Enlightenment Demystified 

Enlightenment consists of two factors.  One is the vanishing of the sense of personal self from the mind, and the other is the firm realization of non-separateness. The latter depends on the former.  

The realization of non-separateness is subliminal.  It cannot be realized by the thinking mind. 

Accompanying the two factors above is a sense of exuberant indomitability.  Happiness and unhappiness are felt to be the same.  Indomitable, a person cannot be defeated by life. 

There is a question of whether enlightenment is sudden or gradual.  Rinzai Zen strives for sudden enlightenment, which Dogen, in a reference I can’t find, described as “turning the body and flapping the brain.”  In Soto Zen, sudden enlightenment is possible, but gradual enlightenment is regarded as the usual experience.  In Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki described gradual enlightenment as being thoroughly soaked in a light fog. 

The notion of gradual enlightenment brings enlightenment within the reach of everyone.  Sudden enlightenment is dependent on a special grace not allotted to everyone.  Sufism has a term for this, “Barik Allah,” the grace of God, stressing that it is only this grace that can release one from the sense of personal self.   

Enlightenment can be either abiding or non-abiding.  In abiding enlightenment, the idea of personal self stays reliably at bay, or if it appears, it does so in a kind of ghostly fashion that can be dispelled easily.  In non-abiding enlightenment, the personal self can still dominate a person, and special effort needs to be made to stay in enlightened mind.