Over the last few years I have undertook a path to find it, but found that there are so many assumptions about what it is and how to go about it.
I have conflicting ideas about it and understand that religion cannot be discussed, so don’t!
First I read Eckart Tolle and found it very interesting and it was a good starting point with a lot of tips of what enlightenment could be.
Then I read Alan Watts and it delved further into the realm and got a little more complicated.
Then I moved on to J Krishnamurti who is more complex still and fascinating
I gathered my thoughts on this and would like to discuss it.
The first precept of enlightenment without the religious concepts of Buddhist or otherwise is that the past is dead and the future lives in the imagination. There is only the present.
It is hard to grasp as all humans have been conditioned to believe that they are the culmination of the whatever happened to them in their life. Every event from one to another, added up to make up who you are. We are led to believe that we are individuals and live as tiny islands and that upon this island every second of the past has built up a library of what we are. All we need to do is reference the memories and hallucinations in our brain and act according to it.
What the ‘enlightened’ tell us is that this is all an illusion and that to live a fulfilled, satisfactory and enlightened life the previous paragraph should be dismissed as a concept. The knowledge that we have accrued only serves to continue this polluted and corrupt society.
To live a life without past entirely would make us a vegetable, but to exist in the present without labelling, naming or judging leads to a lighter life. A life without the observer making comments on all it experiences. Just to be in fact.
To be able to retreat to this inner core of silence which is who we all are in essence, but we have been programmed to act, respond and behave according to what we have learned from others is what the ‘enlightened’ have.
How to achieve this? Well, that is the question!
It seems some stumble on it and it just happens to them. All of sudden there is no self so to speak.
Personally, I can comprehend it intellectually, but have been unable to let go of the past or my self. I have started the journey to self discovery and EMDR’d my trauma lessening the burden of the past. I sleep better and through meditation have made my mind less frantic and still. I have a way to go but have made tremendous leaps into finding peace.
There are other concepts of enlightenment like the notion of there being no ‘I’ altogether, but if you want to discuss it then we can in this thread.
What do you think of enlightenment? Is it a load of tosh to you? What is enlightenment to you? How would you describe it? Do you like my concept of it? Can you make a better description?
Cheers 
