Seeker: Are there degrees of enlightenment?
■ Andrew Cohen: Well, there are many different ways to answer that question. But one way is to say that there aren’t degrees of enlightenment — there are only degrees of unenlightenment. The degree to which ignorance falls away is the degree of enlightenment that there will be. When there is absolutely no ignorance left (if such a thing is possible!), you could say that someone is fully enlightened. So it would indeed appear that there are degrees of enlightenment, but, in fact, it wouldn’t be true.
There is a metaphor to describe this perspective. Imagine the radiant sun, forever burning brightly, always casting its immaculate light that is never touched by anything. Then imagine a mirror, the surface of which is completely covered with dry mud. This mirror cannot reflect the light of the sun because its surface is completely obscured. When you look at its surface all you will see is mud. Then something miraculous happens. A bolt of lightning hits the surface of the mirror and a small piece of the dry mud falls away. Now that mirror suddenly is casting a blazing reflection of the light of the radiant sun. Upon seeing this light, you instantly recognise it to be the light of your own Self. Then you see another mirror covered with mud but this one has been hit by two bolts of lightning and, as a result, a third of the surface of the mirror has been revealed. Now you say, ‘Oh my goodness! This light is so much brighter.’ And then you stumble upon a third mirror and this one has been struck by three bolts of lightning, revealing two-thirds of its surface, which is casting such a bright reflection of the light of the sun that your eyes can barely withstand its intensity. Eventually, you find a mirror that has been struck by so many lightning bolts that all of the mud has fallen away from its surface except for a few specks of dust. The reflection in this mirror is much brighter and clearer than all the others, but those specks of dust still cast a small shadow. Then, finally, you find a mirror on which there is not even one speck of dust left. In this one, there only is a pure reflection of the radiant light of the sun. The light shining on every one of those mirrors is the very same light. But final purity has been attained only when there’s not even one speck of dust left to mar its reflection.
How can we know when someone is fully enlightened?
■ To know the truth about others, we have to look deeply into our own self. That means that with a ruthless integrity we must scrutinise our own motives and make the honest effort to find out what our relationship to life is really based on. Because in the end, our ability to determine another’s purity of motivation and depth of spiritual attainment depends upon the purity of our own motives and the depth of our own attainment.
Abridged from Living Enlightenment, New Age Books ■
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