Am I Enlightened?

A few days ago I got this rather curt question from one of my readers:

‘Roger, I read your posts with great interest and I’m thinking of buying your book. I have a question. With all your years of meditating, are you enlightened yet? The reason I ask is I was told that a meditation teacher should not teach until they have reached enlightenment.’

And my reply?

No, I am not enlightened.

However, to my credit, I am more enlightened now than I was thirty five years ago when I began meditating. And I’m happy with that – reason being, I began from a very ‘unenlightened’ state – perhaps more than most. My childhood had been quite traumatic, and the only way I could deal with it was to withdraw into myself and be as numb as possible. So as I got older, that became my normal – withdrawn, perpetually tongue-tied and mentally confused – until I discovered alcohol and drugs when I was 14 years old. I loved them. They papered over the cracks in my psyche and made me bigger than myself – more confident and ebullient. They removed the anxiety so I could think and speak and create. They gave me a life that I wouldn’t have found without them. I became a singer in a touring band, which could never have happened without the extraversion of intoxication, and I was quite successful – until my thirtieth year when I realised I was falling apart. Which was when I changed course and threw myself into Vipassana meditation.

So now, after thirty five years of meditation practice, I am healthier than I’ve ever been, I’ve written five books that I’m proud of, and my body, heart and mind are alive and responsive to whatever I choose to do. Nevertheless, I’m not a monk, nor am I pedantically preoccupied with the more extreme levels of my well-being – my body works well no matter what I eat, I enjoy drinking wine with friends, I love a bit of mischief, and making love with my girlfriend. So then – does my relatively unenlightened state preclude me from showing people how to meditate?

Not at all. And here’s why.

For myself, as I said in my first book, ‘Happy to Burn’, I decided long ago that enlightenment (nibbana) was not a part of my destiny. So I folded meditation and mindfulness practice into my daily life, to heal myself and give me what I needed to do what I needed to do in my life.

And that’s what I practice and write about, and what I teach when called upon – which is, to train the mind with meditation and mindfulness practice to be as agile, clear and intuitively fluid as possible, to be able to live well in the mad, burning world we all live in. As such, what I practice remains the most basic – the first, and most important stage of meditation practice. And though it’s largely similar to the practice of any novice monk or nun when they first begin, if enlightenment is the goal, then the paths diverge.

So one could say there are two streams of meditation, even though they begin from the same place. The most basic stream is what I practice and write about – then there is the more advanced practice as needed if the goal is enlightenment.

Speaking generally, there are what’s called the ‘Four Stages of Enlightenment’, which arise from experiential insights that arise as a result of the meditation practice, each of which requires adjustments to the practice that are specific to the stage the practitioner is at:

The first stage is called ‘Stream Entry’ (Sotapanna): In this early stage, one experiences profound insights into the true nature of reality – particularly the Three Marks of Existence – those being impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anatta). At this point the Stream Enterer is working to deconstruct their habits of:

1. Self-identity (sakkāya-diṭṭhi)
2. Doubt or uncertainty about the path they’ve chosen (vicikicchā)
3. Attachment to spurious beliefs, rituals and religious speculation (sīlabbata-parāmāsa)

The second stage is ‘Once-Returner’ (Sakadagami): At this point, the practitioner has largely deconstructed their need for sensual satisfaction and any capacity for ill will.

The third stage is ‘Non-Returner’ (Anagami): By now all sensual desire and capacity for ill will have completely disappeared. Also gone are:

1. Desire for the stuff of life (rūpa-rāga)
2. Identification of sensations as ‘pleasant’ or ‘unpleasant’(arūpa-rāga)

The fourth stage is Arahantship: This is the final stage of enlightenment in Theravada Buddhism, when the practitioner’s habits and attachments have been completely deconstructed. As such:

1. They’re free from any desire for prosperity in any material sense.
2. They’re free from any need for comfort or ideal living conditions.
3. They’re free from conceit in all its forms.
4. They’re completely tranquil within themselves
5. Their capacity for intuitive wisdom is limitless, as is their compassion for all things.

So then, given how hard it is to change our life habits, let alone deconstruct them completely and be free of them, you can see what a difficult journey it is to become completely enlightened. So if your underlying motive for practicing meditation is to become enlightened, then the only way forward is to withdraw to a Buddhist meditation centre or monastery, ordain as a monk or nun, and devote yourself completely to meditation and mindfulness practice, and the guidance of the teacher you’ve chosen.

Otherwise if, like me, you aren’t prepared to let go of this wonderfully ridiculous life we live out here, then you must learn to straddle the two paths by integrating basic meditation and mindfulness into the fabric of your life, and live well.

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Roger’s book, ‘BEING STILL – MEDITATION THAT MAKES SENSE’  is available now. Just click on the links below:

AMAZON PAPERBACK                                               – AUD $26.40 

KINDLE eBOOK                                                             – AUD $11.99 

AUDIOBOOK  (including ebook & MP3 exercises) – AUD $25.00 

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