This Is My Definition of Enlightenment

[Cathy92506]

Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.

What changes is your relationship to your thoughts and emotions.
They still arise, but you’re no longer automatically identified with them. You’re not building an identity or a story around every feeling.

There’s a natural sense of presence—of being here—without needing to control the mind.

You’re still human. You still fall down—but you don’t get lost in it the same way, and you get back up.

Life stays ordinary.
The circumstances don’t transform.
The shift is internal — in how you relate to the voice in your head.
***
PLEASE CRITICIZE, ADD, DELETE, OR WHATEVER.

[James123]

1 hour ago, Cathy92506 said:

Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.

What changes is your relationship to your thoughts and emotions.
They still arise, but you’re no longer automatically identified with them. You’re not building an identity or a story around every feeling.

There’s a natural sense of presence—of being here—without needing to control the mind.

You’re still human. You still fall down—but you don’t get lost in it the same way, and you get back up.

Life stays ordinary.
The circumstances don’t transform.
The shift is internal — in how you relate to the voice in your head.
***
PLEASE CRITICIZE, ADD, DELETE, OR WHATEVER.

you are accumulation of emotions and feelings. So when you are not attach to them, you die. Neither you feel presence or being here.

Your true nature is freedom is freedom itself, therefore you don't need to feel it. There is no distance, only Be.

[Ziran]

2 hours ago, Cathy92506 said:

Life stays ordinary.

No sparkle?

[Ramasta9]

31 minutes ago, Ziran said:

No sparkle?

Partial Enlightenment  

 

[Cathy92506]

5 hours ago, James123 said:

you are accumulation of emotions and feelings. So when you are not attach to them, you die. Neither you feel presence or being here.

Your true nature is freedom is freedom itself, therefore you don't need to feel it. There is no distance, only Be.

I think I see what you're pointing at, but I don’t agree that non-attachment means “you die” or stop feeling.

In my experience (and in most traditions), it’s more like you still feel everything — just without getting completely pulled into it or defining yourself by it.

If anything, there’s often more clarity and presence, not less.

[James123]

34 minutes ago, Cathy92506 said:

I think I see what you're pointing at, but I don’t agree that non-attachment means “you die” or stop feeling.

It is like resting. Body and mind works as they supposed to be. You rest.

[UnbornTao]

Is this AI? Hello there.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

AI 

[PolyPeter]

It's always the em-dashes

 

[Joseph Maynor]

The Internet has made it harder to communicate about spiritual enlightenment.  

[Cathy92506]

I’m a real human. Grammarly just helps me write more clearly.

Either way, still have to chop wood and carry water 🙂

[bazera]

19 minutes ago, Cathy92506 said:

I’m a real human.

That's exactly what AI would say 

[Breakingthewall]

Enlightenment is being one with the source, being open to the totality and being the totality in a form, being aware of it all the time; it is the breaking of the barrier that separates you from your absolute nature, from the Tao, from the unlimited being that flows upon itself in the perfect dance of form, of creation and destruction in which it displays its total glory. 

[Cathy92506]

26 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

Enlightenment is being one with the source, being open to the totality and being the totality in a form, being aware of it all the time; it is the breaking of the barrier that separates you from your absolute nature, from the Tao, from the unlimited being that flows upon itself in the perfect dance of form, of creation and destruction in which it displays its total glory. 

You know, that sounds poetic, nice and beautiful. But how would that actually show up in everyday life?

For example, at work, in relationships, stress from driving, etc. What's different?

So you disagree with the definition I stated in my post?

[Ziran]

9 hours ago, Ramasta9 said:

Partial Enlightenment  

But seriously, it reminds me of a Buddhist path: conquering the "poison" of delusion/ignorance. 

[GodisOne]

What you're describing is a mental transformation--a change in your relationship to your thoughts. This is all in the world of relativity.

Enlightenment is the dissolution of relativity back into the Absolute. With that, it's revealed that This is just the Absolute appearing as the relative. 

For more, read about/watch radical nonduality (Jim Newman, Kenneth Madden, Alexis Knight, etc..).

[Ziran]

5 hours ago, Cathy92506 said:

clarity

Have you considered the difference between clarity and enlightenment?