Awakening and enlightenment have one sole purpose: to offer an honestly better experience of human life as it is.

And that doesn’t mean escape life, avoid bad things happening, or only feel bliss. Rather, there’s a simple okayness that steps out from behind the curtain. Which means awakening and enlightenment are temporary, human-bound experiences. You literally can’t experience awakening or enlightenment without being in the human experience.

So, if anyone is telling you they’ve transcended the self, it’s a contradiction in terms. They are merely at a point on their journey where it feels like there is a self to be transcended. Which is neither right nor wrong. Just another perspective within the variety and diversity of human experience.

The most awakened or enlightened poeple (it’s NOT a competition!) tend to be the most grounded, the most ordianry, frequently the most practical. Because this okayness has pervaded all of experience, including their humanity.

And guess what? Just like your abs or your car, you can’t take awakening and enlightenment with you. Because there is no need for them.