I Haven’t Reached Enlightenment

Posted on August 21, 2015 Updated on September 3, 2015

I haven’t reached enlightenment yet. And although we are all on a path to hopefully discover this for ourselves, sometimes people will not understand your process because it’s not theirs. We see things often one-sided through one story and one set of lens.

Introspection is more than digging deep within yourself to face the mirror towards our own face, but it’s also asking others to respect the period of transformation you undergo. I am working on doing the best and being my best that I can be without comparing or competing against anyone other than myself. I do my best to avoid situations and people who function off of one-upmanship. I know people who see nothing wrong with it, as they literally thrive off of trying to outdo everyone around them.

While this is what they need to get ahead, I don’t see the world the same way. And I respect everyone for having their own beliefs, opinions and values, and I respect their journey without judgment. But, recently I realized that I still continue to struggle with ultra competitive one-uppers. I wrote about it before and it continues to be a life lesson I am hoping to pass one day. So I still have a ways to go to reach a stage of enlightenment.

Perhaps if I were the Dalai Lama or a Buddhist Monk, I might process things differently and experience nothing but peace, regardless of what people throw my way. In all honesty, I am just not there yet. So, I am on a personal quest to become an individual who is more at peace with someone else’s process, even if their process is one I don’t agree with and one that has ulterior motives. Because, although I respect other people’s paths, it’s still a struggle to not only deal with different personalities but to deal with their intentions, whether they are conscious efforts or not. Some people can be amazing human beings, but their behavior can often be very hurtful.

The Bottom Line:

Many of us are not as self-aware as we should be. You might even be told that you shouldn’t feel the way that you feel. But, you have a right to your own path and a right to process the world around the way that you do. You and I have a right to our feelings, whatever they may be. Others equally have a right to call us crazy. The one thing we shouldn’t do is tell people that they are not feeling something and that they are not experiencing what they are experiencing. Unless we can jump out of our own flesh and into another’s, we shouldn’t go around assuming people aren’t affected in ways that we may not understand. No, I haven’t reached enlightenment yet. Maybe you have, but I haven’t. It’s a lifelong process, and I’m a work in progress.

I hope that today you find the freedom to be yourself and to figure things out in your own time. I know that I feel the way that I feel, and whatever that means, it’s my right to have my own feelings without having others expect me to experience the world differently. We all have a right as individuals to learn what we need to learn and to take our time doing it. Sometimes that means going on a personal quest absent of those that do not support or respect your process.