You might not and most probably will not reach the heights of a Nisargadatta or Longchenpa, but it is entirely possible in this lifetime to discover and become established in your true fulfilled nature beyond the limited, conditioned and unhappy personality you currently identify with.
Your true nature or enlightenment is not something foreign or other than you or a thing that happens to you. It is the very essence of yourself being revealed, and is already something very known, intimate and familiar to you. So known and familiar in fact that you continue to miss it and dismiss it, all the while seeking and searching and hoping and longing for something else, something grander and more significant.
The treasure of your being is hidden in plain sight, obscured by the denser and less subtle layers of thinking and doing and all manner of distractions and ego concerns. You don’t have to do anything to uncover this treasure except to slow down enough, and be quiet enough to recognize what has always been there: a silent, open, attentive, calm spaciousness. We are usually too busy waiting for the ‘exceptional event’ or allowing our ego to claim the bliss and peace of meditation for its own spiritual specialness to recognize it for what it is.
This simple state of Being, unadorned and unclaimed is your enlightenment. Or would be if you gave it half a chance. There can be grandeur and majesty to the enlightened condition, but at its core it is pure simplicity and ordinariness. Don’t look for the grandeur:
it will find you in its own time. Look for the most natural, the most intimate, the most easeful, the most real, the most simple within you. Trust it, nurture it and allow it to fully transform you.
Thanks Anne for showing us how we miss Enlightenment because its not what we expected. We have a narrative of clouds parting, angels decsending and many other stories. Only to be blown away by the ordinary and simple Truth of Enlightenment.