On Achieving Enlightenment

I was asked recently on Quora how is it one can achieve enlightenment.

      First, let's define enlightenment from a Kagyu Buddhist standpoint. Enlightenment is the realization and experience of mind resting in its own primordial nature. Now, that sounds simple enough and it is, so, why aren't we all enlightened? It is the inherent aspects of samsara that block our ability to experience something that is already within us. In samsara we are "gifted" with form, feelings and sensations, perception, a disposition of character and consciousness, each aspect leading to the development of the other. "We" also exist as an subject where we seem to be separate from the things - objects - we perceive. This is called dualism; where "you" become the subject observer who perceives objects, experiences or internal thoughts that seem to arise separate from yourself.
     Mind resting in its own nature is thus obscured from direct experience by all the inherent characteristics imbued upon each aspect of what makes us "us". So form gives us the sensation and ideation that we are separate from all else in our world. Feelings impact how we perceive things and situations. (Think how easy it is to misinterpret someone's meaning when you are angry or how easy it is to not see someone for who they are when you are infatuated with them.) Perceptions lose their plasticity as we condition them in samsara. All this results in how others and one's self "perceives" who we are and our likeability, how we look, how we treat others and on and on.
     So, our task is to begin to break down all these barriers and find ways to catch a glimpse of what it even feels like to be in a state of mind resting in its own nature. Is it a quantum realm devoid of time and space? Is it nihilism? If we can learn to properly recognize what this state is in meditation, then, along with working to eliminating all the obscurations that keep us from not only catching a glimpse (dualistic), we can complete the journey and exist in this state.
Mind existing in its own nature also has characteristics that we "feel" or "perceive" dualistically that we interpret as bliss or lasting happiness or a stable mind. But no description or feeling related to enlightenment can possibly be enlightenment due to its very non-dualistic nature and the dualistic nature of description.
     On the Buddhist Path, we start out this seemingly over-whelming task by first recognizing that their are some foundational truths we need to understand, contemplate and incorporate into how we think and act. The first is to understand that the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, disposition and consciousness are inherent aspects of all sentient beings in samsara, but, being a human being is unique (we have the arrogance to think, anyway), in that we can contemplate our own existence and make decisions about the future. We can also whittle this population down to those who desire to pursue a spiritual path and enlightenment. We, in a somewhat superior tone, refer to these individuals as having a "precious human existence". This does not mean that all life is not precious; its just a poor translation passed down from generations past to enumerate this small group of people who have the desire to follow a path, are exposed to Buddhist teachings (dharma), are fortunate enough to have the physical and mental ability required to follow this path and, I'll add, fortunate enough to find a good teacher, guru or lama to guide them.
     Second, we must come to grips with the concept of impermanence. Nothing in samsara lasts, not good times, not bad times, not one's health, nor one's life. Everything is in a constant state of change and is temporary. It is important to really understand this because it is the basis for what is often called "letting go" or "attachment". In this sense, it does not mean that we actually have to give up everything we own and break off all of our relationships (although this is what some monks and nuns do, though I would argue that they create new ones upon entering a monastic setting - though one hears the odd story of a monk or someone living a minimalistic existence in a cave). What it really means is that because everything in samsara eventually decays, is lost, broken or dies; clinging attachment to things or people creates or heightens emotions leading to craving, desire and suffering and certainly building a blockade to our original goal of enlightenment.
      The third truth or aspect of samsara is that of karma: what ever we do today affects tomorrow. That's all it is but its a big "is" for everything we think, say, do or cause creates a karmic seed of potential for a future consequence and this becomes an issue, not only in our daily lives, but at the ultimate time of enlightenment which I will explain later. We can have lengthy discussions on what acts result in what kind of karma - does putting down a sick animal cause good karma or bad karma - was it done to benefit the animal or just the owner. Things like that, but for now it is just important to keep the concept in mind. The creation of an act or thought results in the "seed" of potential outcomes - karmic seeds. These seeds will only ripen if given the appropriate causes and conditions for them to do so. If I throw a seed of wheat in a field and don't provide it with sunlight, water and nutrients, it dies. If I do, it lives. So, sometimes we can avoid creating the causes and conditions that allow a seed to grow and sometimes we can't. We all have taken actions where we have attempted to alter the outcome by apology, regret or hard work, so this shouldn't be a big leap of faith. Karma and its potential for a good or bad result is obvious. If I spend all my money today, I don't have any tomorrow. If I alienate a friend, it is unlikely they will be for me when I need them.
The fourth is a set of truths, enumerated by the Buddha in his teachings on the "Four Noble Truths". To keep it simple, it just means that the very fact that we live in a dualistic experiential world we call samsara, we cannot avoid suffering. Not all the time, mind you. But even the wealthiest, healthiest, most beautiful person in the world cannot avoid, at the very minimum, sickness, old age and death. Most of us experience much more. For most of us, it seems that just when we have everything under control, someone pulls the rug out from under us and we have to start it all again. In samsara, it seems as though we fight one battle after the other and, in the end, lose the war. Of course, we can have very pleasant and happy experiences, as well, and even most of the time, but no one can avoid some degree of suffering. Those who are pursuing a spiritual path generally have recognized the importance of this precisely because they're experiencing more than their fair share. But, part of the Buddha's teaching was that there is a path from suffering and a way to experience lasting happiness.
     Now, if you're still with me, I tell you how.
     We start by developing simple mindfulness, that is being aware of the thoughts and feelings that arise in us at any one particular moment or as the result of a particular experience. If we begin to get angry and we can recognize it arising in our own minds, we can stop and decide that we will not let it go further. It's possible. It's not easy, but often just the recognition of a negative emotion can stop it from progressing. So, in these situations, they turn from bad experiences to lessons on how our minds work and how to control them at least at this minor level. So, mindfulness is very important to develop and will be even more important during meditation.
Although we must learn to stop and, hopefully, eliminate negative emotions, we must go further and eliminate another big obstacle to seeing our mind for what its true nature is and that is habitual thinking. Wasn't it Einstein that said the definition of an idiot is someone who does the same thing over and over again and expects a different result - or something like that? Well, you and I are idiots for we have conditioned our minds to habitually perceive experiences and emotions in much the same way when confronted with similar situations. We date the same kind of people and are surprised and unhappy when it doesn't work out. We try to recreate experiences without the same feeling - Santorini didn't seem this dirty the first time I was here! And the like. Breaking habitual thinking is difficult, but Buddhists try to do it by replacing one habit with another. We employ mindfulness, we employ contemplation before conclusion and we employ meditation.
     So, to catch up, to be on a Buddhist path toward enlightenment, we must be precious having experienced just enough suffering to know that we don't want to suffer anymore, but not experience so much suffering that we are incapable of being rational. We must accept the impermanent nature of all things from form to feelings to even consciousness itself (more on that later). We must understand the impact that karma has both in our daily lives and on the eventual wall it will build toward ultimate enlightenment. And we must recognize the nature of samsara that involves suffering and unhappiness (at least from time to time).
     The path out of this mess involves becoming mindful of it and our emotions and perceptions in samsara, breaking habitual thinking and learning to take on other obscurations (a teacher is helpful here) to allowing our Buddha nature to come forth - mind resting in itself. Through meditation, as we begin to calm the mind, allowing the constant stream of distracting thoughts to fall into the background, like rain when reading a book, we can catch a glimpse of the experience of mind resting in its own nature. This is just a glimpse. It is not enlightenment. Even eliminating all suffering, were such a thing possible, would only result in nirvana, a dualistic existence without suffering. But enlightenment is completely non-dualistic, no subject, no object, no perception or action between them. It is a state of pure potential influenced by karmic seeds.
     To get to a state of pure enlightenment, as you can see, is an arduous, but not impossible, task. It means letting go of form, feelings, dualistic perception, our dispositional nature and even consciousness. I have had a fair few arguments with my peers and teachers because I believe that what most Buddhists hope for is a better shot the next time around and not a complete dissolution towards emptiness. In some ways, this is embedded in Buddhist doctrine that implies that one must continue through the cycle of samsara, birth, sickness, old age and death, for countless eons, each time getting more skillful and experiencing all kinds of realms of existence before one can achieve enlightenment, so, naturally, this breeds this attitude that if I follow this path, I should have a better life and a better opportunity for spiritual growth the next time around. To me, its a self-fulfilling prophecy - a self-defeating prophecy. Tibetan Buddhism practice is rooted in the idea that one can achieve enlightenment in one life time.
      To achieve this one must eliminate all clinging-attachment, all negative emotions, all habitual ways of thinking, letting go of form, feelings, and the rest. This can be done but I think the biggest obstacle is one of the simplest to understand - fear. We are naturally afraid of the unknown. We can catch glimpses of what mind resting in its own nature is in meditation but we can't know it. What we are glimpsing is a perception of mind resting in its own nature - primordial mind that has always been there. It is a state of bliss and pure calm. 
     I have experienced this and the fear of it. Having had remarkable (and some not so remarkable) experiences in meditation I felt like I could have let go of everything and just have been. Then, I got scared. What of those I left behind, and so on. So, I talked to my teacher about this. First, he said there is nothing to fear and then he said you're not ready. You haven't really done the things you've professed to have done. Whoa. What did I miss? Quite a few things it seems - how extraordinarily powerful, even in subtle ways attachment is;  how "habituated" I was to the "feeling" that if I let go I would be dead.
     I am in no way enlightened, but, as you can see, the path to enlightenment is step by step with effort and consistency, based on an intellectual and an ever-expanding understanding of the dharma from morals and ethics to concepts of emptiness and non-self and making them so much a part of the way you think that they become second nature - you have absolute and complete faith in your understanding abolishing fear and attachment. I refer to these as "realizations".
     So, if one let's go of every aggregate of the human existence as we know it, with the last thing left being consciousness, itself, what do we have? Potential, infinite potential (at least when we have negated all karma). Both so-called good and bad karma influence potential, just like an observer of a quantum occurrence affects the outcome. As your foundation grows and you cultivate wisdom and compassion with the goal of lifting all sentient beings out of lives of suffering, you cultivate "good" karma. But I guarantee that very few of us can cultivate so much good that we end up with a net gain. I hope so, but our population as a whole has not demonstrated this so far. But you can.
     Negating "bad" karma is one of the main purposes of meditation, contemplation and compassion - to cultivate positive karma so that when all else is gone and only our Buddha-nature is left, though it would be best to have no karma, it is certainly better to have a net positive gain. This, then, influences our potential when we have not totally broken away from the cycle of samsara.
     When we let go of all dualism and the inherent fear of nihilism we come to the conclusion that there is not nothing left. This is the teaching on emptiness and the concepts of non-self. I won't go into it here, now, except to say when people ask me what is reborn? If I give up this life as I know it and die, what's left? My answer is infinite potential. It is a hard concept to grasp because we are so "me" oriented. What is "reincarnated" - better called incarnated - is potential influenced by karma. It is not "you" as "you" know yourself in this relative world of samsara. Even reincarnated Lamas are incarnate children with much the same qualities of the karmically seeded potential of their previous lineage holders (I might get some flack for saying that, but there it is) - not the actual person, but rather an extension of the lineage of that particular Lama.
     On the way toward enlightenment is a side shoot of Buddhist practice - that is a lessening of negative emotions, more compassion and better relationships with others, more clarity and stability of mind and awareness which leads to less suffering and more happiness. All this arises as our infinite potential begins to shine through the many obscurations it has towards complete liberation - complete liberation into a state of infinite potential not affected by any remaining karma and, thus, all is possible - contrary to nihilism where nothing is possible. I cannot predict or explain this state for to do so would be to digress to dualism. I do not know what it is like to experience infinite potential. It lies at the root of all of us, but how can I offer anything more than the knowledge that I have complete faith that it is the essence of all sentient beings and that eliminating all veils and blockades to its light is possible and desirable for this breaks us away from the cycle of samsara - complete elimination of suffering and the opportunity for anything. If we have, throughout our practice, lived moral lives with the best of intent for ourselves and others, then I believe this potential will result in wonderful things. My understanding is not a leap of faith, but a foundation built on years of study, contemplation and meditation. Wisdom takes experience and experience takes time - so some of us, at the end of our lives, have a book of wisdom that is useful on the path towards enlightenment. Others have photo albums, pictures of events they like to revisit but haven't learned the lesson of the experience. This is a problem that weighs on me as I watch a litany of "selfies" and pictures of plates of food someone had for dinner pop up on my Facebook Page.
     There are many schools of Buddhist thought and most are legitimate and based on the original teachings of the Buddha as well as commentaries by learned and accomplished practitioners that makes up the Dharma. My basis is in the Karma Kagyu School of Vajrayana Buddhism. It is taught in a traditional and methodical manner with study, contemplation, refuge vows, vows of bodhicitta, the four preliminary practices and empowerments for and practice of tantric meditative methods along with more simple Shinay (aka Samadhi) meditation. We learn to fuse Samadhi with Insight meditation (aka Vipisanna, which is really, in my mind, just a focused contemplation of Buddhist truths until they become part of one's foundational thought patterns, at which time they influence your experience in sitting meditation and result in profound experiences such as attaining Mahamudra - long periods of sitting in a state of mind resting within itself.) It is important to find the school (and hopefully the teacher) that fits with your goals, aptitudes, learning styles, belief systems and time. And anyone who has read this far has, I'm sure, started this investigation. I wish you luck.
      Of all the various paths in Buddhism, all of which are valid, Tibetan is probably the most difficult and time-consuming, but whatever path one chooses, one must be of right view, right effort and consistent in their practice to see results. Most of us won't achieve ultimate enlightenment in one lifetime, but it is ludicrous to set a goal to "almost" achieve something. So, we go on, learning to have faith in our practice which is built on a sturdy foundation of logic and experience. If all we gain is a life of joy and compassion where life's inevitable hiccups poke at us with less vigor from time to time, and we can remain of stable mind, cultivating wisdom, compassion and loving-kindness, then I say, "Bravo. That is a life well lived."
I realize this is practically a thesis, but if you made it through, then you have all my blessings and well wishes and hopes for the future - Pandita Thu'nam