After Enlightenment Then What?
Each swept floor invites another sweep. Every child bathed invites another bathing. Every lawn mowed demands another mowing. Each breath taken requires another breath.
The sun rises each morning and sets each evening. The moon glows each night. Tides ebb and flow each day. Birds sing perfect songs today and sing them again tomorrow.
Oysters open their shells when the moon is high in the sky. The chambered nautilus creates a new chamber in its spiraled shell each lunar month.
When we breathe, we do not stop inhaling because we have breathed in all of the oxygen we will ever need. We stop because we have gotten all the oxygen we need for that particular inhalation.
When we exhale we stop breathing out in order to prepare for the next breath. We will need to breathe again, however, no matter how perfectly we have breathed.
What these scenarios suggest is what is finished invites refinishing.
So what do we do after we become enlightened? We become more enlightened. Once we are consciously one with the Infinite Isness we are prone to think we are finished, that we are complete, that we have reached the pinnacle of our perfection.
But nothing could be further from the truth. There is a Zen saying which goes like this: Before enlightenment, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. At the moment one becomes enlightened, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers. After enlightenment, mountains are once more mountains and rivers are once more rivers.
A current version of this Zen koan comes from Unity minister, Jim Rosemergy who has this to say: “Mystics do not turn from the world once they turn to God. They remain in the world but not of the world. Even mystics have bills to pay.”.
Once we are enlightened, that is, once we positively, absolutely, unequivocally realize we are the Christ expressing as us, we stay in the world, but not of the world to show others the way to enlightenment.
That is our Great Commission: to fully express our Christ potential and help others to do the same. It is the same commission shared in Matthew 28:19-20.
We will share the New Revised Standard Version and then sprinkle a metaphysical version from the New Metaphysical Version of Matthew to add spiritual depth.
After His resurrection Jesus told His disciples in verse 19:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
Metaphysically Jesus was describing three specific nations: our body, mind, and soul. Baptizing the nations signifies purifying our body, mind, and soul from unhealthy sense attachments.
We must do this ‘in the ‘name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’ Name signifies ‘in the nature of.’ And, ontologically speaking Father, Son, and Holy Spirit represent the three phases of Divine Order (Mind, Idea, Expression).
So, we are to purify our body, mind, and soul by becoming one with the nature of the Indwelling Christ within us so we can divinely order our experience.
Matt. 20 says in the New Revised Standard Version: “Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you, remembering that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”"
Ontologically ‘teach them’ means to walk our talk with integrity. ‘I am with you always’ means we have an indivisible, unshakable, universal oneness with Spirit. To the ‘end of the world’ means going from one level of spiritual awareness to another.
Matthew 20 means we are to walk our talk by letting our Christ Light shine as we move from one level of enlightenment, one level of completion, to another.
So, what will we do after we are enlightened?
We stay in the world but not of the world. We live as monks and mystics in cities, towns, and communities. We light up the world with our presence. Like the enlightened beings who became enlightened before us we will teach others how to teach others.
We will look like typical men and women, but our values and the way we live, move, and have our being will show our acceptance of our higher calling.
We will have human challenges, but we will not be subdued by them. We may wear glasses or contacts, hearing aids or pace makers, but we will not be defined by them.
We may take medications or require hospitalization, but we will not be imprisoned by those things. We may experience a world that is imperfect, but we will not be limited by that imperfection.
We will be in the finishing and refinishing business. We will pot and repot ourselves daily. We will renew and keep renewing ourselves. We will tool and re-tool ourselves constantly.
We will continue to work toward our enlightenment because enlightenment is a verb, not a noun. It is a process, an unfolding, a movement from one exhilarating level of consciousness to another.
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