Am I Enlightened?

The short answer is yes and no, and neither yes nor no.

Let me start by saying that one can become enlightened by learning something or gaining knowledge about the world, or some aspect of your life. In that sense, everyone is becoming enlightened every day. It's extraordinarily easy to become enlightened within the realms of the six sense organs, within the world of forms, objects, things, items, people & situations.

Even within the many and varied non-dual or spiritual traditions, it's about gaining insight, knowledge or knowing something, and for many in those traditions, that is mistakenly considered as being enlightened. This kind of enlightenment is a never-ending quest to fulfil a long-standing egocentric desire to have a position in the world.

There's nothing wrong with knowing things, but for the most part, the global culture wants to know in order to pacify their inadequacies and bring about the idea of a central theme or a self agenda, which amounts to various degrees of neurosis. This is the subject/object fallacy.

The character, with its limited perspective and story, is not the entire consciousness that is dreaming. Waking up (enlightenment) isn't something the character achieves. It is the dissolution of the character's reality. The question only makes sense from within the dream, which is the illusion that needs to be transcended.

To be truly enlightened, one does away with having any position at all, and thus does not concern themselves with gaining knowledge as a means to seek out the answer to their human condition.

When the seeking ends, the centre disappears, and no knowledge is given to you. When the centre disappears, all is known, but it is not known in the way we've been conditioned to know things. No knowledge or concept can qualify this knowing; it cannot be contained using insight, knowledge or words. Even the assertion that I am enlightened has no place here.

So when you discover moments losing your position, of not finding yourself, that is the beginning of finding yourself.

Therefore, there is surely enlightenment, but nobody can get it. That is a devastating message for the seeker. One has to undergo a complete and utter psychological death.

So yes - I'm enlightened… but no - I'm not, and neither nor both.

The framework of "yes" or "no" is insufficient to describe the reality of enlightenment.