Symptoms Of Enlightenment By Laurence Freeman

There is in Christian mystical literature an understanding and a description, a recognition of what we could call enlightenment experiences. Evagrius Ponticus, one of the more intellectual, theological, and philosophical of the Desert Fathers, speaks about meditation as the way ‘in which we come to see the light of our own spirit’. ‘In which we come to see the light of our own spirit’ – he is describing a stage of consciousness, a stage of the journey.

We could say that it’s about seeing one’s mind clearly without self-analysis or self-reflection, without the intervention of intellectual thinking.

Transcript

Symptoms of Enlightenment There is,

In the Christian mystical literature,

An understanding and a description,

A recognition,

Of what we could call Enlightenment experiences.

Evagrius Ponticus,

One of the more intellectual,

Theological and philosophical of the Desert Fathers,

Speaks about meditation as the way in which we come to see the light of our own spirit.

In which we come to see the light of our own spirit.

He is describing a stage of consciousness,

A stage of the journey.

We could say that it's about seeing one's own mind clearly,

Without self-analysis or self-reflection,

Without the intervention of intellectual thinking.

Is it just about seeing the world differently?

Or is it about the actual doors of perception that we have being cleansed,

Being purified,

Being transformed?

And as they are transformed,

As we perceive,

We see the light that we have within ourselves.

And that light is reflected then in our perception of the external world.

And,

Of course,

What also grows is the sense that this distinction between the internal reality and the external reality is not an absolute truth.

And at the purest level of perception,

There is oneness.

There is just simply God.

The sense,

The language of duality,

Inner and outer,

Becomes redundant.

The symptoms of enlightenment,

What are they?

It's rather like what Evagrius and the Desert Fathers called apatheia.

Apatheia means literally being without disordered passion.

But it's this highly energized state in the way that we understand it,

And they taught it.

It's part of a cycle that we pass through regularly.

We are always in this cycle of spiritual growth as we move from achadia,

Which is discouragement and dryness and depression,

To apatheia,

When things bloom as they do in springtime and in the height of summer,

And everything is fully alive and it's also a state of peace,

Of joy,

Of being without fear,

High energy,

And the ability to actively participate with the people in the world around you.

And this overflows then into the third stage,

Which is agape,

Or the boundless love of God.

So enlightenment,

Whether it's sudden or gradual,

The symptoms are identifiable in all traditions.

The Dalai Lama put it very simply once when he said,

My religion is kindness.

If your religion doesn't make you a nicer person,

Then it's not working.