Enlightened...Here and Now

Enlightenment is just a spiritual concept, just one more thing to seek in a future that never comes.
Byron Katie from Loving What Is, (Three Rivers Press; 2002)  page 395.

You are not supposed to be enlightened until you are. 

You are not supposed to be there until you are there.

In fact you are not supposed to be anywhere but here until you are there.  And when you are there... you are here.

How is that for a mind twister?

I write and write and write about enlightenment...about waking up ...of someday reaching that state where the tendency to fall back to sleep is gone.  I keep saying..."I am not there yet." "I want to get there."

I use these words only because that is what the ego mind understands.  Past, present and future and time are "concepts" the mind created and understands.  But they are just "concepts"...ideas, words and thoughts in our heads. They are not things that can be "experienced" and therefore not real, not truth.

In actuality there is no getting there because there is no "there''.  When a future projection is reached in our minds...we are "here"... not "there." The there is not something we can ever hold, feel or experience because it is just a concept. The future is a concept only...a story. 

All we can truly experience is the present moment we are in.  Everything else is just an idea. Therefore the only place we can live is here and now.

Enlightenment is just a concept...like the "there". It is the carrot at the end of a stick propelling us forward in our desire to reach it...but we can never reach it as long as it is held before us.  Enlightenment is a state in the "there" that we seek.  When we seek in the "there" we are not experiencing the "here"...and here is the only place we can be awake....because here is all there is.

The only place to be awake is here and now.  We need to stop with our doing, our striving, our looking and searching...if we really want to be awake. Right here...right now...we wake up.

Wherever you are at is exactly where you are supposed to be.  This is your awakening...not some elusive dream ahead of you.  Right here, right now is where you are  and that is exactly where you are supposed to be.  Wake up here.

People talk about self-realization. and this is it!  Can you just breathe in and out happily?  Who cares about enlightenment when you're happy right now?  Just enlighten yourself to this moment.
Katie, page 306