How Do I Know If I’m Enlightened?

The answer was surprisingly clear.

Photo by Jake Givens on Unsplash

I attended a Theravada meditation and teaching night in a Buddhist centre, a hub hosting the activities of different groups. It is a small, cozy apartment with Korean furnishings, a pleasant haven of beautiful wisdom and open-minded dialogue. If you want to go meditate in the meditation hall, you have to cross the living room. Physically, but most do it also mentally.

The meeting began with guided meditation. There would be a lot to write about meditative experiences, but now I will focus on the teaching part. The subject of the day was samadhi. It is typically translated as concentration, but more specifically, it would better be described as a kind of flow state. The mind is alert and relaxed at the same time. It is an effortless, absorbed and mindful.

Typically, when the teacher asks the group the “Any questions?”, my mind is usually completely blank, and satisfied. Nothing to add. But this time, I made an exception. Listening about samadhi, my mind naturally wandered to the idea of enlightenment. So I asked,

“How do you know if you are enlightened?”

After a brief silence, the directness of the question made some of us chuckle a little bit. Then the instructor told that when she had given her first dharma teaching years ago, there was a questions box from which she drew pieces of paper with questions on them. The first paper she drew had exactly this question on it, and it baffled her back then. But not this time.

The Enlightenment is related to the Buddha’s realization on the nature of suffering. It is caused by what Buddhist psychology calls “unskillful states of mind”. The problem of the human condition is not a transgression against the will or the law of a higher being. Instead, Buddhists believe that suffering is created by our stupidity that harms ourselves and others around us.

The instructor gave three states of mind that block the person’s Enlightenment: desire, hate and delusion. When a person becomes disturbed by wanting something and not having it, hating something and having it anyway, or believing something that is not true, he suffers.

Now, one important point. It is not the likes, dislikes and thoughts themselves, that cause us to suffer. For example, you might feel horny. But what do you do with the horniness? What do you think about it? How do you react? What do you do? Your skillfulness or unskillfulness in treating your emotions will determine if you suffer or not.

If you anguish over not having sex or your favourite music, this causes you suffering. If you throw a tantrum over a difficult relationship issue or a flat tire, this causes you suffering. If you buy the lies of a cult leader, or a deceitful businessman, or your own imaginations, and you resent your gullibility, this causes you suffering.

But you can choose the “unnatural” option, the option that is not “wired” in us. It is the option of mindfulness, the non-judging attitude of our experiences and feelings. You change from judge to observer. You become objective.

Better yet, you become curious.

The Enlightenment is not about not feeling anything. The enlightened people will suffer from stomach pains, sexual frustration, or cold. They will fall sick at times. It is not a mythical state of divinity. It is not magic.

So what is Enlightenment? Enlightenment is freedom from being disturbed or bothered by anything. I know I am enlightened if I no longer waver from my peace of mind, regardless of what I feel.

If you become spiritually acute, you start to take seriously about the role of your mind in your sufferings. You gradually learn not to blame others for them. In Jesus’ words, you remove the log from your own eye. You start to see that it is your mind that is creating your sufferings. You have become aware of what suffering truly is.

I have to add this: the world we live in is terribly unfair. Some have it easy, while others live in the midst of unending tragedy. The lives of others are just plain dull, or so it feels. I am not discrediting the horrifying conditions of war, family strife or poverty. On the other hand, I know one guy who was raised in an orphanage in a poor country, and came into my wealthy country with just a few coins in his pocket. However, the light on his face is brighter than mine. We might suffer from our conditions. But our minds are not their slaves.

But the path only begins with knowledge, the theoretical understanding of suffering. Then you start practising the skills of the mind. Little by little, your knowledge grows into routines and habits, your second nature.

Enlightenment is mastery of the skills of the mind.

But … is this really attainable? I don’t know, I haven’t really tried. But how could it not be worth trying?