What is Enlightenment?
Enlightenment is the realisation of who we truly are. It is not an intellectual idea but a felt, lived experience. It is sensing the nature of God, or whatever name you prefer for the Divine, the Source, the consciousness behind all existence. It is feeling how deeply God loves us and everything that has been created. It is recognising that we are part of an infinite web of consciousness, not truly separate, but each of us a thread within the vast tapestry that is God.
To be enlightened is to understand and know who God really is: love. It is learning what love actually means and feeling the love God has for all life. Even those we might see as the lowest or most difficult to love are still held in God’s warm embrace. Who are we to judge anyone who is so deeply loved by our creator? Enlightenment arises when we can feel genuine compassion for those who are hardest to love. Did Jesus not say, while being crucified, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do”? We begin to understand that those we label as bad or broken are shaped by layers of pain and negative experiences. Their hearts have hardened because they have not felt the warmth of God’s love that melts all suffering. Enlightenment is reaching a point where we can pray for all life, even those most condemned by society, asking that they may feel God’s warmth and be healed, rather than they disappear or pray that karma get them.
Knowing and Trusting God
Enlightenment is knowing God. When you know someone to be good, kind, and full of love, you can trust them. Many of us do not fully trust that God hears our prayers or that our desires will manifest, because we do not yet know God’s true character. Once you truly experience this, trust becomes natural. You come to know that God has your best interests at heart, that God provides, protects, and keeps you safe. God is love. God is the warmth that softens every heart. God embraces all who come to him, regardless of whether we deem them good or bad.
Realising Our True Nature
Enlightenment is also recognising who you truly are: a piece of the Divine. It is breaking away from the beliefs that made you feel powerless when, all along, you were born to be the master of your own life. It is feeling with your entire being that you are one with God, and remembering that everyone else is too. We have simply forgotten.
It is also the realisation that what we call reality is a dream, and that our nightly dreams are equally a form of reality (just wanted to throw this in here).
How Does One Experience Enlightenment?
It is a process, and often a very challenging one. Since God is within us and is us, the journey is not about finding something outside ourselves but peeling away the layers that prevent us from seeing the truth that has always been there. These layers are built from social conditioning, family patterns, and long-held belief systems. Removing them can feel raw and difficult.
Because God is within us, the path requires discovering who we truly are. To do this, we need to let go of the identity we have created. We must release the stories of “I am this” and “I am like this because that happened to me”.
Healing the Body and Nervous System
This involves more than mental work. The physical body must also be addressed. Modern life keeps our nervous systems tense and overstimulated, running too consistently in a sympathetic state. Our natural state should be rooted primarily in the parasympathetic system: calm, relaxed, joyful. A year or more of dedicated physical practice is often needed to reset the nervous system. This might be Yin Yoga, slow walks in nature, sauna and cold immersion, or Body & Brain exercises. Each person must find what suits them.
As the nervous system calms and the brain shifts more easily into alpha and theta states, meditation becomes more natural. Insights start to arise in meditation or in meditative moments such as driving in automatic mode. You begin to understand why you feel the emotions you do, why you think the thoughts you think, why you act the way you do. The subconscious becomes clearer. You see glimpses of who you were always meant to be, instead of who your family, society, culture, or circumstances told you were. These insights can trigger emotional release stored in the body and nervous system: deep crying, even vomiting. It can be an intense process that lasts months. Just when you think it is complete, more may arise. There may be long periods of overwhelming exhaustion, as rewiring the nervous system consumes vast energy.
During this time, proper nourishment is essential. Many modern diets contain too much sodium and too little potassium. Magnesium is often insufficient. Vitamin D and infrared light from the sun are lacking. In New Zealand, iodine intake is typically low, especially when using sea salt ( I hate iodised table salt). These electrolytes and nutrients support the body’s electrochemical changes, so they need to be maintained during such deep transformation.
The Challenges and Gifts of the Journey
Over the past nine months, this process has been emotionally, physically, and psychologically challenging. Just when it seemed like the healing was complete, a series of negative events unfolded one after another. It was confusing and overwhelming. Yet, even through the stress, each event became an opportunity for learning. My understanding of life, love, and God deepened even further.
Am I finished now? I do not know. But from the wisdom gained, I can now understand and feel what love truly is, know who God is, and live with more compassion than I ever had before.
A Prayer for All Life
I pray each day that all life on Earth feels and experiences the warmth, love, and truth of God. May all hardened hearts soften, and with God’s warmth, that all beings heal and remember who they truly are.