Enlightenment in layman’s terms

Published January 2018, Off The Cuff Ezine
Written by Tess Vergara

In my journey to awakening, I have encountered many people who doubt that enlightenment is possible for humanity. They doubt that it is possible for us mortals to actually transcend our ego.

Is there really such a thing as enlightenment?

Enlightenment in layman’s terms is simply bringing to light what was hidden, what was in the shadows, to make conscious of what we are unconscious of.

In this article, I wish to address that enlightenment is for everybody. That is, everybody who chooses to live awake and enlightened.

The decision to wake up, and the commitment behind that decision, really is the only criteria for transcending the mind, ego and emotions and consciously tread the path to enlightenment.

No longer do you have to stake stuck and feel split up or torn apart between spirit and matter. When you awake, it is totally possible to integrate both worlds and live in Unified Consciousness. It is totally your call, your choice, your decision, your creation.

Spirituality and materiality are two sides of the same coin. Just like dark and light, and night and day. Just like heaven and earth, and Divine and human.

There’s a larger self already in you that is trying to emerge as only you can uniquely express. And absolutely! You can totally be this and more.

If you choose you. And choosing you means choosing to let go of everything that is not you.

Why choose you?

Because at some point, we realize our (unintegrated) mind and egos have become our prisons. And there’s not much of a choice left but to transcend it.

What is transcendence?

To transcend is to move beyond the ego, move beyond the limitations we bought into. And it is an unlayering process where you let go of the fears, doubts and limitations, some inherited, some installed by you, as a way to survive and feel acceptable, feel like we matter, feel like we are good enough.

Here’s what I mean in very simple terms.

Ego’s job is to save face and make you look good and acceptable, whether to play victim (inferior) or savior (superior).

Mind’s job is to protect you safe from the dangers of the unknown.

Before any of that, when you first came into being, you came into life pure and whole, full of light and full of joy.

Yet over time, like me, you received messages that you have to be good… or else.

You have to be good students, good helper, good caretaker. You have to strive to be more. You have to work hard and do more.

Coz if you fail to please or obey our parents, then there’s a consequence. A withdrawal of love and attention. There are no rewards. In fact, a punishment awaits you that lets you know you failed. You didn’t do a good job, you aren’t good enough, you’re not acceptable, you’re unloveable, unworthy and undeserving of love and attention.

That then became the filter through which you saw yourself and lived your life.

Then you got good at collecting evidence why you had to achieve more, do more, get more so you never ever have to feel the hurt and humiliation of rejection and unworthiness ever again.

But see, that’s a half baked truth. That’s an incomplete version of you. That’s not the whole you. That is just your personality acting like you, solidified by habituated patterns of survival, coping and defense mechanisms.

In other words.

A lie.

Created by the ego.

Born out of woundedness.

It’s not a complete picture.

Now here’s the good news.

We are living in an unprecedented time where we can totally transcend our ego and become whole again.

The reason people awaken is because they have finally stopped agreeing to things that insult their soul. ~ Anonymous

There comes a time in our soul’s evolution that we have to let go of this personality, this mask, not to lose it forever, but to add the missing parts to it.

But first we have to let go and release it. And that is a terrifying concept. For who would you be if not the person you have known yourself to be.

I get it. But I hope you hear that there’s more to you than your mind and your ego. There’s more to you than your body. There’s more to you wanting and yearning to be let out and fully expressed and experienced.

To transcend the ego, means looking beyond the square walls of the box you kept yourself safe in.

To transcend the ego means detaching what it means for you to be

• Responsible
• Over giving
• Handworker, or
• Sickly
• Helpless
• Not smart enough
• Or too smart for your own good

And then explore what it feels like to embrace the opposite

• Irresponsible
• Selfish
• Lazy
• Healthy
• Resourceful

“Me? Lazy? Selfish? Irresponsible?”

“How can you say that when in fact I work 2 jobs, have a business on the side, and own rental properties. And, oh and by the way, I am raising my children singlehandedly.”

When I woke up, I was mad as hell to realize the reason I was working myself to death was because I really did not feel welcome in this world and I had to keep proving my worth for someone to finally see me and appreciate me.

I worked myself to death to prove I am an asset to my family and society and have a whole lot to contribute to the world.

Except… contribute to me.

On a conscious level, I thought I was smart and confident and funny and happy.

But deep down, I was constantly searching and seeking. Giving all of myself, hoping, praying, I will get reciprocated and refilled back up.

Which didn’t happen. Which left me exhausted. Depleted. Barely recognizable.

That brought me to a complete meltdown. Total breakdown. Burnt out to the ground. I was running on negative balance.

The personality I fought so hard upholding couldn’t even help me.

In fact, it abandoned me. Left me for dead.

Said I was useless. No good. Unfit to stick around.

“You might as well not be here.”

“You are just taking up space.”

“If you can’t even help yourself, what good are you to anybody?”

That’s when my Spirit pulled me up, and breathed life back into me.

That’s when all the false constructs dismantled and deconstructed.

That’s when my True Self showed me the way.

Coz now I finally could hear the Truth with a capital T.

Not the lies and distortions I held up as truth.

But the Divine Truth.

That who I AM is enough.

That who I AM is pure.

That who I AM is beyond the constructs of the mind and ego.

That who I AM lies deep within my heart I had walled up and barricaded.

And the awareness that nothing on the outside is more important than the truth I hold inside.

And the first step and key is to break down the wall and unlocking my own heart.

And fully awaken to all aspects of me.

Not just my light… but also my dark

Not just forced masculine I had to be… but invite back in my feminine

Not just the feminine, but evolve my masculine, I am both, not just one.

Not just my human, but bring in and trust the Divine as an intrinsic and inseparable aspect of me.

This is transcendence. This is enlightenment. Once you’ve built yourself back up from the inside out, then you can have all your unique personality and upbringing back.

Except you are no longer defined by it.

Who you are is no longer coming from a necessity to be a certain way.

No longer from a place of fighting or proving or defending.

But from a place of knowingness that who you are is irreducible, irreplaceable, abundant and infinite.

It’s the same you just from a whole different vibration and beingness.

It’s the same you just happier, fuller, real and authentic.

It’s the same you just no longer needing the external world to complete you or bring you happiness.

It’s the same you just no longer needing to get… but fully living your life as life itself.

You are awakened to never again feel like you don’t belong or you don’t matter.

You are awakened. To the truth of who you are.

You are awakened. To your own heart. To your own soul. To your own Spirit.

You are awakened. In Unified Consciousness. Knowing exactly why you came to be.