Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Enlightenment. What is Enlightenment? We may have images of a Hindu guru sitting on top of a mountain

contemplating the universe, or we may have an image of a Buddhist monk living in a monastery meditating every

day. Or perhaps on our own journey in life, we've had experiences that are so mystical, so incredibly intense

that we feel we've touched the enlightened life if only for a moment.

Perhaps the wisest definition of enlightenment comes from Lautzu who wrote the Tao Dajing.

He would reference Enlightenment as the Tao dejaing. He would reference Enlightenment as the Tao and he writes

the Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. But if you decided to listen to

this podcast, then you're probably wanting to know more than what it isn't.

What is Enlightenment? Well to start with, in

the West we would probably call it self-actualization instead of Enlightenment, but whichever verbi we use, the ultimate understanding of

enlightenment is that it is the highest level that we can reach as humans in our lifetimes.

Whether it's our own experience where we're just living at such an exquisite level,

it's beyond words, or we've met someone or read about someone who seems to really just be flowing with life and again living at a truly magnificent level.

But again, these experiences that we just talked about can seem vague are unclear.

Is there perhaps a definition of Enlightenment that I can grasp and understand and look for that when I see it,

I know that I perhaps am having a moment of an enlightened life.

I actually do think Lautzu was correct.

You can't actually describe it.

But perhaps we can paint a picture of it.. For example a person can go to the Grand Canyon

or they can go to the Grand Canyon and paint a picture of the Grand Canyon to

show others.

And that, I think, is what we're going to do today

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