After Enlightenment, What?

After Enlightenment, What?

One may come to a realization of one’s true identity, that sense of not-twoness that has been spoken of by (among others) Buddha, Jesus, Ramana or Krishnamurti. Such an awakening will thenceforth shape the remainder of one’s entire life. It will have a profound impact upon what one considers to be “right livelihood,” or one’s relationship to “family.” But one will discover—once again—that there is no external “authority” to whom one can turn for guidance. Buddha did not know firsthand the life of the breadwinner. Even though, as a prince, he deserted his father’s royal estate, the knowledge that he would be welcomed upon return to his comfortable home could not have been but a solace to him. And while, as a young man, he fathered a child, he had abandoned such familial responsibilities thereafter.

Jesus, during the eighteen unaccounted years said to begin with his teens, may—being the son of a carpenter—have been a laborer. And it is possible that he may, as well, have been a husband or parent during this period. However, recent historical conjecture suggests that those “missing” years might have been spent wandering abroad in India, where he adopted his radical spirituality. It is possible too that he never knew the life of a workingman or of a householder.

Ramana Maharshi left home, upon illumination, at about age 16, and was evidently chaste, neither a family man nor a worker, throughout his long lifetime.

Krishnamurti, similar in tradition to the Tibetan lamas, was designated for his role while still a dependent youngster, and also was neither a wage earner nor a spouse for his long lifetime. Furthermore, the first three of these men lived in a climate where one could (as each had done) sleep out of doors under a tree; and in a culture where one could (as each had done) depend on sympathetic passersby for one’s food. And there is evidence that any of these sages could have returned to their parents’ home, had they chosen. The daily dilemmas which confront a truthseeker in the colder climate where food and shelter are available only for cash, credit or food stamps; where any but the most menial jobs require an unblemished résumé; where one may be legally obligated and committed to family responsibilities— or, on the other hand, may have no family whom one may depend upon…these challenges can be instructive in that they can be responded to only moment by moment, day by day, bereft of the authority of the past, and consistent only with one’s attunement to the simple ramifications of wholeness.

“Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” – Emerson