The Lexicon
Transformation and the path
Enlightenment
Enlightenment is the full and stable flowering of awakening, the abiding light that no longer flickers back into forgetting. Where awakening is the first glimpse, enlightenment is the home one has finally entered to stay, the end of seeking because the seeker has dissolved into what was sought. The traditions are unanimous that it cannot be achieved by the ego, for the ego is precisely the cloud that hides the sun.
Carried by 70 teachers · across 6 traditions · 12 quotes
In Buddhism it is nirvana, the cooling of the fires of grasping; in Vedanta it is liberation in this very life. The paradox the masters guard carefully is that there is no distance to travel, because the light is already shining as your own awareness. Enlightenment is simply the recognition that becomes complete, the moment the wave knows it was always ocean.
In their words
Enlightenment only becomes available when it has been accepted that it cannot be achieved.Tony Parsons
There is no one and nothing to be enlightened. Enlightenment simply is.Tony Parsons
Satori is the sudden flashing into consciousness of a new truth hitherto undreamed of. It is a sort of mental catastrophe taking place all at once.D.T. Suzuki
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.Immanuel Kant
Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.Eckhart Tolle