditation increase and stabilise with hours of practice, and that stable changes begin to occur only after around 1000 hours of work. Furthermore, I contend that the insight into the pathless path – that our nature is already fully enlightened and that we cannot obtain enlightenment – is an advanced realisation that can only be had by the few practitioners who spend years working towards enlightenment assuming it is a goal. As a rule of thumb, let us say it takes ten years of committed daily practice, interspersed with retreats, in-life practice and regular study, for us to authentically realise this.