Thoughts on Enlightenment
In one of his talks in The Myth of Freedom, Boston, 1976, Chogyam Trungpa said, “We are just a speck of dust in the midst of the universe” (p. 6). These words struck me as reflecting the inner condition of an enlightened person. Trungpa continued, “If you are a grain of sand, the rest of the universe, all the space, all the room is yours, because you obstruct nothing, overcrowd nothing, possess nothing. There is tremendous openness” (pp. 6-7).
Freed from the idea of himself, an enlightened person lives in great spaciousness. Without the self-centered thought, “I have attained enlightenment,” he or she feels no barrier separating him from any thing or person. There is no sense of good or bad applied to incidents or people, rather he just observes things as they are and lets them go as they go.
He has imperturbable composure, able to be active and calm at the same time. His speech and behavior are spontaneous, and he does not retrospectively worry about what he has said or done. He has the sense that whatever life presents comes from a higher power. He feels that all existence is Buddha without exception or reservation.
The condition of enlightenment, in time, will likely come to a zazen practitioner who faithfully continues his practice. When it does, since his idea of himself will have virtually vanished from his mind, he may not notice the change at all.