How the Enlightened Beings Described their Transformation Process (EP-43)
Is it sudden or gradual? Has it got something to do with Kundalini? Let's find out how they described in their own words!
I have always wondered - will awakening be spontaneous, like you wake up from sleep, or will it be gradual, like boiling of water?
But then boiling which is a gradual process can appear to be a sudden one, no?
You have been heating the water for a long time and nothing is happening. But all of a sudden it starts evaporating.
Will enlightenment or awakening be something similar?
I have had such momentary experiences a couple of times in my life.
Once when I had been going through a mental illness some six years ago. I was resting with my eyes closed when a ‘black lightning’ struck inside and everything went blank for a moment. Everything.
And when I came to my senses a few moments later I started crying terribly. I started saying ‘Ansh’ died inside.
In the second instance, I was driving back home from the Office when I noticed ‘Ansh’ from a third-person perspective. And that was just for a few moments too.
It was just like what Rumi had said in his poem ‘The Guest House’, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Then I researched online and read some books to find out how some of the Masters have experienced the process.
Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it is a very subjective experience. Everyone’s journey is different, everyone’s experience is different.
Here are some of their experiences described in their own words.
J. Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti's significant spiritual experience, often referred to as his "process" or "awakening," began in 1922 in Ojai, California.
It was in Ojai that he experienced intense physical and mystical phenomena, which he later described as a profound transformation of consciousness.
In "Krishnamurti's Notebook," he described these experiences in more detail. For example, he wrote about feeling as though there was an intense energy or "benediction" that would envelop him, leading to states of immense clarity and tranquility.
An excerpt from "Krishnamurti's Notebook" gives a glimpse into his experience:
"There is a tree by the river, and it is splendid, full of leaves; there is a bird on the tree, singing, and a child is crying. There is total attention, and this attention is like the light of a clear flame, without shadow. This attention has no centre, and it does not radiate from a centre to a periphery. This attention is perception without thought and is therefore total seeing."
Osho
Before his enlightenment, Osho experienced a period of intense inner turmoil, questioning, and seeking.
The night before his enlightenment, Osho experienced a profound shift. He described a sense of death and rebirth, feeling as if he was dying and being born anew. He went through a state of nothingness, a void where his ego and personal identity dissolved.
On the morning of March 21, 1953, Osho went to a garden in Jabalpur, India. He sat under a tree, and it was here that he described his final breakthrough into enlightenment. He experienced a profound sense of oneness with the universe, an overwhelming feeling of bliss and ecstasy. He felt a deep connection with existence, beyond time and space.
In his own words, from one of his discourses:
"The night was very hot, and I could not sleep. Around twelve I felt a sudden change in my body. I was taken aback, but there was no fear. Something in me was aware that this was the moment I had been waiting for, something in me was aware that this was the moment of deliverance. I was fully awake, fully aware. There was no desire, no urge, no motivation. I was just a pool of silence. My whole surrounding was filled with a divine presence."
Buddha
Gautama Buddha's enlightenment experience is one of the most significant and detailed accounts of spiritual awakening in history.
The Pali Canon, which is a major collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, contains descriptions of Buddha's enlightenment in his own words. Here is an excerpt from the "Ariyapariyesana Sutta" (The Noble Search), where the Buddha recounts his experience:
I thought: ‘Why am I afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states?’ I considered: ‘I am not afraid of that pleasure, since it has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states.’ So I thought: ‘I will divide my thinking into two classes.’ I set on one side thoughts of sensual desire, ill will, and cruelty, and I set on the other side thoughts of renunciation, non-ill will, and non-cruelty.
As I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute, a thought of sensual desire arose in me. I understood thus: ‘This thought of sensual desire has arisen in me. This leads to my own affliction, to others’ affliction, and to the affliction of both; it obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbāna.’ When I considered thus, it subsided in me.
As I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute, a thought of ill will arose in me. I understood thus: ‘This thought of ill will has arisen in me. This leads to my own affliction, to others’ affliction, and to the affliction of both; it obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbāna.’ When I considered thus, it subsided in me.
As I abided thus, diligent, ardent, and resolute, a thought of cruelty arose in me. I understood thus: ‘This thought of cruelty has arisen in me. This leads to my own affliction, to others’ affliction, and to the affliction of both; it obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbāna.’ When I considered thus, it subsided in me.
Whatever a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind. If a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon thoughts of sensual desire, he has abandoned the thought of renunciation to cultivate the thought of sensual desire, and then his mind inclines to thoughts of sensual desire. If a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon thoughts of ill will … cruelty, he has abandoned the thought of non-cruelty to cultivate the thought of cruelty, and then his mind inclines to thoughts of cruelty.
So, while I walked, the unwholesome thoughts that had arisen in me ceased; and in the same way, while I stood, while I sat, and while I lay down, the unwholesome thoughts that had arisen in me ceased.
Then, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I entered upon and abided in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, I entered upon and abided in the second jhāna, which has self-confidence and singleness of mind without applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of concentration. With the fading away as well of rapture, I abided in equanimity, and mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, I entered upon and abided in the third jhāna, on account of which noble ones announce: ‘He has a pleasant abiding who has equanimity and is mindful.’ With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, I entered upon and abided in the fourth jhāna, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.
When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, that is, one birth, two births, … Thus with their aspects and particulars I recollected my manifold past lives.
When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings. With the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I saw beings passing away and reappearing, and I understood how beings pass on according to their actions.
When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the destruction of the taints. I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the origin of suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the cessation of suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’ I directly knew as it actually is: ‘These are the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the origin of the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the cessation of the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of the taints.’
When I knew and saw thus, my mind was liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being, and from the taint of ignorance. When it was liberated, there came the knowledge: ‘It is liberated.’ I directly knew: ‘Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.’
Ramana Maharishi
Ramana Maharshi, the renowned sage of Advaita Vedanta, shared his enlightenment experience in various writings and conversations. Here is a summarized account of his awakening, as expressed by him:
It was about six weeks before I left Madurai for good that the great change in me took place. It was quite sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I seldom had any sickness and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it, and I did not try to account for it or to find out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt ‘I am going to die’ and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends. I felt I had to solve the problem myself then and there.
The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inward and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: ‘Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies.’ And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff as though rigor mortis had set in and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the inquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither ‘I’ nor any sound could be uttered. ‘Well then,’ I said to myself, ‘this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this body am I dead? Is the body ‘I’? This body is silent and inert. But I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the ‘I’ within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit.’
All this was not dull thought; it flashed through me vividly as living truth which I perceived directly almost without thought-process. ‘I’ was something very real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the conscious activity connected with my body was centered on that ‘I’. From that moment onwards the ‘I’ or Self focused attention on itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death had vanished once and for all. Absorption in the Self continued unbroken from that time on. Other thoughts might come and go like the various notes of music, but the ‘I’ continued like the fundamental sruti (Śruti or shruti in Sanskrit means "that which is heard") note that underlies and blends with all the other notes.
What do you think about this?
Or what’s your ‘idea’ of enlightenment or awakening?
Do you think it will be like a flash of lightning? Or like the gradual boiling of water?