Today’s Words of Wisdom Part 2 – The Greatest Barrier to Enlightenment

Greetings, beloved ones!

Today we talk about the greatest barrier to enlightenment.

What is enlightenment?

Once, a beggar sat by the roadside for thirty years. One day, a stranger walked by. The beggar mechanically held out his old baseball cap and muttered, “Spare some change?”

The stranger said, “I have nothing to give you.” Then he asked, “What are you sitting on?”

The beggar replied, “Nothing. Just an old box. I’ve been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.”

“Have you ever looked inside?” the stranger asked.

“No,” the beggar said. “What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.”

“Open it and see,” the stranger insisted.

Reluctantly, the beggar pried open the lid—and to his shock and awe, the box was filled with gold.

I am that stranger who has nothing to give you, yet asks you to look inside.

I am not pointing you toward some mythical box, but to a place far closer—your own being.

And I can already hear you protest: “But I am not a beggar!”

Yet anyone who has not discovered their true wealth—the radiant joy of presence and the unshakable peace that comes with it—is a beggar, even if they possess worldly riches. They wander through life, scavenging for scraps of happiness in achievements, security, or love, unaware that they already hold within them something infinitely more precious.

The word enlightenment may sound like some lofty, superhuman achievement—but it is simply your natural state of oneness with being. It is a connection with that which is immeasurable, indestructible.

It is, paradoxically, more you than you are, yet greater than you. It is the essence beyond name and form. When you lose touch with it, you fall into the illusion of separation—from yourself, from the world. You become a lonely fragment, adrift in fear, conflict, and contradiction.

The Buddha, in his wisdom, defined enlightenment simply as the end of suffering. No grand metaphysics. No impossible ideals. Just this: the cessation of pain.

But what remains when suffering dissolves? The Buddha stayed silent. His silence is the invitation—you must taste it for yourself. He spoke in negatives so you wouldn’t mistake enlightenment for some distant, unattainable peak.

And yet, most still believe enlightenment belongs only to the Buddhas, not to them—not in this lifetime.

You ask: What is this being you speak of?

Being is the eternal one life beyond birth and death. It is the deathless, formless essence that not only transcends all life but dwells at the heart of it. It is your deepest self, accessible here and now.

Do not try to understand it—understanding is the mind’s game. Only when thought falls silent do you glimpse the truth. When your mind is still, when your attention rests completely in the now, you feel it—though you can never grasp it with thought.

To awaken to this presence, and to abide in it, is enlightenment.