You may well have come across a number of characters on the internet who teach enlightenment but don’t make any claims to be enlightened themselves.
As Anthony de Mello put it when he was asked “Are you enlightened” – “What does it matter?”
Well surely it does matter. If you want to learn how to be a surgeon you pretty much want to make sure your teacher is one … right?
So what makes enlightenment a special case.
Firstly ‘enlightenment’ is just a label. A way to explain a state of mind and a way of thinking that no language has been able to put into words. You really don’t know what it is like until you get there. It’s why “Those who know cannot say while those who say do not know”.
Secondly if ‘enlightenment’ is just a label then claiming to be it is to try and take on an identity and true enlightenment is to have no identity.
To explain this in an every day realm if I was to say to you that I am a doctor you might make all sorts of assumptions about what I do. You might think that I work in a local hospital when in fact I work as a volunteer in a third world country.
‘Doctor’ is just a label – it actually does a very bad job of explaining what I do. The fact that I said ‘I am a doctor’ means that I believe it is part of me. Actually it is not because I could stop being a doctor and it would not fundamentally change who I am.
Right so how do you find someone to teach you enlightenment if those who are truly enlightened don’t say that they are and if those who say that they are have really just raised a red flag to show that they aren’t.
Well the point is you don’t need someone who is enlightened to show you the way.
As enlightenment cannot be described in language teachers can only show you signs, they can only show you the way to get there but they cannot take you there. You will know it when you arrive and then it will be clear to you that you cannot explain it to anyone else.
The best analogy I have come up with is that a person does not need to be in London to tell you how to get to London. In fact there are people located elsewhere in the country that might be able to do a much better job in giving you directions than those who are actually sitting in your final destination.
When you ask “How do I get to London” the non-enlightened person will start explaining straight away. The enlightened person will as “Where are you now?” That’s the biggest clue …