Sorting Out Self-realization and Enlightenment

           There is a difference between self-realization and enlightenment, but these goals are often confused and thought to be the same thing. They are not. Self-realization can be taught and enlightenment cannot. Self-realization can be a deliberate “path” and in fact the journey itself is often the goal. (“The journey is the destination.”) But there is no “path” to enlightenment. It cannot be attained or achieved. It happens if it is to happen.

Both are caused by the movement of pure consciousness (truth) toward conscious awareness. But self-realization occurs to ego. It is the effect on it of truth rising, transforming it but not wholly undoing it. So, one’s mind continues split between truth and illusion. Enlightenment, however, occurs when ego falls away because pure consciousness has risen fully to conscious awareness. The split is gone, there is only one reality, one truth, pure consciousness. Anything else remaining is recognized as unreal, merely an appearance—as it had always been.

Self-realization is an ego purified of its harsher aspects. The movement of pure consciousness toward conscious awareness results in the structures of the ego thought system being less dominant, in ego being “softened” by the awareness of truth (pure consciousness) or the sense that it is part of something larger or is “in service” to God (what pure consciousness seems to be to ego). So, an ego becomes more mature, adjusted to life in the world. This is the outcome of a more advanced “spiritual path”, the “better way” for egos. It is what A Course in Miracles means to bring about for those moved to study it.

Self-realization results in ego’s consciousness—its world—improving. Enlightenment, however, reveals a different world entirely, one without forms or structures. It is entirely perceptual, “seen” with the mind, not a body’s eyes. In the enlightened world, ego and its world are only appearances. There is no “working on” what of the ego’s thought system remains to “wind down” because it has no substance—and there is nothing to work on it! Only ego works on ego. Only ego can be taught or is on a path or journey.

            These goals are confused for many reasons. Someone may think enlightenment can be attained and engage in practices to bring it about. This often results in self-realization, which may then be seen as a step along the way to enlightenment or mistakenly thought to be enlightenment. And sometimes one who has been on a spiritual path will experience enlightenment. But this was not cause and effect. At most, in hindsight, the path can be seen as preparation. However, most who seek self-realization or enlightenment do not have enlightenment occur. This is not a failure. It was not something they ever could cause.

Many catch glimpses, “awakenings”, of the enlightened world, through near-death or mystical experiences. These may induce or enhance the journey of self-realization, but they are not in themselves enlightenment. Some might think they indicate enlightenment is happening or is going to happen, but they are far more common than enlightenment.

Another difference between self-realization and enlightenment is that while you can say a person has become self-realized, no person becomes enlightened. Enlightenment does not come to a person or to ego; it is something that happens in consciousness, bumping ego away and therefore anything to identify with the person.

For a person experiencing self-realization, there are many shifts along the way, some of them quite dramatic. And for some, a rising consciousness where they sense or see much that is seen in enlightenment. However, ego is still there, still the center of their consciousness. The signal experience of enlightenment occurring is a distinct moment when something that was here, that you had considered you, is gone. The thought system of ego may remain to wind down after this, but there is no getting back the sense of someone here learning, growing, or on a path. The “I” is gone.

A self-realized person can be recognized. They are relaxed and comfortable with themselves, warts and all, so they accept and easily forgive others, too. They don’t demand things from others and they have healthy boundaries with them. They take responsibility for themselves and their actions. They make amends quickly when they have made a mistake. They have integrity. They hurt over the things anyone would, but they don’t suffer. They are not fearless, but they are not run by fear. They eventually adjust to anything that occurs. Their lives are simple because, being at peace with themselves, they need less from the outer world.

Enlightenment is harder to see because there is no such thing as an enlightened person. Enlightenment occurs in consciousness; it is seen within by the one who experiences it. Someone who has experienced enlightenment may or may not appear self-realized, depending on how much work was done on the ego thought system before its ontological core, the denial of truth, fell away. Growth ends with the end of ego. Their detachment is admired by some, is disturbing to others. They may at times seem otherworldly, because another world has come to their consciousness. But mostly, they go about with the enlightenment in their consciousness unrecognized.

What many seek in a teacher is a self-realized one, a “good” and/or “authentic” person that they can admire and use as a model. What many are disappointed in is one who has experienced enlightenment because enlightenment does now show up in a way that they understand as it is not about the person. For ego, self-realization is an understandable and desirable goal. But while ego may think it wants enlightenment, it does not want what enlightenment truly is: Its end.

 

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