Years ago I had a partner. He was a very deeply spiritual man, he was a very intelligent man, a very good man. I was so excited because I loved being in a relationship with a man who had a lot of awareness. We used to have great conversations. We had a wonderful, wonderful dance of the mind. During our conversations he would very often talk about his goal to be enlightened. Everyone has different ideas about what enlightenment is about. For him, it meant that he had reached a state of maturity with his spiritual work and he was at an elevated state of consciousness and would probably leave the planet. I used to think about that.

Teachers talk about enlightenment and the enlightened being. Very often we hear that the goal of spiritual work is to become enlightened. I decided a long time ago that having any state that I wanted to be in really felt like an attachment to me. I had no idea, I had no wish, no desire to become enlightened. I still don’t think I do. That’s not to say that I don’t value enlightened beings and I don’t value the feelings of enlightenment and the stage, and if I became enlightened 24/7 that would probably be very fine with me.

The point that I’m making here, that I’m trying to share here is I don’t believe that spiritual growth should be measured, should have a tag attached to it, should have a timeline attached to it. If we’re truly making our life our practice, in my humble opinion, every day matters, every moment matters, every decision, every breath, every word, every thought, every feeling, everything we experience matters. What matters is how we choose to walk through it and walk next to it. If we make our life our practice and we come from our natural inheritance of love, each moment is an opportunity to respond for love whether we’re tired or hungry. When we don’t, each moment is an opportunity to extend that love to ourselves. If we couldn’t extend love to someone else or a situation, but were able to then say, “Ugh, didn’t do it this time,” and extend love to ourselves, then we are still staying in the energy of love.

For me, there’s no state that I’m aiming for. Perfection doesn’t exist. I’m not committed to being enlightened. I’m committed to doing the work of making my life my practice so that I can truly, 24/7, as best I can, live in the energy that we all have. No perfection here. No goals. Just a commitment to the work.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this. Do you have wishes to be enlightened? Do you have goals? Are they important to you? They are to some people. Nothing wrong with them. Share your thoughts here. I’d love to know what you’re thinking. I’d love to know how you’re feeling. We’ll be talking soon.