Years ago, if someone would have asked me what an enlightened person looked like, I would have described someone who lived in a temple or on a mountain top and who prayed or meditated most of the day. 

This person would always be calm and centered and speak only words of wisdom as students gathered around him to absorb his teachings.  This person, in my mind’s eye, was always a man.

Another illusion I carried was that before I could reach my own enlightenment, I had to attain a state of complete inner peace and perfection.  Being enlightened meant I could not make mistakes.

The Nirvana comes to mind as I’m writing this.  The definition of Nirvana is a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism. It is a state of perfect happiness; an ideal or idyllic place.

This is the state I thought I had to attain before reaching enlightenment.

We all have illusions that we carry with us from our own upbringing, things we’ve seen on television or in movies or things we’ve read.  Most of them are other people's depictions of what they think enlightenment means but we have to work through these illusions in order to find the truth for ourselves.

Much of our illusions come from hundreds and thousands of years ago when someone did need to go to a temple, ashram, or mountain top to connect with the higher vibrations on the planet.  The vibrations of the earth were too dense and heavy to stay above them if someone was intent on connecting with higher vibrations and light of the Universe.  It turns out that the picture we carry with us is an old, outdated picture. 

The earth’s vibration shifted out of these lower vibrations in 1987, again in 2004 and again in 2012.  There are now many places on this planet where people can raise their vibration without traveling to a guru or teacher sitting in a temple or on a mountain top.  We no longer need to spend the rest of our lives in study, prayer and meditation to reach our own enlightenment.

We can now reach our enlightenment and live a normal life, continue to have families, work in our jobs and stay involved in our communities while holding a higher vibration of light within.  

When we begin to normalize what enlightenment looks like, we can begin to release the illusions we carry.  

And one last thing.  My picture of only men sitting on mountain tops or in temples has been completely dissolved.  There are now hundreds and thousands of enlightened women walking among us.  Perhaps you’ve met a few?