The Fastest Way to Spiritual Enlightenment

When Will Enlightenment Come?

Are you worrying about when it will finally happen?

You have probably spent some time doing all kinds of spiritual practices, or maybe you are new to this and you are wondering about the most efficient way to “get there.” And it makes sense. Nobody wants to wait forever for enlightenment to finally happen.

Sure, there is something within us that’s always impatient, no matter what it’s about, because the regular human condition doesn’t like to wait.

The same is true for enlightenment, but there’s another aspect to it. In my belief, everyone, deep down within themselves, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is seeking enlightenment. There seems to be a longing within us that seeks truth, freedom, love, peace, and an ultimate answer to the big question of our life.

What am I? What is this? What is actually happening here?

And there are really no satisfying answers out there, at least not in the scientific or materialistic realm. Even if it were, it would still be unsatisfying. 

Imagine you want to find out what the taste of a banana is like. Now, if someone were to tell you about it or even give you a scientific paper about how a banana really tastes, would that really answer your question? Even if you had the most intelligent mental concept of what it tastes like, you’d still have absolutely no idea what it really tastes like. To find out what a banana tastes like, you will have to put it in your mouth. And the same is true for spirituality and our quest for enlightenment.

No matter how many theories we read about our true nature or our true self, it doesn’t help us if we don’t realize it.

Disappointments on the Path

And there are actually many ways that promise to bring us to that realization. We hear about Kundalini awakening, or psychedelics, breathwork is trending as well, there is ecstatic dancing, vipassana meditation, chanting and singing, there is a whole array of options that are sold to us to bring us closer to a realization of our true nature. The only problem is that, although they promise a kind of quick-fix enlightenment, they do not deliver on it.

I’ve tried most of the things I mentioned before, and each one of them was disappointing. Whenever I approached one of the methods I mentioned, I always had the anticipation of, "Maybe something is going to happen." And sure, something always happened. I did this thing, a nice feeling came, but not long after, the nice feeling was gone and I felt the same as before. What also became apparent to me was that the people who led these practices had no clue either.

At the beginning of my spiritual journey, I really thought that those people who do this stuff, and who make all these promises, that they really have it. I thought, "They must have at least some kind of realization, otherwise they wouldn’t do this.” Some of them had been doing their kind of practice for years, even decades, but they still had no clue what it’s all about. And even up to this day, whenever I talk to a “spiritual” person, most of them only have their own little idea of what enlightenment is and how to get there. They always have a very strong sense of what it is and what’s not. And their way is always the only way to achieve it.

Although I think there are many more people who are enlightened than we’d think, it’s still very rare to meet one.

You’re Already There

It’s so rare to find someone who has let go of all ideas, all concepts, and who is rooted in this infinite reality, in the infinite Self that we all are.

Someone who has realized what every religion and spiritual teaching points to, someone who is open enough to let go of the concepts of the teachings they followed, and who sees everything in manifestation as something that points us to the truth, something that brings us closer to our true nature.

Everybody likes to preach a method, but only a few are willing to go beyond any method and point to what’s already apparent right now. Because our true nature, what we really are, reality, God, Buddha nature, is already present right now. It doesn’t even make sense to come up with a method that gets you from here to here.

Imagine telling your feet they should stand where they are already standing, and they should do it now, immediately, as quickly as possible. This would be completely useless since they are already there.

And now imagine the person trying to do that; how much frustration would they encounter if their feet just didn’t move, but they expected them to move… to here? This is a silly example, but it applies to us whenever we look for something called enlightenment.

Every authentic spiritual teaching and teacher says that we are already enlightened. We just have to let go of the illusion that we are not.

So what's the fastest way to enlightenment?

It’s as fast as you can drop all your illusions about not being enlightened.

That’s it.

And if you didn’t “get it” right now, it’s only because there is still an illusion left that you are holding onto.

In Zen, the word samsara refers to the world of delusion, suffering, the relative world, whereas nirvana describes the state of liberation, free from delusion, and enlightened clarity. When we ask ourselves how to get enlightened, we are talking about how to go from samsara to nirvana, basically. This implies that we are living in a world of delusion, where we think we are only a small, separate self in a world that objectively exists without us, and we have to go to the other side, which is nirvana—a place like heaven where we are clear about everything and connected with everything, and where everything is alright.

But how can there be two realities? There simply can't.

That’s why the Zen masters said that samsara IS nirvana.

We don’t have to go from samsara to nirvana; we only have to let go of the illusion that we are not already in nirvana.

Actually, we even have to let go of both of these ideas.

Sobering Up from Seeking

What are you doing right now?

Maybe it’s sitting in a chair watching this YouTube video; so, is this samsara or is this nirvana? When you now come up with an intellectual answer, saying it’s either samsara or nirvana, you imply the other answer as well.

If you say samsara, you also imply its opposing concept, which is nirvana, and now you have created two realities. And you are stuck between those two, asking yourself how to get out.

That’s why, whenever you do something, you do just that.

When you walk, you only walk. This is walking enlightenment.

When you eat, you only eat. This is eating enlightenment.

Whenever you do something, do only that. Do not doubt yourself, but fully do whatever you are doing. Let go of the ideas that want to pull you toward some imagined idea of how everything is supposed to be like. Trust yourself to be already enlightened, and let go of every idea that you are not. Let go of every idea that you are not already enlightened and that suggests you have to do something to finally attain realization. I mean, how do you get from doing what you are doing to doing what you are doing? You let go of any idea that suggests that you are not doing it already, and everything will be perfectly clear.

Become clear about what you are doing right now and only do that. Don’t look left or right, just look at the thing at hand. This may be an action, or a feeling, or thinking, whatever it is.

Don’t seek further.

This is the fastest way to enlightenment.

This is like sobering up from the constant seeking, the constant grasping for something better, something more exciting than this “boring” moment right now. And when you do that, you will find that the current place where you are is the only place where you are. This place is the place of the Buddhas and all the enlightened sages. This place is heaven, this place is nirvana. And if you still like to do any of these spiritual methods, go do them, but don’t expect to attain realization from them. Do them just for the sake of doing them. And speaking of doing, please do me a favor and subscribe to my channel if you want to support the work I’m doing. I also have a link to my free newsletter in the description.

I really hope this was helpful, and I want to wish you all the best.

Your friend on the way,
Bye.