Ho Hum

Whatever you think enlightenment is, it’s not.

Enlightenment is something that doesn’t even exist! It’s talked about – it’s written about – sure. But just because people talk about something doesn’t mean it’s real. A utopian society is not real either, but that doesn’t stop people from talking about it.

Enlightenment, like a utopian society, is a nice fantasy. It’s based on idealism and mistaken notions of the way things actually work. So if there’s one thing to really get clear on first, it’s that there is no such thing as enlightenment. It never existed and never will, for anyone, ever. Not even for the writers of the sacred texts. Not even for Buddha, not even for Lao-Tzu. And they would tell you as much.

So if whatever it is that’s going on – what has been written and talked about by all these people who seem to have “gotten” something – is not enlightenment, what is it? What’s going on?

What these people are trying to communicate is that nothing unusual is ever going on. The big secret is normalcy. Normalcy, with nowhere else to go. What does normal feel like? Well, here you are. You are aware. What does this feel like to you? Drop all your labels of it for a moment, and just experience this awareness. I’m not talking about “having an experience,” I’m talking about your everyday awareness, and what that is, to you.

Just your everyday, normal, day-to-day experience. What is it like? This is the normalcy we’re talking about. Are you saying, “No, I don’t feel that, I don’t feel the awareness”? Stop and hear what I’m saying. This, that you DO feel; this, that you DO experience: this is the awareness that is being talked about.

It’s completely natural. But it is our tendency to take this natural state of awareness and try to make something unusual out of it; and that leads to the idea that we have to do something to get ourselves back to the natural state. We don’t, because normalcy – naturalness – is all there ever was.

We give this imaginary movement back to normalcy mysterious-sounding names like “going home,” “returning to wholeness,” and of course “becoming enlightened,” or “waking up.” Is any of that really necessary? What is going on right now, before any “waking up” takes place?

Well, there is your ordinary, everyday awareness. So, if we never take the trip in our mind to go looking for something out of the ordinary, did something out of the ordinary exist? Or was there always just this normalcy?

This ordinary, everyday awareness is the miracle. Stop and get to know it. This is the prize, and it’s already here. How easy could it be? I don’t mean: it’s already here, now if only you could see or notice it; you ARE noticing it. Whatever it is that you are experiencing right now – normalcy – this is it. This is the miracle.

Not good enough? Do you think it doesn’t seem like a miracle? Considering that there would be an eternal void without it, I think it’s pretty miraculous. And the miracle is you – your own, everyday ordinary awareness! And you don’t have to wake up to find it: it’s what you think of every moment of your day as the “you” behind all you do. That simple! Now, who needs enlightenment?