In this episode, I share a short clip from my conversation with Jonathan Robinson, the author of The Enlightenment Project. The full conversation will release next week on In Search of Wisdom.
The Many Myths About Enlightenment
Jonathan Robinson is a psychotherapist and best-selling author of ten books. He has studied the most practical and powerful personal and professional development methods for the last thirty years. He’s interviewed several spiritual and philosophical thinkers, from Mother Teresa to the Dalai Lama and many others.
In this portion of the conversation, I asked Jonathan about some of the myths around enlightenment. He outlines ten myths about what leads to enlightenment in The Enlightenment Project. Here are three of the myths we discussed:
Enlightenment is a rare or special condition. There are only very few enlightened people.
First of all, enlightenment is not an all-or-nothing event. There are differing levels of enlightenment. Some (earlier) levels of enlightenment can be somewhat common—especially for brief periods of time. Most people have had at least a few moments of being “enlightened,” even though few people stay in that experience for life. Recent research suggests that even persistent states of enlightenment are much more common than was previously believed.
There is one true path to enlightenment. Enlightenment happens only through one particular lineage.
Enlightenment can happen to people studying any path or even no particular path. While some spiritual disciplines—such as certain Buddhist-inspired methods—seem to have a greater track record of success, there are no guarantees on any path. Of course, almost every path and religion proclaim that they’re the best path, but that’s just a product of how the human mind and ego operate.
You have to get rid of something or become psychologically healed before enlightenment can occur.
In actuality, anyone can awaken at any time. Nothing necessarily needs to change before you can awaken. It is always available to anyone since it is one’s true nature. However, people who have done a lot of meditation, spiritual practices, and/or psychological work are probably more likely to awaken than folks who have not done such inner work.
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Thank you for listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. I connected last month with my friend Brandon Tumblin from The Strong Stoic podcast to discuss the topic of Leading a Life — you can listen below:
The Enlightenment Project