Expert: Laurie McLauglin - 2/1/2009

Question
Hello Laurie, What would enlightenment look and feel like ? Is it a process and are there signs or steps along the way that let one know he is headed in the right direction? What would be the purpose for one attaining this?
              Thank you

Answer
Hello, Jenna –

Thank you for letting me answer this question.

You have asked tough-ish questions, for two reasons.

The first reason that these are tough questions is that if you take your first one, “What is Enlightenment look and feel like” it is hard to explain.  Enlightenment from a Mahayana viewpoint consists of three things.  One is complete bliss; there is no more suffering of any kind.  The second is complete compassion for all sentient beings and the desire to help them achieve enlightenment.  The third is the hard one because the signpost that one has reached it means that one has seen it non conceptually.  This third one is called emptiness. Emptiness is having complete wisdom of how things really exist.  And it is impossible to describe what something looks and feels like if it is non conceptual.

So to answer what it feels like – it is complete bliss, complete wisdom and complete compassion.  That is my understanding of enlightenment.  As far as what it looks like, I guess it would look like understanding how everything works.

The other reason that these questions you asked are tough is because although I have been studying Buddhism for seven years, I am still a novice at trying to understand all it takes to reach it and all the steps to reaching it.

So, to answer your question, is it a process?  The answer in Mahayana Buddhism is yes.  It can take many many lifetimes to reach.  Or, as one of my teachers said: “Enlightenment is just a trick of the mind away.”  And within the Mahayana path is the Vajrayana or Tantric path which is called the quick path because if one masters it, one can reach enlightenment is on lifetime. However, any Buddhist worth their weight in salt will tell you that eventually everyone will end up enlightened, so that the important part of the path is where you are now, not striving for a specific goal.  Buddhism is NOT goal oriented. But yes, there are steps towards it that can be tracked and accounted for.

The purpose of attaining enlightenment is so that one does not have to return to samsara ever again.  Buddhists believe in reincarnation.  We believe that every life we live (and there have been lots of them) is a series of going through three kinds of suffering, one of which is called changeable suffering.  That means that even if we are happy now, eventually because the world is always changing, that happiness will turn to suffering sooner or later.  This is called samsara.  Once we attain enlightenment, we no longer are reborn and we no longer suffer.

For Mahayana Buddhists, the purpose is two fold. First, once we attain enlightenment, we no longer suffer.  And secondly since we develop great compassion, we can not stand to see any sentient being suffer, so we choose to return to samsara to help end the suffering for all sentient beings.
And yes, there are signs and steps along the way. This is the part that I have only recently been studying and will try to gather more information about it and answer this part in a follow up answer.
In the mean time, I hope this gives some answers to your questions. Sorry I am not more knowledgeable at this point.

Don’t hesitate to ask for any clarification if something I said did not make sense.

Namaste - Laurie