What the Heck Is Enlightenment?
Enlightenment. It's a word that carries implications of being unspeakable of, simultaneously evoking a controversy. Surely, if you were to ask a local temple monk, "Have you attained enlightenment?" you would likely receive a fairly displeased expression. It carries such potential.
The experience of enlightenment cannot be observed as an objective fact. If I were to phrase it in general terms with caution, it's an extremely subjective experience. Yet, those who have undergone this experience can recognize in each other, "Ah, this person has had the same experience."
Fundamentally, it involves directly experiencing the absence of a "self" that undergoes it, along with the absence of the "world" in relation to oneself. It's an experience where subjectivity and objectivity completely drop away, which creates a significant paradox in expression. Experiencing or even recognizing it should be impossible. It should be impossible, yet it's an event that can be directly experienced, which makes it an inexplicable phenomenon.
In that particular experience, from the place where there is nothing, and there isn’t even no-nothing, some form of physical stimulus is given (like sound or pain), and you momentarily return to the "world," where there are people, mountains and rivers. An that moment, our deeply ingrained habit of seeing things in dualistic ways, which hinder the recognition of the world as it is, momentarily and completely drop away, and we see the reality of what is here and now, in this moment.
A phrase from ancient times that expresses this concept, which personally resonates most with me, is "dropping off body and mind." If I were to express it (in words), it would be something like "nothing, nothing, nothing, something."
This might give the impression that enlightenment is a vague, elusive concept. However, it's clear that, if the following points are viscerally known, and expressed in one’s own words, that can be a clear sign that one has actually experienced it. That’s why, in a one-on-one interaction between a pupil and the master, the master can make judgments on the authenticity of his disciple’s experience.
They see that, what they once thought to be "self" was something of their mental construction.
They see that time, space, along with self and others, were things created with thoughts.
They see that there is no boundary between self and the world, and that there is this constantly changing, dynamic appearance of that is manifesting moment by moment.
Unfortunately, there is no single methodology that ensures enlightenment. Methods, however, have been devised to drop a certain kind of habit hindering the recognition of reality as it is, and zazen meditation and Koan study are prime examples of these. Therefore, sitting solidly and earnestly engaging with koans is undoubtedly of use for those who are interested in enlightenment.