The 24 Characteristics of Enlightenment
By Sri Bhagavan, Oneness University, India
Introduction by Taansen Fairmount
It is very important to understand that the above characteristics do NOT constitute virtues to be cultivated by practice and effort as a path to enlightenment. Many religions and spiritual traditions have made this mistake. While there may be some benefit in cultivating such virtues, doing so should not be mistaken to be helping much to bring the enlightenment. In fact, putting too much attention on such cultivation has often backfired by increasing the sense of ego, which is the primary obstacle to enlightenment.
The enlightened state, also known as self realization and cosmic consciousness, is a result of the removal of the egoic mind. The problem with focusing on the cultivation of good qualities is that absent turiya, the cultivation of virtues usually tends to increase the sense of ego. [Turiya is the state of union also referred to as unity consciousness. Turiya can be experienced through the practice of meditation].
Therefore, the reason for listing the 24 characteristics of enlightenment in this context and commenting on them is only to give those who are awakening a gauge by which to measure their progress. In the natural process of awakening, these qualities appear in their season like fruits on a tree. Thus the best focus for one’s attention is directly on watering the roots of the tree . . . which is facilitated by the experience of turiya and by loving devotion to one’s preferred form of God. Then the 24 characteristics appear in their season as a byproduct.
This is the time in history when the state of enlightenment begins to spread en masse. Thus it is imperative to know what it is. It is not just some improved intellectual understanding.
Rather, it is an all-encompassing moment-to-moment experience that continues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Individuals and small groups in the thousands throughout the world have permanently attained this in recent years, months, and weeks – – and it is spreading at an exponentially accelerating pace. If you are reading this, this experience is available to you far more quickly and easily than it ever has been in the world history. Here are some things you should know about it.
Enjoyment – It is amusing that many people have an image in their minds of a stereotype of an enlightened person as some kind of yogi or monk or nun who has left the world and is living in isolation. While some have indeed done this, the far more common enlightened one is a householder who still enjoys regular human life and the pleasures of the senses. In fact, the enjoyment of the senses is far greater for an enlightened being than it is for the unenlightened. This is because one’s inner consciousness has been liberated from bondage to the senses and the mind. One’s center of consciousness is living in total infinite freedom, above and beyond time and space – – and so in this beautiful freedom, one can enjoy everything many orders of magnitude more profoundly.
Liberation from the mind – One realizes one’s essential identity as the unbounded ocean of pure bliss consciousness. Thus one now transcends all belief systems. Enlightenment is not a religion or a philosophy. One can smile and look down on what one used to “believe” and be amused. One now gets truth directly from reality as it is – – without the filter of the mind with all its colors and conditionings. One’s inner consciousness is permanently liberated in infinity . . . and is now shining down through the mind and purifying it.
Freedom – The Rolling Stones’ song “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” is the theme song of the state of unenlightenment. This state of ignorance had no beginning, but it has an end. When the enlightened state is reached, a new eternity begins. Satisfaction is gained from within, continuously and permanently. It is irreversible. There is a constant stream of nectar-like bliss flowing from the unified field, the field of the Universal Self, from deep within. This creates a total liberation from dependence upon anything in the outer world for satisfaction. The freedom this gives the enlightened one is indescribable. The joy, happiness, love, and bliss one experiences because of this is the “peace that passeth understanding”. One’s consciousness is permanently freed from the mind, the body, and the senses – – and yet one can continue operating through the mind, the body, and the senses. Now for the first time, one is the master of the mind, the body, and the senses. One is no longer their slave.
Love and happiness – Because one’s consciousness is infinitely free, the inner wellspring of happiness overflows one’s being, and one is in love with all of existence. One’s compassion for others begins flowing in tidal waves. One’s love for every living being – – and even for the inanimate things – – becomes unbounded. One’s heart sings and soars and overflows. One’s happiness is indescribable.
Individual Flowering – No two snowflakes are alike. Likewise, no two enlightened people are alike. In fact, their differences become even more pronounced. What all enlightened people have in common is the awakening to the absolute knowing that there is only one Self in existence – – and I Am That Self. There are no separate “selves” – – that was the egoic illusion in ignorance. This realization is extremely blissful. Nevertheless, at the same time, the enlightened one is still expressing through an individualized form – – just like rays of sunlight emanating from the one sun, or the sap in the tree appearing as all the parts of the tree. The Self is one – – but its expressions are innumerable and infinite. This is unity in diversity – – the true meaning of university. The enlightened one knows the one thing at the essence of all things as a constant direct experience . . . and at the same time, is also manifesting one’s universal uniqueness as no other individual in existence can do.
Gradual and Sudden – Various ancient holy traditions have debated whether enlightenment comes gradually or whether it comes suddenly. The truth is, it is both. There is a long gradual buildup to it . . . and then there is a moment, or series of moments, when it suddenly Awakens. It is just like water heating on the stove. It heats up gradually, but there comes a point when it transforms from a liquid to a gas – – suddenly.
The 24 Characteristics of Enlightenment
1. No Suffering
Right now, this moment, deep inside of each one of us is the state of enlightenment. Deep within the mind, beyond thought, anchored in the holy of holies of the heart, we already have cosmic consciousness.
So really, we don’t “attain” enlightenment, so much as we uncover it. What already is the case simply gets revealed. That is why it is called “Self Realization”. We “Realize” it.
Suffering is caused by the veiling of that enlightenment by the clouds of mind, which developed in us over eons of time. This was caused by our attention focusing outwards due to fascination with the diversity of creation. Our attention was streaming from our inner enlightenment – – our divine essence – – which is the source of all nourishment, bliss, strength, happiness, and fulfillment.
Over time, this outward focus and fascination atrophied our awareness of source. We developed amnesia about it. This created an illusion of separation from source. This is the cause of fear, and fear is the seed of all negative emotions. This is the seed of suffering.
The cure for this is the true meaning of “yoga” – union. The cure is to achieve a removal of the illusion of separation. It feels like a reunion – – although in truth, we were never really separated. The separation was an illusion, but the experience was real.
2. No Carry Over
While number 1 showed how there is no suffering in the present, number 2 shows how there is a complete cessation of suffering from the past. “No carry over” means none of the impressions from the entire history of one’s soul journey of thousands of eons can have any influence on how one feels in the present moment. This is powerful, profound, unprecedented, and tremendously significant.
It is well known in human experience that sometimes when people have achieved ideal circumstances in some kind of outer paradise, there seems to be a kind of bliss that lasts for a while . . . but as the novelty wears off, then the habit of one’s old mind to dwell on unpleasant things returns. Hence in the unenlightened state, carry over is a common experience. The impressions of age-old ignorance plague the unenlightened mind.
An analogy illustrates this. In a mind that is spiritually asleep, any impression made on it is like a line carved in stone . . . very difficult to erase. In a mind that has begun to awaken, and has more transcendental life in it, an impression is like a line drawn in the sand . . . after a while, the ocean waves come in and wash the line away. In a mind that has totally awakened to its enlightened state, impressions are like lines drawn on the water with one’s finger . . . they disappear the same instant that they are drawn.
This doesn’t mean that people in the enlightened state have no feelings and no memories. On the contrary; it is well known among the enlightened that the positive and uplifting feelings become awesome . . . and one’s ability to recall data from one’s field of memory is like an encyclopedic supercomputer – – far superior to the memory one ever had in the unenlightened state.
The reason there is no carry over of the previously binding effects of mental or emotional impressions from the past in the enlightened state is that the strength of the inner splendor is supreme. Just as a bright light obliterates the darkness in a room, and just as the seemingly real phenomena in a dream disappear instantly when one wakes up, the enlightened state creates the invincible and irreversible experience of unbounded bliss and total unlimited awareness – – such that one’s essential feeling level is now permanently saturated with ever-expanding happiness.
This is a happiness for no outer reason at all – – emanating from an awakened cosmic consciousness in the very deepest center of one’s being deep within, and is thus completely independent of outer circumstances. Even one’s past mental and emotional impressions are now considered “outer”, because one’s attention is sitting on the throne of one’s own inner Holy of Holies – – above and beyond the entire matrix of the mind.
This positions one’s core experience in the ultimate reality, which is now constant and uninterrupted. It is impossible to lose. Nothing in time and space and nothing in all of creation can disturb it. It is supreme and all-commanding. One’s essential identity is now established eternally in the constant experiential knowing of the one thing at the essence of all things in existence.
Because of this, no matter what impressions one’s soul may have experienced going millions of years back into the past, no matter how powerful they may have seemed at the time, they are now like ice cubes or snowflakes that have melted in the hot sun. The brilliant, blissful, and undefeatable light shining from deep within dissolves anything and everything from past, present, or future that does not resonate with it and expand it.
Now the only objects of perception, whether in third density or in higher dimensions, that can withstand the blaze of this light are those which are serving to harmonize with it and add to the sum total of happiness in the universe. Those are not carry overs – – because they were not generated from one’s previous unenlightened state. Thus now in the enlightened state, only success and ever-expanding joy-giving influences are spontaneously manifested effortlessly from one’s presence.
There is no carry over because carry over comes from the past, and an awareness that has been liberated from time and space is now established in the eternal now. In the eternal now, the past and future do not exist.
3. No Conflict
The pure mind which is enlightened by the shining radiance of the omnipresent unified field enjoys its seat of consciousness in the prefrontal cortex, from where oneness is perceived in everything. Differences are still seen, all the more so – – but now the differences are subordinate, and the oneness is dominating perception.
One’s mind prior to enlightenment had conflict because it had failed to cognize the ultimate reality – – the reality of oneness underlying and permeating all things. Thus in the unenlightened mind, differences dominate, and oneness is either subordinate or isn’t perceived at all.
When differences dominate, conflict is inevitable. That is why mankind has fought over 5,000 wars in the last 3,000 years. That is why most people engaged in verbal abuse every day with those around them. It is why very few interpersonal relationships were always consistently peaceful and harmonious.
When the mind is enlightened by the predominance of oneness, the experience is that this is a far more accurate perception of reality. This is an unshakable knowingness. It is saturated with an inner experience of such ineffable bliss that it has been called “the peace that passeth understanding”.
Because this state is so infinitely superior in satisfaction, and because it is so crystal clear that this level of perception is the truth, it becomes irreversible. Once tasted, it cannot be lost. Like awakening from a nightmare in the dream state, and waking up to peaceful and harmonious surroundings, one immediately knows that the conflict in the nightmare was nothing more than illusion.
Someone who has thus awakened will never again be plagued by conflict in their thoughts about anyone or anything. Such a possibility will be out of the question. With this being the case, one will be incapable of creating conflict in the surrounding environment.
4. No Comparison
Prior to enlightenment, the mind is seeking happiness in the relative diversity of creation. It tends to compare objects, people, and ideas, one to the other, in its quest to find which one will give greater joy and satisfaction. But it continues discovering that nothing in relative creation is totally satisfying.
Upon awakening to enlightenment, the mind finds ultimate satisfaction in transcendental being – – the all-pervading unified field of oneness. The direct and continuous experience of this ultimate reality is so overwhelmingly preferable in satisfaction that the mind completely loses interest in comparing objects in the relative dimensions.
The irony is that the enlightened mind has a far greater ability to compare things accurately . . . and will do so only when it is useful for fulfilling some evolutionary purpose for the benefit of the environment; but such a mind is no longer compelled by the unconscious drive of comparison for achieving any kind of unattained satisfaction. It acts only on behalf of the totality of creation.
5. No Hurt
Getting hurt physically, mentally, or emotionally is no longer possible in the state of enlightenment. Even if the third density body is harmed, the inner experience of the enlightened one is the continuity of all-pervading bliss. The enlightened one can certainly feel – – in fact far more sensitively. So it’s not that he or she is numb to feelings. The absence of feeling hurt is not due to numbness or insensitivity.
Rather, it is due to a far more powerful and dominating saturation of one’s entire being with the bliss of the beyond, and the coexisting awareness of one’s essential beingness living in an eternal state that is beyond time and space. This is a continuous moment to moment experience, from which all events in creation are viewed as subordinate – – including events that happen to the bodily vehicle and the mind and emotions of that vehicle through which the enlightened one happens to be expressing.
This is why Maharishi said that it is an insult to say that Jesus Christ suffered on the cross. It is an insult because it would imply that he was not enlightened. The enlightened one has no more personal suffering, as reviewed earlier herein. The reality of “no hurt” expands on this, and makes it crystal clear that the enlightened one spontaneously sees all outer phenomena as maya – – illusion – – rather like watching a movie.
The essence of why this is the case is that one’s identity is no longer erroneously equated with the ego. Identification with the ego has permanently dissolved. This means neither one’s physical body, nor one’s mind, nor one’s emotional body are any longer considered to be “myself”. Therefore whatever happens to the body, mind, and emotions, whether positive or negative, is insignificant for one’s continued peace, joy, and happiness.
It is appreciated that the idea of enhanced sensitivity and the ability to feel physical, mental, or emotional hurt without actually registering it as such may be confusing for the unenlightened. It sounds like a contradiction. That is why Masters throughout history have always said that the enlightened state cannot be explained in words. That would be like explaining the waking state to someone who is asleep. Ultimately, it simply has to be experienced to be known.
Suffice it to say, when one can no longer be hurt by anything, without being numb or insensitive, one knows this is a sign of the enlightened state.
6. No Charge
When any negative emotion arises due to being triggered by an outer event or influence, this is due to what is known in Sanskrit as a “samskara”, or latent impression from the past. The clash of the outer influence or event with the samskara is known as a “charge”.
One of the most common examples of this is the human tendency to get upset when someone says something with which one strongly disagrees. In the unenlightened state, it is typical to get agitated or charged up about this. By contrast, in the enlightened state, one is completely established in transcendental consciousness. Then if another person says something disagreeable, the enlightened one feels zero charge from it. One’s equanimity spontaneously continues unperturbed.
In the first place, the enlightened one no longer has opinions or beliefs. He or she simply sees. It is a state of simply seeing what is. So, there is nothing that anyone else can say that would “disagree” with any previously formed belief. Secondly, even if someone else says or does something that appears to contradict “what is”, the enlightened one can only feel love and compassion, and a rather light sense of humor about it. It is impossible to get charged over anything anymore.
The nature of the enlightened state is to spontaneously value oneness and harmony over any division or conflict. It is spontaneous and effortless. It is not that one has cultivated oneness with effort. Rather, one effortlessly and directly sees the predominating oneness and eternity of pure being – – and the blissful sacredness of that is infinitely more important than any of the everchanging phenomena of relative existence.
7. No Guilt
Guilt results from identification with the ego and with impressions from the past, both of which have been transcended and dissolved in the state of enlightenment. Further, no new potential causes for guilt get created, because one is spontaneously in total harmony with universal natural law. One of the very definitions of the enlightened state is that it is not possible in the nature of things for the enlightened one to violate universal natural law.
It’s not that the enlightened one lacks the freedom to do so. Rather, the essential constituent of the enlightened one’s moment to moment experience is the unbounded ocean of pure bliss consciousness, which is the home of all the laws of nature. In other words, all the laws of nature emanate automatically from the universal Self, which has been realized as the very identity of the enlightened one. To violate the emanations from one’s own core of being would be like darkness coexisting in the same place as bright light. Not possible. The light, by definition, eradicates darkness wherever it is found present.
8. No Fear
Fear is known as the root of all negative emotions. And the root of fear is the illusion of separation from Self, one’s essential source and identity in cosmic consciousness. When by the process of experiencing turiya, the fourth state, one regains even a short glimpse of oneness with pure consciousness, tremendous fear is eliminated instantly and permanently.
This is because the illusion of separation has been penetrated, even if only briefly. Daily experience of turiya gradually dissolves this illusion totally and permanently – – thus erasing the whole basis of fear.
The reason awakening to one’s true identity as the universal Self makes fear impossible is that the essential nature of the Self is Love. Love, being the unifying power in creation, sees the unity and oneness of all things. So being, its spontaneous nature is to give joy, happiness, and bliss. This life-supporting influence is nourishing to all life.
Fear can only be felt by the unenlightened one because he or she is failing to experience the blissful love and oneness that underlies and permeates all things. In the enlightened state, phenomena that were previously causes of fear in the unenlightened state are now seen as merely mirages . . . passing illusions.
The predominating moment to moment experience is the knowing of the ultimate reality, which is universal unconditional Love. Just as darkness cannot exist in the same space as light, fear cannot exist in the same space as universal unconditional Love.
9. No judgments
The enlightened one lives in the present moment and is completely free from the previously binding influence of mental and emotional impressions that created judgments from the past.
It is not that an enlightened one is incapable of judging whether it is safe, timely, and auspicious to travel on a journey, for example; or whether a certain message should be communicated to someone. Rather, it is that judgments are not made locally in the human mind. They are not based on any pre-existing beliefs or impressions, because those no longer exist in the enlightened human.
In that sense, it could be said that one’s always-correct actions are not being determined by judgments . . . but rather by automatic calculations from the universal mind. In the enlightened state, there is total harmony and synchrony between body, mind, emotions, and universal mind. It is experienced as one continuous flow of divine manifestation through the human vehicle – – so the old inefficient method of making decisions based on judgments that prevailed in the unenlightened state has been replaced by the infinitely more efficient and beneficial process of individual intelligence being an expression of concentrated universal intelligence.
10. No Inner Dialog
Many people have told me they could never go into deep meditation because they cannot stop their minds from thinking. “I cannot silence my mind,” they say. Many, many people believe this. Perhaps most people. Thoughts just keep coming, whether we want them to or not. It is a problem recognized worldwide, east, west, north, and south.
This problem has several different solutions, but those are discussed elsewhere. The focus of this context is how to gauge if enlightenment has occurred. Certainly not the only, but one of the signs of the enlightened state is the natural and spontaneous cessation of the thinking process. “Natural and spontaneous” means it is not achieved by effort. As a matter of fact, it is not possible to achieve it through effort.
This does not mean the ability to think a thought has ended, but rather that the involuntary dialog has stopped. Any thoughts that occur in this state come directly from the oneness of pure being – – the unified field of universal intelligence. The quality of these thoughts is unsurpassed. They are deep, crystal clear, tremendously intelligent, profoundly loving, and uncannily accurate. They are undistorted by any mental noise or any emotional turbulence. And they are surrounded by a beautiful context of blissful silence.
Thoughts in the unenlightened state are like random voices and noise in a crowd of 100,000 people; whereas thoughts in the enlightened state are like a beautiful eagle flying through an all clear blue sky. Whole volumes have been transcribed from the talks of enlightened masters about the power and quality of thoughts in the enlightened state, but suffice it to say here, when the involuntary inner dialog has stopped and been replaced by an all-pervading silence that continues 24 hours a day, one can know that an important sign of the enlightened state has appeared.
11. No Identification with Thought, Mind & Self
In this context, the “s” in “Self” is capitalized because it is the title of a section. Otherwise, it is traditional for authors about enlightenment to use the small “s” “self” when referring to disidentification with the body-mind.
A well-known trait of the unenlightened state is the existential ignorance of Who One Is. “Self” spelled with a capital “S” normally refers to the single oneness of divine identity present in all beings in creation. That is why the first stage of enlightenment has been called Self Realization. One begins to experientially Know that his or her identity was erroneously assigned to the body-mind and ego, and that that was an illusion.
The direct Knowing that awakens in the enlightened state is that there actually has never been any “self”. This means there has never been any separate or distinct entity or separate identity limited to a name and a form. The conflicts between people throughout history are all traced to this one mistake in self-identification.
So being, when this misidentification ends, it constitutes another triumphant sign that the enlightened state is dawning. That is why it is very common to hear newly enlightened people say “I no longer consider myself to be a person.” And that is why one of the maxims of the Oracle of Delphi is “Know Thyself”.
12. Silence
In lesser developed stages of consciousness, people crave parties, busy pubs and restaurants, noisy sports events, loud concerts, plenty of people around, and at home, the constant stream of some kind of media playing. They consider silence to be boring, frustrating, and even scary.
But that is not true silence. That is only the temporary cessation of outer noise – – what could be called a dead silence. The inner mind goes on with its frantic and crazy firing of neurons.
As consciousness expands and evolves, though, people find quietness more and more appealing. They increasingly favor soft music, soft speech, quietness in the workplace, quietness at home, and solitude outdoors in nature. Their minds are quieter, and they find the pleasure of this to be far more enjoyable.
When the day comes that consciousness has awakened to the infinite pure being – – the unified field of enlightenment, there dawns a feeling of all-pervading inner silence whose bliss is unprecedented and unimaginable. This is the inner silence that continues even during dynamic activity and outer noise.
The subjective experience is universally one of tremendous silence – – a silence that some have called “loud” – – loud in the sense that the blissful feeling of the silence is so powerful that it dominates one’s moment to moment experience. Any sounds heard in the environment are secondary to this beautiful inner silence.
It is in this magnificent endless silence that one’s “third ear” comes alive. One begins to hear subtleties never before heard, such as the divine inner “still small voice”, and even the ecstatic hum of creation, symbolized for millennia by the syllable “Om” or “Aum”.
The reason for this beautiful ongoing state of experience is the awakening to what has always been and what will always be – – the infinite sea of pure bliss consciousness. This is the unified field, which in its transcendental nature, is endowed with stillness. It is a state of zero activity. It is the source of all consciousness in existence. It is above and beyond sound and visuals; it is beyond name and form; it is beyond time and space; and it is beyond thought and concept. Yet it is very real. In fact, everyone who has experienced it has considered it to be the ultimate reality, subject to which every other realm is a lesser reality.
In Sanskrit it is known as Satchitananda. “Sat” means “ultimate reality” or “truth”. “Chit” means pure awareness; and “Ananda” means bliss. Self Realization, the first stage of enlightenment, is characterized by a constant experiential feeling of this unboundedness of awareness, emanating out of silence . . . endowed with silence . . . and returning to silence. It is a smiling, superconscious, presence of living silence.
13. Energy
A major difference occurs in one’s energy level in the enlightened state. Imagine the radiant enthusiasm and joyful energy of a small child extended into the spiritual maturity of an adult. The child has not been long out of the higher worlds, whereas the enlightened adult is now totally plugged in, as it were, to the “outlet” of universal source energy – – the ultimate source of all higher worlds.
Prior to enlightenment, one’s access to universal source energy was diminished by the degree of mental and emotional impurity in one’s being. Long held false beliefs and actions that violated natural law created a mental cloud that obscured the inner splendor of pure being.
To the degree that this illness developed in an individual, to that same degree he or she sought to be compensated with energy from outer sources. This created hunger, craving, greed, and dissatisfaction. In the extreme cases, it created the criminal mind, which was willing to do anything to anyone to satisfy cravings.
By contrast, those who transcend all that and turn within sufficiently have become less and less dependent on outer sources for satisfaction. Those who have restored contact with one’s inner divine presence have discovered boundless and unlimited sources of energy, intelligence, love, peace, and satisfaction.
Deriving it from the omnipresent unified field in this way, the enlightened one finds that even physical and material needs are satisfied. There are countless stories of miracles in the various holy traditions describing the materialization of food, drink, and other physical necessities from contact with the limitless divine provenance.
In addition, beyond outer provisions, the inner oneness with Source endows one with a subjective experience of “causeless joy” – – known in Sanskrit as santosha – – contentment with no apparent outer cause. It is a fairly universal human experience that joy gives energy.
The other reason for such high energy in the enlightened state is that the mind is no longer leaking, wasting, and dissipating energy in negative emotions or in positive but scattered and random wanderings of attention. Because the mind has gained santosha, it no longer wanders aimlessly. It spontaneously and naturally rests in silence and contentment. The random wasting of energy has come to an end.
Thus when a thought does occur, it is because the universal intelligence has given the mind a way to expand and add to the sum total of happiness and achievement of the entire creation. Coming directly from universal pure being with no dilution or distortion, the thought carries tremendous energy and intelligence. This translates into whatever energy the body requires to carry it out.
14. Witnessing
Most people have heard of the spiritual truth that we are divine, and that the divine is within us. However, until enlightenment, there is no experiential understanding of this truth. It remains a nice belief; a mere concept.
One of the main definitions of enlightenment is Self Realization, the experience of which shows the individual that his or her essential identity has never been limited to any form – – human or otherwise. An experiential awakening occurs in which there is a profound knowingness that one is a nameless, formless consciousness which is at the essence of everything in existence.
That is the meaning of Tat Tvam Asi – – You Are That (the ultimate reality).
It is naturally from that moment-to-moment realization that witnessing of one’s human form spontaneously occurs. The witnessing not only observes one’s body but also even one’s mind and soul. It is a direct knowing that the “me” is above and beyond name and form . . . above and beyond all limited identity . . . and indeed above and beyond all time and space.
This enlightenment enables and activates witnessing automatically. Witnessing can be likened to the bird’s eye view rather than just the worm’s eye view. The unenlightened state is characterized by the worm’s eye view because one’s sphere of consciousness is limited to the small relative mind-body organism and its affairs. The enlightened state is where the veils and blinders have dissolved, and one experiences one’s individual consciousness to be the same as the universal consciousness – – just like a wave in the ocean has realized it is one with the ocean.
15. Presence
The subjective experience of all enlightened people has been that consciousness is everywhere and all pervasive. It does not need a human or an animal vehicle through which to express. The enlightened one feels that there is an all-aware consciousness pervading the room, the air, the objects, the environment, and indeed the entire expanse of outer space.
Spontaneously the word “presence” came to be used by a large number of enlightened people to describe this observation. It is a feeling that a loving intelligence is everywhere present, in everything and everyone. It is a presence that knows, that sees, that understands, that supports, and that guides.
It is from this experience that a whole lineage through certain teachers came to refer to the Divine as the I Am Presence. It is the experiential knowingness that the One Self of Existence is Present Here and Now. It is an indescribably blissful and peaceful feeling. Feeling this presence all the time is one of the signs of the enlightened state.
16. Experiencing Reality As It Is
If one wears green tinted glasses, everything looks green. If one wears rose colored glasses, everything looks rose-colored. If one’s eyesight becomes perfect and one removes the glasses, then one can see reality as it is, without any filters.
Since ancient times, one of the classic observations of all enlightened people is that those who are unenlightened are viewing the world through the filter of their minds. This colors all experience and distorts the reality. Yet of course the unenlightened cannot really know this, because that way of perceiving is all they have ever known.
That is why the enlightened ones say that awakening to enlightenment is like awakening from a dream. What looked so real in the dream is now suddenly seen as nothing but a mirage, an illusion.
Because the essential constituent of enlightenment is pure consciousness, the same unbounded, unmanifest, formless, silent pure consciousness that pervades existence, that consciousness perceives everything accurately – – directly – – without going through the filter of the mind.
This gives the wonderful and constant “experience of reality as it is”.
17. Causeless Love
This is one of the most beautiful qualities of enlightenment. Arising out of the infinite silence, the nature of the formless and omnipresent pure being is to overflow into creation with the unifying, harmonizing power of love. In the enlightened state, one directly experiences this spontaneously. This is one of the classic hallmarks of enlightened saints. They are famous for being totally loving.
As said before, this is not due to having cultivated it. It is not due to making an effort to be loving or to having any outer cause for it. Outwardly, it is the common human experience that when someone or something is beautiful and attractive, one’s inner feeling of love is provoked, and one experiences love flowing towards that object. That is natural.
The difference with the enlightened love is that there is no outer cause. Regardless of how one is treated from the outside, and regardless of how attractive the environment is, there is a spontaneous overflow of love from a full heart deep within. It is like a flower that spreads its fragrance regardless of whether anyone is nearby to appreciate it. It just spontaneously radiates its fragrance.
The supply is endless. One feels that this love can keep on flowing and expanding and overflowing infinitely, which is, in fact, the truth. Because it is formless, the ocean of pure consciousness has no boundaries or limits. It is truly inexhaustible.
18. Limitless Joy
Unbeknownst to those who are spiritually asleep, the essential nature of existence is universal, unconditional bliss. When this overflows through an enlightened individual, it results in limitless joy. This joy is absolutely pure and continuous. It results from the feeling of freedom.
The other word that indicates the limitless pure consciousness is the Self. There is only one Self in existence, and I Am that Self. Everyone is, whether he or she realizes it or not. The essential characteristics of this Self are expressed by a blend of qualities such as bliss, intelligence, power, love, joy, silence, knowingness, peace, kindness, freedom, compassion, expansion, radiance, clarity, truth, safety, timelessness, and so on.
The joy is limitless because the freedom is total . . . and the enlightenment is eternal. It is irreversible.
19. Peace
Prior to enlightenment, one’s peace is fickle, fluctuating, fragile, and always subject to being tossed about by outer circumstances. This is actually rather well known to most of humanity.
Like a wheel rotating on an axis, the ever-changing universes of manifest creation rotate around the non-changing stillness of the absolute pure being, the unified field, the Self of existence. As long as one’s awareness is only open to the ever-changing relativity of existence, so one’s peace can never be stable.
When one’s awareness opens to the non-changing stillness of absolute pure being, then one begins to experience one’s Self as eternally established in complete and total peace. This peace is profound and complete. It cannot be disturbed by anything in relative time and space.
As reviewed earlier, the mind goes silent because it has found its inexhaustible wellspring of satisfaction in the Self. This creates complete freedom from the mind and the senses. It no longer needs anything in relative creation to feel safe and satisfied.
That is why the Sanskrit word “shanti”, which is that deep and unconditional peace, is so often expressed in the holy traditions of India. And in the west, A Course in Miracles has the saying, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”
20. Living in the Present
In the unenlightened state, when the mind fails to find peace and satisfaction in its present state, it naturally wanders into the past or the future. It broods on the events of the past, or it looks into the future for some kind of satisfaction from there. Of course this is never satisfying, because the past is forever gone, and the future doesn’t exist yet.
Upon awakening to the enlightened state, the mind has discovered the infinite source of happiness in the eternal now. The mind can still remember the past when required, and it can still make plans for the future, but it doesn’t dwell in those unreal zones. It is totally elated to rest in the present moment, because in this delightful moment, the mind has discovered by far the best source of peace and happiness in existence.
21. Compassion
Throughout history, millions of people in the higher levels of the unenlightened state have felt compassion. So the feeling of compassion is possible even in the unenlightened state, in a heart that is full of love and empathy for other living beings.
The difference in the feeling of compassion in the enlightened state is that it is much deeper, much greater, and much more continuous. It is unbroken. It is not just an occasional overflow. It is an all-abiding, potent, and profound radiance, empowered by the very real perception that my own Self is in all living beings.
That kind of compassion is not something that could be cultivated in the unenlightened state. It is only a beautiful phenomenon of the enlightened state that blossoms and gives its fragrance spontaneously as a result of the overflowing love and happiness one feels.
Like a waterfall flowing down the mountain, if one is experiencing overflowing love and happiness, and if that same one encounters another being who is in trouble for whatever reason, or who is lacking that happiness, it is a spontaneous and natural result that the heart will overflow in compassion for that being. This is one of the most beautiful qualities of enlightenment.
22. The Seer, the Seeing and the Seen are one and the same
In Sanskrit, the seer (rishi), the seeing (devata), and the seen (chandas) are known to seem like separate entities in the unenlightened state. Whereas in the enlightened state, one experiences one’s Self to be omnipresent in everything. That is why it is characterized by the experience of oneness.
This is another of the beautiful qualities of direct experience in the enlightened state wherein one no longer perceives oneself as a separate being, seeing and perceiving objects “out there”.
23. Seeing that there is no person, but only personalities dependently arising and ceasing
All the problems of unenlightened life stem from the root cause of the illusion of “me and not me”. The unenlightened state produces the illusion that “I am a person, you are a person, and everybody is a separate person”. From this mirage of division, all the conflicts and wars of history have arisen.
Because the enlightened state opens up the “aha!” perception of reality, which is endowed with the quality of universal oneness, one suddenly sees that identity, as such, inheres only in the Self of existence. Like rays from the one sun, personalities radiate out into creation . . . but they all share the same Self identity.
Like two arms, two hands, two legs, and two feet all radiate out from one human body, controlled by one mind, so everything in existence is the extension of one universal mind – – the Great Compassionate Light.
Hence in the enlightened state, the inner eye is opened to the beautiful truth that “there is no person, but only personalities dependently arising and ceasing”. Personalities are rays of the One Self – – not separate identities. When one realizes this experientially, one feels that all beings in existence are my family, because they are just fellow extensions of Me.
24. Everything is a process
Before enlightenment, many people have imagined that they were born and they die – – they have a beginning and an end. Similarly, they imagined that the universe, creation, had a beginning and has an end. Hence scientists have been searching for those time points; but no one has satisfactorily answered the questions of “what was before the beginning”, and “what is after the end?”
In the enlightened state, the perception spontaneously arises that everything is beginningless and endless – – including one’s essential Self identity. One experiences that everything is a process . . . and that everything in the universe is evolving endlessly. The sum total of happiness in existence goes on growing eternally. Everything in relative creation is constantly in the process of changing and evolving. Even what sometimes appears to be devolution is simply a temporary increment in the overall evolution and ascension.
In Service to Your Highest Good,
~Jay Kshatri
