A Letter to a Friend

You‘ve heard many descriptions of enlightenment that relate it to decapitation, permanent loss of yourself and everything you hold dear, complete non-attachment such that you won’t care about even your own children. Maybe these descriptions scared you a little. Not a lot, but enough.

Is there some truth in these descriptions? Yes. But they are all exaggerations. They are meant to separate the curious from the serious. As I see it, none of them even approach an accurate description of the enlightened state. They are all caricatures.

Truthfully, you lose nothing in enlightenment. You simply shed a few layers of delusion. You still have the same passions, the same love of life, everything that makes you “you”. But you surrender the death grip you have on life. You relinquish the mind’s desire for control. You move as though you are floating through life, because you no longer have your mind weighing you down.

No-self is nothing to be afraid of—you’ve been living it since the day you were born. Only the thought of it is fearful. And you know what they say about thoughts…

You’ve been after enlightenment a long time. I suspect you’ve also been afraid of it for a long time. And it’s natural to fear things we don’t understand. But you know as well as I, if you don’t pursue this with all your heart, you will always wonder.

It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but one day, you will be ready.

And I will be waiting.