Enlightenment? (Jocelyn del Rio)

Enlightenment does not exist as a thing that can be achieved or acquired. We can see its effect, which cannot be grasped. There is a Buddhist perspective that there is no enlightened person, only enlightened activity. Knowing the truth of reality is irrelevant if our behavior does not serve reality. Impermanence can be known as an advantage, as a blessing and not a threat. The person is continually in process, fluid, connected, and not the collection of memories that we call ourselves. There is a chance to live as freedom for something rather than to see the process as a battle. We fear a relationship with enlightenment, but change is nature’s delight. We are happiest when we have the least concern for ourselves. The quality of what we give back to the world is something we can consider. Transformation happens in action which can be simple and unspectacular. In enlightened activity, a person does not leave a karmic trace—the activity does. Jocelyn is a mother, artist, logotherapist and spiritual practitioner who has been involved in homeschooling, teaching and reclaiming burnt out land to become farms and homes. She is interested in growth and in the possibilities of the human being and the Earth.