Seven Reasons We Don’t Become Enlightened

nLack of adequate guidance Lack of resolve or faith Lack of confidence Lack of courage Distractions Laziness AngernnLack of adequate guidance: According to the Buddha, who is arguably the quintessential expert on enlightenment, in order to become enlightened we must understand how to practice, and the Buddha describes the method in detail. Many practices lead to wisdom or spirituality, but few have the capacity take us all the way to enlightenment. The Buddha himself worked very diligently for six years to attain enlightenment, which means that we must work hard and long as well. nn Lack of resolve or faith: Faith is one of the most important aspects of enlightenment; however, faith must be always balanced by wisdom and effort. This is because, unlike faith-based religions that believe regardless of the facts, meditation opens our eyes to illusions, as well as the circumstances of human existence. This is a very good instigator of faith as well as an incentive to escape the human circumstances.nnLack of confidence: Many new practitioners feel that they cannot successfully do the practice. After all, it took the Buddha six difficult years, and in this age of instant gratification, who has time? Meditation builds confidence; all it takes is doing it for an extended period. nnLack of courage: Once the ego begins to slip away in meditation, fear commonly results; one can feel as if they are falling into a bottomless abyss. It takes courage to not only let oneself fall, but to hang in there and see what develops. Also, many physical and psychological problems come up that must be dealt with, all part of a practice that toughens the practitioner for the day when he or she must let go of it all. Enlightenment is not for sissies! nnDistractions: As the ego is challenged by meditation, it begins to squirm, and it will find all kinds of things that seem more important than meditation. nnLaziness: Laziness is merely an ignorance of what’s at stake. Without enlightenment, who knows what kind of world you will be reborn into? If you could glance at some of these worlds for only a moment, laziness would be a thing of the past! nnAnger: Anger is the ego’s protector and chief builder. When the ego is threatened, this is the first tool that the ego will reach for. During meditation, we can become annoyed if not downright mad at the practice in many ways. We can detest the slow moving clock as we sit for an hour, or we can detest sitting still, or being quiet. These are all beginners’ experiences that temper the character of the meditator. True virtue and operating from our centers at all times doesn’t happen by accident, it happens by shifting our consciousness so that our natural virtues, such as generosity, love and wisdom, replace the unnatural builders of ego, such as greed, hatred and delusion. But it all takes work, no free lunch!