A Person Cannot Be Enlightened

There is no such thing as an enlightened person. This is so because there is no such thing as a person; therefore, there cannot exist an enlightened person. For an enlightened person to exist, it must first be possible for a person to exist, which person must eventually attain enlightenment. But if you earnestly examine your experience, you will not be able to locate a person; rather, the person you believe yourself to be is a label appearing in consciousness, the goal of which is to claim credit or ownership or authorship for what has already appeared in consciousness, or for what is about to appear.

You might be tempted to claim the apparent body/mind complex as the person, but this falls apart upon examination. Thoughts, feelings, perceptions, the world, objects in the world—all these arise in consciousness, exist for a time, and then disappear back into the consciousness from which they arose. The apparent mind matter and the objects around you do not occupy different spaces; the thoughts are not “inside,” and the objects are not “outside”—rather, if we are to use this label at all, everything in the phenomenal world, as well as thoughts and feelings, are “inside” consciousness. We mistakenly draw a conceptual circle around certain things (thoughts and feelings) and call everything within this circle the “person.” We typically include the physical body within this circle as well, but this apparent body-made-of-matter is really just one more appearance in consciousness—we just happen to include it within this conceptual circle we consider to be the person. This is why so many mystical spiritual traditions attempt to quiet the mind—it is thinking which carves up these appearances in consciousness and gives them labels. Once the mind achieves perfect stillness, no longer is a difference seen between “person” and “world,” and so no labels are given; in fact, differentiation unwinds and everything is felt as the substance of consciousness at play, in love with itself. This is enlightenment: consciousness without a separate subject, loving itself as itself by itself.

(Note: Consciousness, as described above, is often referred to as “the Self” in Advaita Vedanta philosophy.)