We all get to a point when we crave for spiritual understanding. We read about enlightened people who walked this Earth, and we try to learn from them as much as we can. What does it mean to be enlightened? How do we get there? One thing came clear to my mind. Being enlightened is not magical. We should stop thinking that way, that many enlightened beings performed miracles. That is not a condition of enlightenment but merely a consequence of learning all the lessons and putting them into practice. When we start walking the spiritual path toward enlightenment, we may think all the way to the end of it, of what we will be able to do then or what understanding of life we may achieve. That is what I thought myself years back. Now, I came to realize that everything is nothing but a natural process that we follow not toward a goal, but toward an understanding of self. There is no goal but understanding and acceptance. I have found on the internet a fascinating picture that I took the liberty to post it here. As long it is a shortcut to what it means to be enlightened, and I can’t entirely agree with it, it is a good start.

If we look all the way to the top, we realize that openness is the key to our beautiful journey. We must open our minds and hearts to understand what is to let go of and unlearn the previously pushed doctrines.
So, how do we go from level to level to get to the top of our chart? To start with, we must have zero expectations. We must put aside any goal that we have been taught in schools or society and flow with the source.
Let us think about what society is making us believe is good for us.

We must have a respectable position.

We must have and make more money.

We must obey all the rules.

We are pushed to embrace sexual and physical desires in general.

We can be punished more than once for a mistake that we have made.

The list may continue, but let us extract what we may become if we embrace all of the above:
-fear (of breaking the rules or the dark future)
-guilt (for one mistake or for a conviction that we are wrong)
-desire (of physical things or sexual pleasure)
-anger (that we are not good enough or out of fear)
-pride (for unimportant achievement or states; for instance, national pride, or race pride, sexual orientation pride, and so on)
Every state mentioned above is the cage that we create, and we believe we cannot escape. All those so-called achievements are present in the list mentioned by all of us in “modern society.” However, all of those are only keeping us closed, without perspective, and if we follow them all our lives, we will never be able to move to the next level.
What is the first lesson we have to learn, in my humble opinion, is to learn to let go. Simple enough, I would say. How do we do it? What did work for me, and I believe can work for everyone, is mediation. In meditation, we learn to let go of our thoughts, and the more we practice, the better we become at it. Without realizing, we learn to let go in life, since everything we attach to is an illusion created by thoughts. Letting go, we detach ourselves from many life issues, like anger, pride, egocentrism, greed, or selfishness. As we can see, mastering one lesson moves us all the way in the middle of the cone. Once again, let us not look much at the result, but we have to learn the lessons.
The second lesson is acceptance. We may look around, and we would not like people or their actions or even events. Can we change any of those? There is wisdom. Whatever we can change, we should do it; what is independent of us must learn to accept, with gratitude and grace. The loved ones passing is how we choose to go back home; we must accept and be happy for their return. With this lesson learned, we may overcome the ego, pride, or prejudice as well.
The third lesson is about forgiveness. That is extremely important when we talk about karma, in both ways: create good karma or get rid of the bad one. Relationships will be improved, and guilt will dissolve.
When we learn those lessons, we will be at peace with ourselves, and joy will overcome our beings. If we look back to our chart, we climbed a lot through our cone of enlightenment.
The ultimate lesson that will give us a complete understanding is love. There is no lesson more important than another since they help us get to the last level of understanding of this dimension. However, love is the lesson that Jesus wanted us to learn as well because once this lesson is mastered, we cannot hurt each other anymore. Love by all and for all beings is what will bring Heaven on Earth.
Of course, my article is nothing but a point of reference. I do not want to convince or influence anyone. Every single one of us must learn all those lessons through self-understanding and self-retrospection. “The only absolute truth is the one I discover myself.”
Please, do not let this life pass without learning. We all have the same mission; we are all messengers of God; let us prove it, let us all remember how to be enlightened.
God bless.