Today finds us in Madras, India, 
and as it happens, 
just in time for the annual, Running of The Shirts.
Excitement is at a high pitch, (and a bit inside),
since last year twenty runners were gored by 
confused cuffs, and a dozen more run over by
rampaging Indigo # 2.
But ‘tis not matters of matadorian haberdashery that brings us here, but rather the place’s proximity to
every place else.
Precisely the sort of location where we can quietly sit, 
and consider -- The 3 Stages Of Enlightenment. 

1. "I want Enlightenment."
2. "What IS Enlightenment," and,
3. "What is ‘I’?"

Hardly anyone who becomes involved in this
most splendid affair ever gets past stage one.
It is a singularly delightful time in a person’s life,
but an introductory interlude should not be mistaken for 
a complete symphony, 
(leastwise to your advantage, it need not be).

When a person with the genetic attraction to the idea of
Enlightenment first stumbles thereon
there is not a doubt in their tendons that this is their
natural calling, if not, destiny.
"Enlightenment." A man’s neurons 
roll the delectable word around, 
savoring it as no other.
"That is what we want," they say,
(although at the man’s conscious level of thought
he feels it as; "I want Enlightenment,"
but that’s just how things work in this part of the universe).

So, a man’s goal is: "I want Enlightenment."
"I want to know -- The Secret Of Life."
"I want to know -- ‘The Truth’."
"I want to understand everything that is going on."
Wants that seem not unreasonable to those born with
that special attraction.

Predictably, any mentally-based goal of: 
“I want this-or-that” is automatically conceived of 
in the unanalyzed context of the thing wanted 
being something apart from the person wanting it.
A man with a glass of water in his hand is not going to say:
“I want water” –
only a man without water will make such a statement.
Everyone understands this –
they understand this regarding material things,
but not so when it comes to things, not material.
Thus when he begins, 
a man who wants Enlightenment goes off in search thereof.
     What else is he to do?!

He realizes that Enlightenment is not a physical object
that he will find somewhere, 
but is rather an inner condition different from his present one,
and about which he must learn;
so he looks not for an object,
but for instruction, 
…. perhaps even an instructor. 

“I want Enlightenment,” thinks a man, 
“And since I do not know how to bring on such a state, 
I will learn how others have done it, and follow their lead.”
It sounds like a straightforward question of simply finding
the proper instructions --  the right knowledge.
But just WANTING --  even SEEKING Enlightenment
will not finish the job off.

A man who believes he is studying Enlightenment will
never fully experience it.
For those with the indigenous addiction 
little in life compares with the joy and excitement of 
reading a new book on the subject,
or discussing some far-away, or long-gone guru,
but if you believe that you are actually studying,
and learning about something called, “Enlightenment”
you will never know its reality.

It is a trick, an illusion --  a mental trompe l’oeil 
caused by the supra noted natural reaction of 
the brain’s consciousness to look outside itself 
for that which it thinks it does not presently possess, 
(as is the proper, and indeed, only course of action
with all the other organs.)

But the trickiness is in the fact that while your thoughts will
believe that they are studying and learning about the thing,
Enlightenment,
they totally disregard the fact that they made up the concept. 
Until a man can see, accept & remember this on a constant basis
he will never be able to move past stage one.

To move on to stage two requires that a person who wants
Enlightenment realize that what he has been studying,
and thinking about is not Enlightenment,
and that while he is sure he is doing what he should be doing
the truth is that he has no idea what Enlightenment really is.
This in fact is a man’s first “Enlightenment,”
and he can then undertake the investigation that is stage two:
“What IS Enlightenment?”

I will not today spend time on this stage,
other than to say that its rigorous pursuit will eventually
bring on your second, personal Enlightenment
which will instantly put stages one & two far out of mind.
You have then finally reached the actual starting line of the
race to Enlightenment, 
and one, which I might mention, 
is but a millimeter or so from the finish.
That grand, glorious and totally unanticipated third stage:
“What is ‘I’?  --  what is this thing in me that 
wants Enlightenment?” 

       Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! –
       now we begins to geteth somewhere.
 

There is no “knowledge” somewhere that is: Enlightenment. 
There is no human who can somehow make you Enlightened.
Once you see it for yourself, there is in fact no such animal as,
Enlightenment --  but rather the thing in you that wanted
Enlightenment.

Discovering this  --    IS the reality of Enlightenment.
Notice that I did not say what it is that you discover,
for even then, ’tis still not a matter of some, “what”, 
or some thing,
it is the realization that being UN-enlightened was in your
mistaking a certain verb for an invented noun.
 

Leisurely back-stroking & floating your way through 
the action of six billion ceaseless waves,
all of whom call themselves by name,
and think of themselves as objects.
 

“I want Enlightenment.”
   Who is saying this?
“I want Enlightenment.”
   That which is saying this IS Enlightenment. 
 
 

       The sole of the awakened shoe 
       finally looks at the gum, forever stuck thereto,
       and says: “I didn’t realize you were my brother.” 

                                JAN