The Road to Enlightenment

Enlightenment

Did you know that enlightenment isn't a road that goes on forever? It actually has a destination. Of course, the book writers, gurus, and spiritual teachers don't want you to know that. If you ever reached the end of the road, who the fuck would buy their next book?

People often get into discussions with me and discover that I enjoy Taoism, philosophy, and spiritual things. Naturally, they start recommending all kinds of shit. Breathing techniques, yoga, meditation, and a smorgasbord of religious knowledge they picked up from some asshole with a podcast.

I usually respond with complete arrogance:

"I am the Buddha! I am the guru! No one is more enlightened than me!"

Do I actually believe this? Of course not. What I'm really telling them is to stay the fuck out of my way.

Why?

Because I've walked this spiritual road long enough to learn one very important lesson:

Humans are lazy bastards, and spirituality is the perfect con.

Think about it. What better profession could a narcissist ask for than spiritual authority? You get to tell people how to live, what to believe, and how much of their money they should hand over. And the best part? If your bullshit doesn't work, you can always blame the student for not being enlightened enough.

The pastor wants your money and obedience. The hippie wants to fuck women. The Fellowship of Friends wants to fuck men. Luckily, some of these bastards have been caught with their pants down.

But never forget one thing: Humans are predators.

Now, am I telling you to go on the attack and trust absolutely no one? Not at all. I'm telling you to put your fucking guard up and take control of your own enlightenment. Stop handing the keys to your mind over to every asshole who claims to know the way.

This is one of the reasons I love Taoism. It's simple.

Lao Tzu wrote a book about the Dao, The Way, and then, according to legend, the bastard fucking left.

That's it.

He didn't build a church. He didn't demand that everyone shave their heads, surrender their possessions, or fuck half the village. He didn't stick around to collect donations or demand obedience.

He gave them the Way and got the fuck out of the way.

And that's the beautiful thing.

Now, I've read the Tao Te Ching. Do I understand every word of it? Hell no. But I read it, learned something, and moved forward. I didn't need to spend the next forty years sitting at the feet of some self-appointed master waiting for permission to live.

This is also why I prefer Taoism over Stoicism.

Stoicism sometimes feels like some asshole putting a basketball hoop fifty feet in the air and screaming, "DISCIPLINE! PLAY BALL!"

And there you stand, throwing the fucking ball, failing over and over, convinced that one day you'll become some emotionless statue of virtue.

Taoism takes a different approach. It puts the hoop somewhere you can actually reach, though not without effort. It challenges you without demanding that you become something other than human.

It teaches you to move like water.

You'll often hear Taoists talk about being like water, and the untrained mind immediately thinks, "Keep moving! Go with the flow!"

And sure, there's some truth to that. But it's deeper than that.

Be of value. Be useful. Provide something to life.

Think about water. What the fuck survives without it?

Water doesn't need to announce its greatness. It doesn't need a congregation, a following, or a bestselling book explaining why it's important. It simply exists, adapts, nourishes, and finds its way.

It can be gentle enough to run through your fingers and powerful enough to tear a mountain apart.

That's something worth learning.

And this brings me back to enlightenment.

Take control of your own fucking enlightenment.

Read the books. Study the philosophies. Learn from people who have something worth teaching. But don't become some lifelong spiritual student who spends sixty years preparing to live and then dies having accomplished absolutely nothing.

At some point, put the fucking book down.

You've learned enough. Now go live.

And once you've reached that point, don't sit around congratulating yourself on how enlightened you've become. Go learn something else.

Study literature. Learn mathematics. Understand science. Develop a skill. Build something. Create something. Become useful to the world instead of another useless bastard sitting around contemplating his own consciousness.

The purpose of enlightenment isn't to spend your entire life chasing enlightenment. It's to free yourself so you can actually live.

So stop worshipping the road. Stop paying people to tell you where it leads. Stop mistaking endless searching for progress.

Find the Way, walk it, and when you've learned what you need, move the fuck on.

Be like water. Be useful. And for God's sake, stop drowning in your own enlightenment.