Many people think “enlightenment” is a state of extreme peace and happiness, free of any pain, in which you have mysterious spiritual abilities.
Enlightenment, however, means loving and accepting unconditionally even pain, which is one of the phenomena of life, as well as peace and happiness.
That’s why enlightenment brings us great worries in place of life’s little worries, which it takes away.
The enlightened worry more about the problems of the world than about their own problems. Their longing for the well-being of all life grows deeper, making the suffering of all people, all creatures, and all things their own. This is a gift brought by enlightenment, which, at the same time, brings deep anguish.
Though you awaken, you are troubled by life’s many emotions. If there’s a difference, it’s that although you experience all those things, you’re not carried away by them.
You feel that there is something inside you that keeps you from being shaken or swept away by your experiences, as if you are sitting quietly deep in the ocean, watching waves overhead that sometimes rage fiercely and sometimes roll gently.
Nowhere in the world is there an enlightenment that takes away all pain. There is only an enlightenment that keeps you from being swept away by suffering, an enlightenment that enables you to discover blessings even in pain, an enlightenment through which your passion for sharing with the world the blessings you’ve discovered melts away the anguish of life.