53 Saturday
“How do I know when I’m becoming enlightened?”
“The traditional meaning given to this is that it’s when you’re coming out of the darkness into the light, and it has a certain meaning I suppose, where someone is gaining clarity of mind and so on – but in fact it’s very hard to judge, it’s possible that you’re just self-deluded!
But there’s a nice ambiguity in the English, and we could also take it that someone who is enlightened is a person who is no longer heavy! And this, I feel, has a great meaning: if you see someone and they have a certain lightness about them, a certain joy and happiness, if they smile occasionally, and have time for others, then that’s an enlightenment worth having. The opposite of course is someone who is serious all the time, never laughs, and is always wanting to convert others to their way of thinking – that is someone who is weighed down by self, by the accumulations of the past, by his history and so on. And people like that they come at you and their hands and minds and hearts are full of things they want to give you. But for me someone who is enlightened has put all that stuff down, and he comes with open hands, an open mind, and an empty heart.
This is the way Jesus was in the world, he had a heart that was big enough not to reject other people and their sins, and that is what really brings about the resurrection: He is light enough to rise out of the grave, even death couldn’t hold him down! And later he walks about on the earth once more for forty days eating and drinking, playing games with his disciples, and celebrating until he’s just so light he ascends into heaven! So when I read about Jesus after the resurrection, I feel now that is someone who is truly enlightened.”
Christ is all
Christ is all!
O don’t you know
that Christ is all?
O what to seek?
and where to go?
it’s all around
so now you know
look up! look down!
look in or out
O can’t you see
Christ lives in all?