Exploring Enlightenment: A Conversation on Suffering and Awareness

Someone Should Start Laughing

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
How are you?

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
What is God?

If you think that the Truth can be known
From words,
If you think that the Sun and the Ocean
Can pass through that tiny opening
Called the mouth,

O someone should start laughing!
Someone should start wildly laughing—
Now!

-Hafiz

Hello friends,

I had someone recently ask me a profound question about enlightenment, and I felt compelled to share our exchange with you. It's a topic that touches on some of the deepest aspects of our human experience, so listen in as we delve into this conversation.

Questioner:

I really just want to know where you stand today on this big question of enlightenment and what that even means to you. And is it worth pursuing? Because it's just something I can't shake... so here I am asking the question.

Jator:

Sweet brother, love the question. And, in typical fashion, because I have patterns too, can I ask you a question?

Questioner:

As always, please.

Jator:

You said you "can't shake" it, which to me implies that there's a curiosity for you. I'm genuinely curious—what’s the curiousness about the concept of enlightenment that leads you to a place where you feel, "I can’t shake this"?

Questioner:

Well, it’s like, you know, I can’t shake suffering; I can’t shake this discomfort I feel in my everyday experience. And yeah, I think that maybe this thing of enlightenment is like a carrot on a stick that I’ll never get. It’s the search that gets in the way of the experience or the realization of it.

Jator:

You said something else that stood out to me—“I can’t get rid of suffering,” and there’s “a carrot at the end of the stick.” I’m assuming that means enlightenment in some way or another, maybe the experience of that or being that means the end of suffering?

In my experience, over the years, I’ve heard many people speak about this idea of enlightenment. And for me, I think every single human being on the planet is already on that path towards enlightenment. We’re all, at some level, enlightening ourselves to ourselves every day. We all have experiences of emotion and thought. We get triggered, we get charged. Sometimes that trigger or charge is in what many would frame as a positive emotion, and many times, that trigger or charge is what many would frame as a negative emotion.

Often, the experiences of negative emotion and the experience of suffering are housed under suffering. Which is the ego saying, “I don’t want what life is showing me. I don’t want what life is expressing. I don’t like that I’m on this boat in this river and I don’t control the river—the river basically goes where it wants.”

For me, the path to enlightenment is simply the ability to shine the light of awareness where it has not been shined before. Maybe enlightenment is about keeping the light on and continuing the search for other aspects that remain in the dark.

Now, maybe that light turns on for a second—enlightens—but turns back off once experienced.

“I’m fucking charged right now.” (This is going on in the internal dialogue.) “I’m charged right now,” and maybe that means I don’t know the language of “I’m afraid” or “I’m ashamed.” So I’m going to hide that, and I’m going to keep proving and defending my position—enlighten, experience, turn the light back to off position.

We are all growing at the exact pace that we are “supposed” to.

There’s often a tendency to compete and compare—who’s more developed and who’s less developed; it becomes more of a game of the ego.

And that carrot you’re chasing—I understand. There are aspects of me that would like to end my experience of suffering. Suffering, as the creation of essentially not being in alignment with what life is expressing, and thinking that life should be expressing something different.

And so I’ve personally never chased enlightenment—not as a criticism or as a better or worse—because, in some regard, that ocean is so vast, I know that if I think or proceed or create an end result to that, I will always feel like I didn’t achieve my goal or that I’m not enough.

So, instead of chasing the elusive carrot, I encourage you to enlighten every day. Attempt to keep the lights lit, and continue the adventure.

Until next time, friends, let’s continue this journey of curiosity and compassion together. 🤔

Jator

Questions for Reflection:

1. What is your relationship with the concept of enlightenment? Do you see it as a goal to be achieved or an ongoing process?

2. How does your perception of suffering influence your pursuit of enlightenment?

3. What areas of your life are calling for the light of awareness? How might you begin to illuminate them?

4. How can you embrace the journey of self-discovery without fixating on a specific end result?