A Question About Enlightment

[Light Lover]

There has been a question on my mind for quite some time now about 'Enlightenment'. It's something I don't hear mentioned or answered a lot when people or teachers discuss it. My question is, does the longer you spend without attaining or having any experience of Enlightenment make it harder/a more painful unwiring process for you to do it in the future? For example, would it be easier for a 20 year old to attain or seek Enlightenment than a 60 year old (someone who has spent 40 extra years within the ego and has therefore theoretically has become more attached and believing of it's truth) or would it make no difference whatsoever? This is an interesting question I think and I have heard different things from different teachers, Rali for example from 'Naked Reality' if any of you have heard of him (regardless of what you think of him) used to say that it is better to attain or at least try to pursue Enlightenment earlier in your life because the longer you leave it the more attached to your ego identity and therefore the harder it will become, he said. Or maybe the difficulty level or your Enlightenment has something to do with your openhandedness or strength or character and conviction to attaining it instead? I honestly have no idea!

Please only answer this question if you have had legitimate experiences of Enlightenment or are Enlightened, otherwise without sounding rude your opinions are as much speculation as mine because we don't really know what we are talking about. Whereas an Enlightened 60 year old and 20 year old could clarify this question to me perfectly on here as they would be able to say how easy/hard it was comparatively (between them both) to become Enlightened.  If you could answer this question for me I would be very grateful, thankyou.

[Leo Gura]

The problem with waiting is, you might get run over by a bus tomorrow.

[cirkussmile]

It happens when the time is ready! 

Some people aren’t ready until they are a bit older and some people get it right away.

If you have the real interest you don’t wait to explore it  and likewise, you or someone else can’t make you interested in enlightenment. 

 

[Light Lover]

Thankyou @cirkussmile very helpful advice! Just so you know I am not planning to wait 40 or even 1 year to start, I have already started contemplating it etc...but I was just wondering since I am 19 would it be harder than if I did it when I was 16 or so? But as you said, I was nowhere near ready mentally when I was 16, didn't even know about enlightenment or have the curiosity/ drive to  look into it ....so I suppose the time is now?

[Light Lover]

And thankyou @Leo Gura I will take that into consideration as well lol!

[cirkussmile]

2 hours ago, Light Lover said:

....so I suppose the time is now?

Is there another time, my friend?  

You have already started. Continue and your practice will grow as your interest does. 

And don’t stress it. Remeber that everything happens when the time is ready.

Cosmic love

[Bill Eichman]

No, it doesn't. Being older makes it easier. Or at least it can.

There is a very large range of individual differences. Just because a person is 60 does not mean they have become a whole person, able to disassemble and put away their individuality without craving or attachment because they have fully lived a life. Especially not in our society.

When you are 20, you have less stored material in the structures of your mind and selfhood systems, which in theory might make it easier to disassemble them and put them away and for whatever remains to enter freedom.

But, a 20-year-old is also full of cravings and has not had the life experiences which will let the,m know with certainty that what is craved is not a fulfillment of the craving. Even tho they might know intellectually that craving just is, it's built in, unfulfillable, the deep knowing that there is no end to craving isn't theirs yet. 

What happens is often something like this, when you have an enlightenment in your twenties. You have an experience which is real, significant, and powerful. But, pretty much right away, the craving comes back. And then, ironically, you're enlightenment can become a burden, unless you have 'right understanding' of what happened to you. because you will think in the thinking and word using brains that reassembled for you after the enlightenment, "hey, I'm enlightened, I understand this and I understand that." And maybe you do understand those things. But only a small part of you does, and large areas of you are exactly the same as before (or maybe worse).

Chances are not bad that you may have met someone who is in fact in that state, they've had a strong "enlightenment", and in some ways, they seem enlightened, but in a bunch of other ways, they really don't seem enlightened. And all too often they are unaware that there is a contradiction between parts, that they can be saying something profound while acting out something really lame and banal.

Why do I say these things, and how do I know? I had my first "enlightenments" in my twenties. I'm in my sixties now. Lots of other reasons I could offer to the "how f do I know", but that is enough.

If you are wondering if you need to push to enlightenment now because it will be harder later, it does not work quite like that. What makes it harder is attachments and cravings.  If right now you have no wife, no children, no possessions, you have few attachments but may have many cravings. In your thirties, you may have a wife, and find yourself with children and a job and such. You will probably have even more cravings, and you will have a huge load of attachments. "enlightenments" would be very hard, and if you got it, it could be a disaster for those you love and for you as well.

At 60, you might be a bitter craving old man who never lived, or you might be a serene complete man who lived everything available, and each of those states offers its own unique problem,s.

Something to keep in mind. "Enlightenment" confers no special benefits. We think it will. It doesn't. It's tricky to explain what this really means and how it works. Because you do get things. The ability to be in bliss at will, for example. Sounds like it's a benefit, right?  But in practice, it's not.

It's kinda logical too. If there is no difference between you and all other beings, no difference between you and god, no difference between one's appearance of awareness and the ground of which one is aware, how would it be possible for you to get special benefits? 

Now, or wait? That's your decision to make.

[WelcometoReality]

@Light Lover This is a hard question to answer even if you are enlightened because one can only guess what qualities in that person made one awaken. Unless you are a teacher that helped hundreds of people awaken you can't really say what qualities help or doesn't help.

That said I believe what helped me awaken was an openmindedness toward the topic of enlightenment and at the same time was sceptical toward it, meaning I had to really look for myself and didn't really buy what the teachers taught.

That combined with a desire for truth. I was on the search for truth long before I had learned about spirituality.

[Light Lover]

@Bill Eichman interesting, thankyou very much and @WelcometoReality as welll. I have been contemplating recently and it is truly like nothing else, I feel like I am doing it right as well because I am just totally absorbed into it when I am in it and just feels like I am introspecting deeply about who I am etc...what is reality.