Our spiritual journey is a path towards enlightenment, where we are provided with many opportunities to heal, grow and learn about ourselves and others. As we move towards this goal we look for teachers and guides to help us along our path, seeking those who we believe have already achieved enlightenment or who are more enlightened than we are. We tend to believe that they can provide us with lessons in enlightenment and speed the process. So when we are faced with people who teach us difficult lessons we believe that we have found people who are less enlightened than we are and question our own level of spiritual evolution. But we are looking at this the wrong way because everyone is enlightened, in their own way.
Enlightenment is not about being spiritually advanced or achieving master status. It is part of the process of evolution and growth that is our life journey. And it is different for each of us. For some, enlightenment may mean overcoming a single fear or belief. For others it may be the achievement of spiritual mastery. It may take an entire lifetime to move ahead one level or we can move through multiple levels of growth and enlightenment. Our ability to become enlightened depends on many things, including our willingness to heal and grow, our ability to learn and our commitment to our spiritual journey. But most of all, it depends on what we came here to learn.
Each of us is born with lessons to learn and over time we learn to recognize our lessons. Everyone eventually recognizes the fact that certain situations and circumstances repeat themselves in their life. Whether they choose to recognize and work with them is part of the enlightenment process. Maybe those who don’t seem to grow spiritually are spiritual masters who came to learn about fear and pain. And the difficulties they experience are part of that learning process. Does that make them less enlightened? Who can judge that for them?
Attracting difficult teachers is not a reflection on enlightenment, either ours or that of others—the fact that we attracted them means that a connection exists and we can learn from each other. The experience is part of our journey. What each of us needs to learn from that experience is only known to us. Maybe we need to learn about resistance and fear. Maybe we need to be a persistent negative force in someone’s life to help them with their soul learning. Maybe we need to learn to set boundaries. Maybe we need to learn to love ourselves. Whatever the lessons that we experience with and through others, enlightenment occurs for everyone. It just isn’t the same for everyone.
When we view enlightenment as a sort of spiritual hierarchy we are forgetting that we are all perfect and connected. Each person is always at the perfect level of enlightenment they can achieve at any moment in their lifetime. It is an individual process, so comparisons cannot be made. When we compare we are in judgment of others and often ourselves. We are not privy to the importance or value of someone’s lessons, just as we are not able to see the full scope of what their soul came to experience. It is not possible for us to know what someone’s lessons are, just as we cannot know how important certain experiences are to them.
If we view everyone as enlightened and honor their journey, no matter what type of life experiences that entails, we move into the space of non-judgment, acceptance and unconditional love. This is a lesson that all of humanity is experiencing at this time. It is where we need to be if we are to embrace the opportunities of the Shift and to create a world where peace, joy and unconditional love are available to all. By seeing everyone as enlightened we acknowledge their soul journey and can choose whether we are willing to be part of it or not. It allows us to decide who or what we will allow to share our own journey. And it will bring us peace as we remember that everyone is enlightened and that when we shine our light and work on our own issues, we allow others to do the same in the perfection of their soul’s journey of growth, healing, love and return to the Source.
