To become spiritually enlightened, enlightenment must move from being a mysterious black box, pig-in-a-poke concept to a concept usable to you as a human being.
That involves a four step process.
One: Set Aside Your Current Conception Of Spiritual Enlightenment.
Two: Understand What Taoist Enlightenment is and Provides.
Three: Adopt Taoist Enlightenment As Your Primary Goal.
Four: Seek Spiritual Enlightenment.
You must first move enlightenment out of the realm of mystical experience that creates the perception that enlightenment is unattainable. You must change your mental relationship with the concept so that you personally can approach it.
Let me illustrate this idea for you.
The Quest for The Pink Dragon
Let’s say that you believe there is a magic pink dragon that lives on a remote mountain and the dragon can give you three wishes.
You say that you believe in this dragon.
The concept of the dragon appeals to you, as does the idea of having your 3 wishes granted. You are always talking about the pink dragon. You buy books on the pink dragon.
However, you haven’t lost your mind. You’ve never seen a pink dragon. You’ve never met anyone that’s had their wishes granted. You also need to work and live in your workaday world.
How much time and energy are you going to dedicate to finding this pink dragon?
Remember, you don’t live in a fantasy world. People demand things of you every day. You’ve got bills to pay and relationships to maintain.
Are You Sabotaging Your Spirituality?
Your mind knows, despite your expressed wish, that visiting the pink dragon is not a realistic experience for you. After all, maybe in your entire life to date, you’ve dedicated a couple hundred dollars to the mystical dragon experience and a hundred hours of activity. That’s not a lot of time and resources for something that’s real, and would be a life changing experience (3 wishes would change your life, wouldn’t they?).
Your brain knows, even if you won’t acknowledge it, that the pink dragon just isn’t that important to you.
You’ve said with time and resources exactly that, it’s not important.
The Implication of a Spiritual Enlightenment That Is Attainable
Enlightenment is a dude living about 4 blocks away from you. You need to know what he looks like and to get your life in enough order to visit him and then actually visit him. The only reason you won’t go there is because you don’t want to visit him.
In fact, after you’ve visited him, you’ll realize that you’ve already met him.
Warm Regards,
Master Mikel Steenrod
Keeper of the Gate of Man and Heaven