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 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 Lao Tzu who wrote the Tao to Jing.

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 verbies 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 or 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 in moments of an enlightened life? I actually do

...