31 Jan Way Of Way 246

The self is who we are in life, not what we are eternally.

As all we know is our life, we identity with the self and its various emotions.

Yet the self separates us from what we and every thing in the universe is: manifestations of the soul.

Enlightenment is self-realization: realizing the self is an illusion.

Enlightenment frees us to see the universe as it is, not as our self sees it.

Upon enlightenment, every thing is enlightening as all things are expressions of undifferentiated pure light (the initial manifestation of the soul).

As what you see is what you are, the enlightened are the pure light.

The pure light makes the enlightened lighthearted. They find funny those who are slaves to the self.

Their pure light also allows they to enlighten others.

They enlighten with words but not sentences; as words emanate light while sentences reflect light and cast shadows.*

*For example, the Zen student asks his teacher: “Does a rock have consciousness?” The teacher responds: “Mu”, a word meaning “nothing”. As a rock is constantly changing (though imperceptibly so) and is nothing before and after whatever it is in the now, it doesn’t have an enduring reality that can be described (as conscious or otherwise). It is a manifestation of nothing.

Alternatively, the teacher responds: “Who asks?” That is, a rock and consciousness are understandable when you know what you are.

Or, famously: “Five pounds of flax.” Rocks and pounds of flax, however seemingly unrelated, are temporary manifestations of one thing: the soul. Focusing on philosophical concepts like the consciousness of a rock strays us from coming to know the soul by observing the now.

Otherwise, communicating in sentences, many sentences gives agency or reality to a thing (rock) that is everchanging and a concept (consciousness) that is debatable in light of its context.