The 5 Myths About Achieving Spiritual Enlightenment

1. Enlightenment is a long journey, reaching it takes years, decades, or even lives

Enlightenment is the deep realization of who you are, of what you have always been, pure consciousness. Enlightenment is the realization that you are not the "self-image," the image you have of yourself. It is also the realization that you are not your thoughts or the body you occupy.

Enlightenment leads us to the realization of your true nature, your unconditional essence, of timeless awareness.

Realizing that you are already what you have been looking for for so long, you will come to accept that there is nothing you can do to get there. Thus, the road to enlightenment does not involve time, it does not represent a future event.

A simple analogy would be: how far should the ocean go to find water? This question needs no answer. The ocean must recognize what it already is.

The reason why it is so difficult for this awakening to take place is due to the conditioning we have received since the first years of life, according to which we are the body and the image we have of ourselves, the self-image.

If we are not our body or the image we have of ourselves, what are we? We are the ONE who observes in silence, the one who is aware of everything we are experiencing at this moment.

This experience includes all the thoughts, feelings, sensations, images, and perceptions that appear in the inner world as well as in the "outer" world.

The word "outer" is in quotation marks because we could say that we are not the ones in the world, the world is in us. Your nature is consciousness itself. However, do not try to understand it, consciousness cannot be understood through thought, through the mind.

2. I will be enlightened as soon as I learn to control or stop my thoughts

This is another misconception. The reality is that it is not necessary to stop your thoughts in order for the awakening to take place, it is only necessary to stop identifying with them.

However, this non-identification with your own thoughts is not as easy a task as it seems at first glance because most of us have spent much of our lives doing just that, thinking. It is important to respect them and look at them in silence.

By observing your thoughts there will be a space between you and the thoughts that appear, so you will realize that you are present before the thought appears, during the thought and after the thought disappears. This practice will lead you to the realization that you cannot be your own thoughts. Whether or not thoughts arise in your consciousness, you continue to exist.

3. Enlightenment means that I will be released from the ego

Ego is a necessary tool for our survival. The ego is the one who notifies us when danger arises and is responsible for the "fight or flight" response. We seldom find ourselves in life-threatening situations, but nevertheless, the ego approaches these harmless scenarios with the same "fight or flight" response. If someone insults us or cuts us off in traffic, the ego begins to feel threatened.

It is important to be able to observe our ego. Observing it will create a space between us and it. The more space there is between us and him, the less power he has over us. You will soon start to see him as a spoiled crying baby because he wants what he wants when he wants. The mantra of the ego is "I, I, I!"

Instead of getting angry, we can begin to love our ego as much as we love our own children, and we can make sure it is safe. By not taking our own ego seriously we will begin to become lighter, more full of life. It is not necessary to free ourselves from the ego, its mere observation is enough.

4. As soon as I am enlightened, my life will be without problems

Spiritually enlightened people do not see life in pink, rather they have stopped labeling things as positive or negative because all that is going on in the present is life itself. This way you will learn to trust life fully and completely. You will learn to enjoy the journey and every moment of it. You will understand that a roller coaster has both ups and downs.

As you get older, you realize that life passes very quickly, and so the need to cry and whine about every minor thing is seen as what it really is, an enormous waste of energy.

Remember, each of us is a good captain when the seas are calm. This should make us understand that the answer is not to avoid storms. As the saying goes, "ships are not designed to stay in port."

Regardless of the outcome, certainly, they learn something about you, something you didn't know until then. When you wake up, you will realize that what you really are can never be hurt. As the Bhagavad-Gita says about your true nature:

"The sword cannot cut it, the fire cannot burn it, the water cannot wet it and the wind cannot dry it."

5. I will know that I am enlightened because I will feel in an inner state full of ecstasy and incredible happiness

While happiness or supreme happiness is a wonderful experience, like all experiences, it will come and go. The idea that Enlightenment brings with it an extraordinary state of happiness is as false as can be. To be awakened means to be truly authentic with this moment, the present moment, regardless of the form in which it is dressed.

Because enlightened beings do not live in the past or in the future, they fully embrace any strong thoughts, feelings, sensations, or emotions that exist at this time.

If a person sees an animal abused by a human, he may cry at the sight of this unconscious act. What we discover is that we are the space in which any experience takes place today.

Final thoughts:

It is important to realize that we cannot locate consciousness, we can only FIM it. Like an eye can see everything but itself. For the moment, you can say, "This is consciousness," and then you may have to wonder who is aware of it. Did you notice a dilemma?

Also in Advaita Vedanta, we find the term of Sanskrit origin "Neti, Neti", which means "not this, not this", a term used to find our way back "home". It is important to do this exercise so that your understanding goes from the intellectual to the experiential level. This way you will return home.