What Does It Mean to Be Enlightened?

What is enlightenment? This is often the first question people ask when they begin to explore Buddhism, because enlightenment is the culmination of the entire Buddhist path. Of his own enlightenment, the Buddha said, “Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose—as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, and resolute.” 

The Buddha often described enlightenment (bodhi in both Pali and Sanskrit) as the end of suffering through the release of all craving, aversion, and clinging. He also said that all beings can become enlightened and liberated from suffering. In our current nomenclature, “awakening” has often replaced “enlightenment” as the preferred description of bodhi. “Awakening” may feel more accessible; most of us understand that our personal awakenings are not permanent states but valuable insights into enlightenment, or nirvana, the final release of all fetters that hold humans in bondage and suffering.

According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, one of the most esteemed Pali scholars, the word awakening conveys a “flash of insight or a sudden shift in level of consciousness,” in contrast to enlightenment, which conveys “a profound act of understanding with a comprehensive range.” 

“With a clearer, steadier mind cultivated through the practice of mindfulness, we can investigate, with curiosity and interest, the human condition.”

As I learned early on, it’s important to understand the difference. When I first began studying Buddhism as a teenager, I was deeply drawn to the Buddha’s descriptions of the enlightened mind. Caught in deep anguish and grief in my own life, the promise of freedom from suffering gave me hope. Occasionally, during my studies, I’d have a flash of insight into the teachings in a way that made me believe I’d suddenly become enlightened. All worries, fear, and grief melted away, and I felt light and completely free of self-referential thoughts. Inevitably, though, these openings, to my great disappointment, would fade away, and I was back to the messiness of “me.” 

Looking back over thirty-plus years of meditation practice, I can appreciate that these awakenings were important early insights on the path, but it took me years to understand that in order to find a more lasting experience of freedom in my life, I needed to intentionally cultivate qualities of the awakened mind.

When I began meditating in earnest, I entered through the path of Zen. In this tradition, enlightenment is often described as our natural mind, and it’s said that the very act of meditation is already enlightenment. Yet, in Zen the practice is still essential. As Suzuki Roshi said, “enlightenment is an accident. Practice makes us accident prone.” We can’t demand enlightenment, but we can show up and do the practices. 

This understanding has helped me to let go of my clinging to awakening experiences and trust that the practice itself is enough. At times when I feel entangled in reactivity or suffering, I remember that the enlightened mind is present, even amid delusion. Simply knowing that awakening is always possible is liberating. It gives me a doorway to freedom that is not distant but rather always right here. When I transitioned to the Insight (Vipassana) tradition after ten years in Zen, I learned more about the Pali canon and the specific ways the Buddha laid out his path to enlightenment. 

To deepen our realization, the Buddha encouraged us to cultivate qualities of nonharming (ethics); to practice gratitude and generosity; and to investigate and thoroughly comprehend the three marks of existence, which are suffering, no-self, and impermanence. When these practices and insights into the human condition become experiential, a lived experience, they’re a reflection of the awakened mind and not simply an intellectual understanding. We begin to see through the illusion of separation, and we can operate in the world in a way that brings more joy, kindness, and compassion to ourselves and others.

This is where the seven factors of enlightenment—mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, relaxation, concentration, and equanimity—can provide us with an essential support. In Buddhist practice, we often investigate our experience with suffering and how to diminish it, but the Buddha said we also need to develop positive qualities that support ease, joy, and clarity. The seven factors of enlightenment are a teaching on the positive qualities to cultivate in our practice. They’re natural states of mind that reliably support the arising of wisdom, insight, and awakening. 

In our practice, we can examine which factors are well established in us and which need cultivation. The factors are traditionally organized into three groups, with mindfulness as the fulcrum, balancing and bringing awareness to the arousing factors of investigation, energy, and joy on one side, and the calming factors of relaxation, concentration, and equanimity on the other.

For many, mindfulness practice is the start of the dharma path. Mindfulness literally translates as “to remember.” More specifically, we remember to gather our attention and focus on some element of what’s happening in the present moment. It may be the breath, the bodily feelings, thoughts, emotions, or conditioned patterns. Through the power of mindfulness, we get to know ourselves and learn to untangle our unconscious patterns, biases, and attachments so that we can see reality (the dharma) clearly. Mindfulness is essential to all elements of the Buddhist path. 

With a clearer, steadier mind cultivated through the practice of mindfulness, we can investigate, with curiosity and interest, the human condition. The practice of keen investigation during meditation brings a sense of peace and understanding not accessible through simple intellectual understanding. In the Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha said the meditator “abiding thus mindful, investigates and examines that state with wisdom and embarks upon a full inquiry into it.”

Energy in Buddhism is power, endurance, ardency. Nothing happens in practice without energy, and developing the ability to focus and direct our energy is the key to progressing on the path. Energy supports our capacity to meditate consistently, to concentrate and engage in beneficial action in the world through nonharming, loving-kindness, and compassion. The wholesome desire for enlightenment arouses our energy and guides our efforts toward awakening. 

The Buddha taught that joy, or rapture, is a wholesome part of meditation practice and not to be abandoned when it arises. While the four noble truths focus on suffering and the end of suffering, the factor of joy brings an important balancing element to the path. Joy may be a physical or emotional experience. The Buddha said that deeply practicing mindfulness and concentration will naturally awaken us to joy. 

As our meditation practice deepens and reactivity to our ever-changing experiences diminishes, our nervous system begins to calm, and we settle into stillness and ease. This extends to our daily lives where, through letting go of clinging and greed, we can find contentment, which the Buddha said is the greatest wealth. We can discover the conditions in our lives that lead to relaxation right here and now, even amid life’s vicissitudes. Without relaxation, or tranquility, we can’t develop concentration, because the mind is too unsteady.

Concentration, or samadhi, begins with the effort to remain present in our meditation, and it leads to one pointedness of mind that can rest on an object of attention without effort. The fruit of concentration is deep absorption in the present moment where the mind is free from distractions, such as emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations. When the mind and heart are at ease, we can see life with greater clarity. Ultimately, in deep samadhi the distinction of subject and object falls away, and the illusion of a separate self dissolves into unbound awareness. 

Equanimity is the capacity to remain at ease as we negotiate the inevitable ups and downs of life. People often mistake equanimity for indifference or detached neutrality. But equanimity is the ability to stay present with changing conditions without reactivity, or if we do react, to see it clearly and stop feeding it. If we experience a loss, for instance, meeting the pain of that loss with equanimity doesn’t mean we don’t feel the pain. Instead, we allow the arising of that pain without interference, and eventually we see that it passes on its own.

We can work with the seven factors by developing them in sequence, starting with mindfulness as the foundational practice, then moving through the list until we reach the most refined states of concentration and ease. Alternatively, we can use our mindfulness to evaluate which factors are strong and naturally available in us and which need cultivating; then we can focus on those that need cultivation. Ultimately, the seven factors are an interconnected web, with each factor intersecting the others, supporting and strengthening our practice while creating the conditions for enlightenment.

Zen master Dogen said, “enlightenment is intimacy with all things.” This means the barriers of separation between self and other dissolve into a deep sense of interconnection with all of life. When I experience this awakening, I find an indescribable sense of peace and ease, yet also profound compassion for all who are suffering in the world and motivation to be of service. While most of us likely won’t reach full nirvana in this lifetime, we can take up the practices of the seven factors to develop and deepen the conditions for awakening that can be accessed right here, right now.