How to Drop All Illusions and Experience True Awakening

Can Enlightenment Really Be That Simple?

In my last piece of content, I said that the fastest way to enlightenment is as fast as you can drop all your illusions.

One viewer reached out in the comments and asked the following question: 

“It's easy to say, 'So, I'm exactly where I should be.'. It's easy to believe that such a proposition is fundamentally true. BUT - it's not so easy to simply 'drop' all preconceived ideas. If it were, the entire planet would have become enlightened centuries ago. To me, this is the same as when a Christian says, 'All you need to do is to have faith.'. Fine - but you cannot have faith just because you want it - that doesn't happen. Faith arises because of some experience. Somehow, somewhere, there is a cause to that faith arising. How to drop all conceptions about everything? Easy to say. Easy to agree with. But how to do so . . . . . . ?”

He also followed up with a second comment and added some further clarifications to his questions. He basically said that, “Something must have happened that enables awakened people to ‘see,’ to ‘recognize’ their awake nature; there must be a cause to it. Otherwise it’s just a random process where it may or may not happen.”

Is Enlightenment Just Luck, or Is There a Process?

So first, I want to thank my viewer for asking this important question. There are probably many people out there with the same question, and I am doing my best to answer it and hopefully bring more clarity to it.

I know that saying, "The fastest way to enlightenment is as fast as you can drop your illusions," is a radical statement. And when we hear a statement like this, many different thoughts and questions may come up. 

“How do I drop all illusions? How do I do it?”

Or

“I already tried it, and it didn’t work. I’m still not enlightened.”

In addition to that, different feelings might come up as well—frustration, for example. Any earnest spiritual seeker is aware of the commitment and exhaustion that come along with their quest for enlightenment. They might have exerted themselves to the point where it just feels hopeless, or a statement like this might trigger frustration because they have been trying to do it for many years or even decades. And then, someone comes along and says, “Hey, take it easy, just drop everything and see that you are already enlightened. No need to worry.” So, it’s not surprising that people might feel triggered by such a statement, especially if they have given their whole life to their spiritual path.

But what’s the solution to this? If it’s really that easy to get enlightened by just dropping all illusions right now, why is it still so difficult? And does it even work? If everything is already as it is, is it just a random process and having an awakening is just luck? Or is there a process to it?

Finding Enlightenment Through Practice

First, I want to say that although I have explored and practiced different spiritual traditions, my main training is in Zen. I’m currently reading The Three Pillars of Zen—actually, for the very first time. In this book, the author claims that when you properly follow the guidance of proper Zen training, it’s much more likely that you realize something than just doing nothing.

There are people who have realized their true nature without any spiritual training, but they seem to be very rare. When we look at Zen, probably thousands and thousands of people have had realizations. Therefore, I think there is value in immersing oneself in a dedicated spiritual practice. It doesn’t have to be Zen, and when you look across spiritual traditions, although they may differ slightly, I believe any path can work if one is truly earnest about it.

Take the Indian sage Nisargadatta Maharaj, for example. He was given only one instruction from his teacher: to meditate on the “I am” sense. He did that very earnestly, fully committed to it, and became enlightened just a few years later.

Realizing Our True Self Isn’t About Getting Something New

Let’s try it this way: Imagine infinite empty space. Suddenly, a universe, a world, appears, with people in it. Every form that appears, since there is only empty space, is made from that very space. Since everything is made of the same substance, there is really no difference between any form that has appeared. Like waves on an ocean; although waves appear to be separate, they are all made of water.

Every form that appears shares the same substance, but there is a feeling in the human forms that makes these forms believe they are separate. So this human form is already made from empty space, in a world made from empty space. In their very essence, they are just empty space, but they can’t see it because there are many delusions that suggest otherwise.

What do these humans need to add to their experience in order to realize that they are empty space? This question doesn’t make any sense; and yet, we are looking for an experience called enlightenment or awakening to realize our true self.

Any such experience would just add to the delusion of that human being. It would be something on top of the delusion of being separate. Now we are not only separate, but we are also enlightened, and everybody else is still in delusion.

Although we and everything in existence are made from that very emptiness, we are looking around trying to find it. 

“Where is it?!”

“Maybe, around the corner, there will be something called realization, and then I have it, because now, I don’t have it.”

Saying that the fastest way to enlightenment is as fast as you can drop your illusions might make more sense now, given the example I just referred to. Drop your illusions about being a human, being in a world, about everything, and recognize that you are that very empty space. Now, this recognition is not something we “get”; it’s our natural state, actually, since everything is already emptiness.

So spiritual practice is not about getting anything, it’s about letting go of everything. It’s about becoming free from all our beliefs, ideas, and opinions so that the very essence that we are is the only thing that’s left. And actually, since it’s emptiness, there is nothing left. We are already it.

Imagine I were to search for my glasses, although I’m already wearing them. I could look through the whole universe, and still not find them. Why? Because I’m already wearing them. And when I would have exhausted myself searching for my glasses, maybe then I’d realize that I’ve been wearing them all along.

So what did I get from that realization? Do I now see better? Did I not see better before? Nothing changed. I mean, it’s almost an embarrassing insight, isn’t it? I’ve had them all along, but I was exerting myself, looking for them everywhere! What a stupid thing to do, right?

Moving Beyond Concepts in Spiritual Practice

So, this was a lot of theory right now, but we don’t want to remain stuck with ideas and concepts about it. Every spiritual concept should only help to remove other concepts. After every other concept is discarded, we also need to remove the spiritual concepts as well. So how can we use these concepts in our spiritual practice? Sure, everyone is already awake, but if there are still delusions lingering around, they don’t help us.

So, if you are a complete beginner, I’d suggest you sit down to meditate daily for at least 5 minutes. Only focus on your breath. You can count your breaths from 1 to 10; if you get interrupted by your thinking, start from 0. If you get to 10, start from 0 again. This way you build some concentration which is helpful for meditation. If you want more information, I’d suggest watching some youtube videos about it.

If you already have some meditation experience, practice letting go of your thoughts. This means sitting in meditation, becoming aware of your thinking, and letting it go. Now, if a thought appears that says, “It’s so difficult to let go of all thoughts,” let go of that thought as well. Watch very closely and don’t get attached to any single thought.

When you do that, you’ll see how your mind opens, becomes wider, and the thoughts become less solid. Even if thoughts arise that demand, “I want realization,” just look at them, but let them go as well. You’ll become less attached to any thought or dependency, and your mind will free itself from the compulsive pattern of trying to get something.

If you do that, you’ll see that thoughts are endless. There is no point in stopping them. Naturally, this will lead to a point where you will ask yourself, “Who is witnessing these thoughts?”

“Who Am I?”

Then, whenever a thought, feeling, or any mental object appears, you ask yourself, "Who sees that?" When you do that, even the thought, "When will enlightenment appear?" will become redundant.

That’s it. I’ll definitely talk more about certain practices in upcoming blog articles, but for now, I hope I was able to bring some clarity to your questions. Also, forget about the idea that I know more than you do. I don’t. We are all the same. That’s why I see myself more as a friend of the way rather than a “teacher.”

I wish you all the best.

Your friend on the way,
Bye!