1.1.6 Enlightenment

“Enlightenment is a destructive process.
It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier.
Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth.
It’s seeing through the facade of pretence.”

In this chapter, we explore the paradoxical nature of enlightenment — a state that defies conventional understanding yet represents the ultimate goal of spiritual alchemy. We examine why direct descriptions fail, how understanding itself can become an obstacle, and what enlightenment means in practical terms. By carefully analysing different types of reality and the nature of consciousness, we develop a framework for approaching this ineffable state while embracing its fundamental mystery.

It might be useful at this stage to offer you a working understanding of enlightenment, sadly, with the following premise.

Understanding is a mental process in which we construct a working mental model that closely applies to some reality. If we think we understand something, yet it acts contrary to our expectations, then we must conclude we don’t understand everything about it.

Understanding is a mental construct that depends on a conceptualised model of reality—this is its limit. It itself is constructed from conditioned reality, which is our main problem. If I asked you what exactly is gold, and in reply, you simply showed me different pieces of gold jewellery, you would be missing the point. No matter how many shapes or forms of gold you show me, they still do not answer my question.

Trying to understand enlightenment is like this. Understanding draws on elements from conditioned reality, which themselves are of conditioned reality, to try to explain what is unconditioned. It’s like trying to describe Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony using only scent.

Rather than explaining what it is, which is impossible, one has to rely on metaphor. We then say it is like… Even this is problematic; it is often compared to the Zen metaphor of a finger pointing at the moon.

If I try to describe something, say a tiger, I might say it’s like a cat. This is accurate and offers some information, yet, if I have only ever known cats it could lead to some interesting mistakes. If I am trying to get your attention, and I point towards the moon as I say moon, the bright student looks to where the finger points, and sees the moon and understands. But if instead you mistake my finger for moon then you miss both the moon and the finger (which you think is moon).

To help counter this one must remember that one’s current understanding is not the truth. Hopefully, if your guidance is worthy, it will progressively approximate a truth, but it is never the truth. For the truth about enlightenment is beyond the clumsy grasp of words.

In order to find where exactly one looks for enlightenment, one must come to understand conditioned reality.

Three types of reality:

• Apparent Reality — this is normal adult existence. A world of things, beings and concepts. This is the mundane world of normal concerns.
• Conditional Reality — this is a model for the true nature of reality. Remember, it is still only a model, an understanding, but it is one that offers an accurate picture for one purpose only, and that is, to understand so that one might transcend (escape) conditioned existence.
• Nirvāṇa, or unconditioned existence, is difficult to conceptualise, but attaining it requires mastering the ability of becoming. Nirvāṇa is the unconditioned element. It isn’t a thing, for that is conditioned. Neither can it be any concept about it, although accurate concepts point at it, like a finger points towards the moon. Nirvāṇa is not simply the absence of conditionality—for that, too, is a conditioned thing. Rather, it encompasses the absence of conditionality.

To illustrate the difficulty of conceptualising conditionality, consider the Mississippi River. Now I can ask you where is this river, and if you know, you might point it out on a map, or tell me which part of the world it exists in, or, if I am close enough, you might say over the next hill. We all know what we are talking about.

But if I asked you for a piece of this river, would you bring me a bucket of water? Could I say that this bucket of water belongs to the Mississippi? And is this water still part of the river, here in a bucket? If it is, then the river is likely to eventually be everywhere. If it isn’t then the Mississippi river has nothing to do with this water. A river is the name of a process. This is the same for any label — we are trying to pin the illusion of sameness on something that is never the same, it is a process.

When we name things we attribute labels that give an illusion of stability. Our choice of which parts of the world to thing is arbitrary, where does a tree end or a forest start? Attempting to define reality is like trying to nail smoke. In our attempt to understand enlightenment we make it more elusive.

Thankfully, and relatively recently, there was at least one person who worked it all out. If we cannot understand the destination then maybe we can understand the path towards this destination. We cannot grasp it, for grasping itself prevents us from attaining it. So, one must follow a series of steps, all which might be considered preliminary to the ultimate goal. One cannot seek or force enlightenment. One can only work towards providing the ideal conditions for it to happen. It occurs in distinct stages. Misunderstood, partial enlightenment often leads to confusion, sometimes mistaken for mental illness.

So, if we can’t exactly describe enlightenment, because it escapes definition, why would we want to seek it?

Enlightenment is a state of non-being where one has managed to develop a fearless but benevolent approach to life. The enlightened non-being is desire-less, totally desire-less. They lack subtle clinging which non-enlightened individuals suffer. They have total disregard towards a self.

This fearlessness arises from a deep shift in perspective, one that trivialises life from an expanded view. We will, in a much later lesson get into the technicalities, but for now, a process occurs which grants the Arahant (fully enlightened being) complete access to all their memories. But, it doesn’t stop there. When the filter of self is removed they gain complete access to any memory in any past life.

Upon realisation the Arahant becomes aware of all the memories, including their experience of death, of thousands and thousands of past lives. With the vivid recall of thousands of deaths, what concern could remain for the Arahant?

Enlightenment is the cessation of suffering. To a chronic sufferer, this may seem magical or unbelievable, but it is simply a process that shifts one’s mental perspective. Another way to consider it is as a hidden pathway within the mechanisms that condition life and existence—gradually uncoupling mental experience from suffering.

The path to enlightenment unfolds in stages. Whilst I cannot truthfully endorse the more wild claims of enlightenment I can say that until now nothing has deterred me from believing their validity. The dharma that has got me thus far has been both uncanny and accurate.

The term enlightenment can be misleading—nothing is gained. It is simply the awakening to delusion. One simply sees the delusion. One might suggest that one gains freedom, emancipation, which means a liberation from suffering. But this is not really a gain, as one doesn’t revel in this liberation.

If one thinks a close friend has stolen something precious, but then finds it was simply misplaced, one doesn’t continue to be angry at that friend. It was our mistake and at least in this instance our friend was innocent of what we feared. Suddenly mundane concerns are no longer any worry. The automatic involvement and identification with one’s problems ceases, and the meaning we attribute changes. Without attachment to things, being or concepts the Arahant floats through life. They can still be subject to karma they made prior to their realisation but this doesn’t bother them as they no longer cling to existence.

They have no enemies or adversaries, for they cling neither to concepts nor to time. Each experience is new, without prejudice of prior ones. Insight penetrates completely and one cannot see any self. One is free from choice or decision as this requires a self to decide about. They act with wholesome actions simply because this is their only possible action, although they are indifferent to any reward for such behaviour.

Without any inner concept of self there can be no clinging. They eat when hungry, sleep when tired and move through the world, almost invisible without creating any ripples in the social fabric, and this is before we consider any psychic abilities they may develop. Furthermore, whilst they tend to enjoy good health through the avoidance of intoxicants or unhealthy living, they are healers. They naturally dampen karma, mean gestures towards them are not reflected, nor are kind gestures. They affect others effortlessly and slowly transform their moral qualities by being merely present.

Lastly, they become free of volition—ceasing to create karma and severing themselves from Saṃsāra, the great cycle of becoming. In this way, they become deathless.

Desirelessness, the inductive transmutation of moral qualities, and deathlessness are all features of the philosopher’s stone—our purified raw substance and the very essence of the alchemist. With our groundwork laid, let us now explore the preliminary stages an alchemist must consider before embarking on the Great Work.

The Realities:

• Apparent: This is the reality of normal existence. Here the focus is on the dynamics common to life such as interpersonal, professional, family, political relationships. It is the reality of things, people, concepts, ideas. This reality is governed by deeper rules that are seldom appreciated, instead, one attributes misfortune to fate or external factors rather than appreciating any personal causation.
• Conditional: A conceptual reality based on observation of Apparent Reality. Here is a recognition that Subjective Reality is governed by largely unseen mental forces, such as karma, that condition our experience. This reality was discovered and described by the Buddha most recently — the understanding of which allows progression along a spiritual path out of the inherent suffering (unsatisfactoriness). The alchemist, through either personal observation or study, learns of a deeper set of rules that govern life. They then undergo personal transmutations associated with relinquishing attachments to Apparent Reality by recognising the illusion of this superficial existence.
• Unconditional: This reality is difficult to describe—perhaps even to believe—yet it is the experience of pure awareness, free from all conceptual definition. Awareness, lacking any specific object is limitless and omniscient. This reality is called Nirvāṇa, yet in truth, it is the same reality—simply perceived from a different side.

The primary task of an aspiring alchemist is to study conditioned reality to comprehend the finer aspects of the mind. It is not purely academic and in truth an accurate model is less important than a model one has faith in. The main purpose of studying conditioned reality is to develop a kind of map of subjective experience. Armed with this understanding, one learns how to cultivate non-conceptual experience and cross the final Veil.

This text is excerpted from the book Nigredo: A Course in Modern Alchemy. The complete book includes additional study guides, resources, and appendices. View the full book here.