Practical Enlightenment

We often think of Enlightenment in passive terms, as a passive affair, a future event for which we must wait. God or Spirit or Divine Mind will enlighten us when we’re ready. Until then, we must be patient, that’s all that we can do. This approach to Enlightenment denies the deepest insights of the Abrahamic traditions.

The notion that we cannot do anything about becoming enlightened beings is, in fact, in opposition to everything that the Abrahamic faiths teach. The truth is, we are given the task of doing everything about it. The insights of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are: Enlightenment comes through embodiment. One must embody Light (incarnate Light) to become enlightened. Or to say it in the way that the Christian Scriptures state it: we must learn to “Walk in the Light” in the same way that God is in the light (I John 1:7).

Walking, of course, is not a passive act. It is a deliberate act of conscious will. We choose to get up and walk somewhere. We are not being carried into Light; we are walking into and by Light. To become Light one must “do” Light. To be God one must “do” God (who is Light). One must act like God to become God-like. As an example, to become a master of the violin one must play the violin, and playing is not a passive activity.

And what is the “play” of God and of Light? The answer is fairly direct: God is (Light is)—the primordial Source, the generosity that never stops giving, humility and the strength to yield, compassion, grace, patience, unconditional love, truth, loyalty, complete dependability, forgiveness, tolerance, restraint, kindness, releasing, letting go, and holding no grudges. These (and many other qualities) are the essence of God and of Light. To become them one must do them. By doing them one begins to embody them and embodying them one becomes them. This is called "Practical Enlightenment."