no such word

There should be no such word as enlightenment,

just as there is no special word for not having a headache

Enlightenment is nothing but our natural state, when our conditioning has been removed. This is why it is often said that when one realises enlightenment, one laughs because it is such a simple thing. It is as if it has been staring us in the face all along. Only rather than being in front of the face staring at us, it is behind our face, staring at us from deep within us. There it is our essential self, our natural self. It has been there all along and it will be there forever.

So, it is rather strange that we have a special word for this, our natural state. Really there should be no such word as enlightenment. We should just have the word unenlightened for the neurotic, conditioned, fragmented mind. For, just as when we suffer from a headache, it is a state of unease, disease, and we have a special word for this, a headache. We are aware of the headache the whole time we are suffering from it and we are doing everything we can to get rid of the headache, it is affecting us and making our life miserable the whole time the headache is present. So it is correct that we have a word for this. But when the headache is gone, it is gone. We forget all about it. We return to our natural state, without a headache. But that is no longer preying on our consciousness, we don’t spend the whole day thinking ‘I don’t have a headache,’ no. The headache is gone and it no longer need sap our energy in any way. The absence of a headache also is nothing special, it is nothing that we need to put energy into.

So, enlightenment is just this, the absence of a subtle headache, a subtle disease of the mind. Really we should have no word for this absence of unease. For when enlightenment comes to us we do not spend our days thinking ‘I am enlightened,’ no. Just the misery of unenlightenment is no longer with us. So really there should be just this word unenlightened. Whilst we have this disease, unease, of course it will be a certain misery in our life. Perhaps sometimes we forget it momentarily if we are entertained enough but really it is there the whole time, just as a chronic headache, a migraine, is plaguing us the whole time it is there. When that headache of the unenlightened state has passed, there is nothing more to be said, the misery is gone and we can live naturally, enjoyably, without the need of a word enlightenment.