Whenever I've had the opportunity and/or annoyance of hearing folks talk about various meditation techniques and give big answer to big questions from their followers hungry for big answers to big questions, one common theme I’ve noticed is that whatever style of Enlightenment they’re talking about, or whatever euphemism they’re using for the e-word, the thing they’re guiding folks to is always…
al…
most…
there….
The implication is, of course, that the speaker has got it and can lead their followers to it, or at least that the speaker knows someone – or knows of someone — who’s got it and is thus empowered to help guide fellow seekers along the path. Maybe the speaker’s “almost there” is just a little closer to there, wherever “there” happens to be.
Enlightenment is always just over the next hill, available if only you’d just do this one more thing, and do it sincerely, cuz if you don’t do it sincerely it won’t work, but if you have trouble doing it sincerely send me your credit card number and I’ll help you out. That’s the nature of Enlightenment, that it’s just around the next bend. Or maybe the one after that. Or maybe after those three and a bunch of hills. But it’s always off in the distance. Not here.
And it will always be off in the distance because there’s nowhere else it can be. The very definition of Enlightenment might as well be “off in the distance.”
It’s the proverbial carrot on a stick held out before a donkey. But at least the donkey gets to eat that carrot when he gets to wherever the driver wants him to go. Nobody ever gets Enlightenment. It’s like that movie Logan’s Run where everybody’s waiting to renew and all they end up is getting blown up.
You won’t get the closure they’re selling you because there is no closure. But that doesn’t mean things can’t improve. They can. The Enlightenment salesmen get all bent out of shape whenever anybody points out that they’re selling you pipe dreams that can never come true. Some of them think that nobody will try to do a practice unless they believe there’s some reward at the end of it. But I don’t know if people are all really that stupid.
Instead of hoping for some reward way off in the distance it may be better to look at what’s right here very carefully and closely. Then you can do the real work necessary to make this right here better. Make enough small improvements and -- voila! Enlightenment. It's sudden and instant the same way as the Pyramid of Chaeops was suddenly instantly completed the moment they put that last brick on top.
