Enlightened
What does it mean to be ‘enlightened’?
This is day 4 of my spiritual journey during Lent. I know, we are two weeks into Lent, but I got a late start. Forgive my tardiness. I’ll try to make it up.
Seeing the challenge to write a story or poem using the prompt “enlightenment,” that Simran Kankas put out recently on Spiritual Tree, I did what I usually do. I googled it, and up came the following definition:
“1: the act or means of enlightening: the state of being enlightened.”
Really!? That’s very enlightening!
Seriously, that’s what a dictionary gave as the first definition. I don’t know about you, but my English teacher taught us never to use the word or its derivatives in the definition.
To be fair, dictionary said:
“3: Buddhism: a final blessed state marked by the absence of desire or suffering.”
That’s more like it.
According to Wikipedia, “Enlightenment is the full comprehension of a situation.”
My understanding from 3 above is that Buddhists seek to attain such a state.
I can imagine what life without suffering would look like. Who wouldn’t want that? Thankfully, most of my life I’ve lived with little suffering. Considering my age, that…
