1 in 1 billion: the number of people estimated to be fully enlightened by Ken Wilber, the "Einstein of consciousness".

But what the f¥ck even is enlightenment? And why does the answer change depending on whom you ask? Can you achieve it meditating 20 minutes a day? Is that even enough to get started? And which type of meditation should you do?

Since you're reading my content, I assume you're aware that enlightenment is basically “a good thing”. Hence, you've tried at least one kind of spiritual practice. But why hasn't it really worked? Why are you still seeking? Why are you still stressed, anxious, depressed sometimes?

Is enlightenment (whatever it is) even possible for you?

You and I are in strange circumstances: never before has it been so easy to cross-reference the wisdom traditions of the world. But this is, as I painfully discovered, both a blessing and a curse. It's a curse because it multiplies the complexity of the spiritual journey. It's a blessing because it gives us the opportunity to install the ultimate bullsh!t filter—if we're willing to do the necessary investigation.

The Predicament of the 21st-Century Truth-Seeker

In 2016, one year into my spiritual journey, I started to hear that it’d be wise to seek personal guidance from a teacher. It sounded like a great idea, but I was unaware of a particular trap I was about to fall into. Actually, no-one was aware of that trap. And to this day, I've never encountered anyone other than myself who brings attention to it.

I found a teacher who’d lived as a Theravada Buddhist monk for 8 years. I had the privilege of hundreds of hours of one-to-one conversation with him, but here's the thing: he didn't give a damn about my previous experiences on the path, no matter how significant they were to me. His role was to teach the Buddhadhamma, as he'd learned it in the monastery from his teacher (a legendary Thai Ajahn named Bhikkhu Buddhadasa). My teacher mixed in some 20th-century psychology, which he'd learned studying at a U.S. university. But as I continued to encounter other influences, it was up to me to reconcile everything.

Sometimes, that teacher of mine would tell me things I already knew.

Sometimes, he'd tell me things that contradicted what I'd heard from other reputable teachers.

Sometimes, he'd tell me things that sent me into months-long inner conflict…

Which teacher should I believe? They were all equally convicted in what they said.

"If you want to get enlightened, you must sit this way."

"If you want to get enlightened, you must meditate that way."

“If you want to get enlightened, you must repeat this mantra.”

Following my time with that first teacher, I discovered that no established teacher has the time, nor the inclination, to hear about your unique mixture of spiritual influences, understandings and experiences. And that's not a shortcoming on their part. If they volunteered to hear every students' history, they'd never get any teaching done.

So where does that leave you?

Spiritual Self-Diagnosis

Let's wind the clock back 150 years.

Imagine you're living an ordinary, working-class, Western life when you feel the call to the spiritual path. Well, it's already laid out for you—in no uncertain terms. In fact, you're already attending church every Sunday (church attendance was actually a legal requirement until 1689, and social expectation lingered).

Now, if the local church is all you have access to, you'd better hope the leader of that church is truly wise. But if we consider again Wilber's estimation—that only 1 in 1 billion people are fully enlightened—the odds of your village pastor being anything close to the real deal are pathetically small.

If you were unusually rebellious, you may have left one denomination of Christianity and joined another. But the social pressure on you to not do that would have been enormous. In this context, the thought of going on a long sea voyage to explore foreign spiritual traditions would never have crossed your mind. It's difficult, in 2024, to imagine that kind of social and philosophical imprisonment, but it was the norm for almost the entire history of human culture.

Where you find yourself now is, of course, extremely different.

The idea of being locked into one way of thinking—regarding spirituality or anything else—is absurd. But your freedom brings with it a particular kind of challenge—one I've never known anyone but myself to bring attention to…

You, and you alone, are the only one who can assess your degree of spiritual understanding. Of course, you can consult with reputable teachers and dedicated peers—and I recommend you do. They can help you, in a way, to “triangulate” your position. But they are in a very real sense like dots on a map, and it’s up to you to plot them and assess your relative position. Thus you, and you alone, are the only one who can assess which teachers, teachings and practices to follow (and when).

This is very different to entering into a single tradition and entrusting your spiritual journey to a single teacher within a single system.

All that sounds scary enough, but it gets worse…

We can't be sure if that 1 in 1 billion estimate of Wilber's is true. (Hell, he's not sure it's true: it's an estimate.) But what we can be sure of is that true wisdom is rare. If it weren't, there'd be a lot less problems in the world. Of course, we expect wisdom to be rare outside of wisdom traditions. But what if I told you wisdom is still shockingly rare inside of wisdom traditions?

For better or worse, I've always wanted to cut to the heart of things:

• In school, I frustrated my teachers with endless questioning
• In dance, I was the only kid who gave 100% in every class
• In music, I beelined for the most virtuosic genres
• In teaching, I uproot the student's most fundamental issues
• In business, I want the purest of win/win arrangements

And in spirituality, I knew very early on that I was concerned only with inarguable, irreducible truth. Truth that isn't subject to opinion or debate or culture or circumstance. Truth that would be equally true on an alien planet, among an entirely different set of languages, religions and philosophies. Given this concern, as I continued to study the various wisdom traditions of our world—and deepen my own direct apprehension of truth—certain inconsistencies, errors and fallacies became obvious. So I'm going to share the worst of these with you—so that, hopefully, it won't take you as long as it did me to see through them.

The 4 Greatest Spiritual Misconceptions

Misconception #1: "Enlightenment is something only a few special people achieve"

Let's cut right to the chase: enlightenment is not an achievement.

Many people will say that it is. Many more people will act like it is, even if they say otherwise (which is awfully misleading). But this contradicts one of the core findings of all contemplative traditions: that there is no permanent "self" who might achieve anything in the first place. Rather, when we investigate our direct experience, we find that there is only process:

• Sensations come and go
• Thoughts come and go
• Identities come and go

And that finding is married with another: that of presence—that there's only ever one moment: now.

If this sounds confusing, just stay with me (and trust me, I'll deal with Wilber's estimate)…

Misconception #2: "The spiritual path is about development of good qualities"

If you've done any real homework on spirituality, you'll have come across that term direct experience before. It means exactly what it says on the tin, but it took me a while to really understand it.

• If you're talking about the experience of another person, you're not talking about direct experience
• If you're talking about the past as if it’s real, you're not talking about direct experience
• If you're talking about the future as if it’s real, you're not talking about direct experience
• If you’re being even a tiny bit speculative, you’re not talking about direct experience

Direct experience is only that which is occurring right here, right now, just as it is.

Any notion of the past or future is merely mental fabrication: an image, a daydream—including your memories and projections regarding yourself (your “story”).

As such, who or what can be developed, in real terms? Who or what is being changed from worse to better; sinner to saint; unenlightened to enlightened?

“On the surface it seems that the present moment is only one of many, many moments. Each day of your life appears to consist of thousands of moments where different things happen. Yet if you look more deeply, is there not only one moment, ever? Is life ever not this moment?”
– Eckhart Tolle (Author, The Power of Now)

If, in a teaching, there is even a shade of an implication of there being a “someone” who must be purified by means of gradual development, this teaching is in contradiction of the truth of direct experience, of presence.

In your direct experience there is no "person". Your personal identity depends upon a story which, in turn, depends upon the past. In a single moment it is impossible for there to be an identity, an ego—its “existence” depends upon a series of thoughts. As such, to whom could enlightenment occur as something achieved, something attained?

Misconception #3: "Enlightenment is a state of consciousness"

If you’re interested in inarguable, irreducible truth, then you’re not interested in “states”—because states come and go.

If you meditate for decades, then finally reach some strange condition that you claim as the great spiritual triumph, congratulations: you’re having a mystical experience.

Mystical experiences are not bad, but they’re typically distracting: “yes! I got it!” proclaims the practitioner who has been on a long path of development, not seeing that his or her perception is fundamentally flawed.

Inarguable, irreducible truth must be about that which neither comes nor goes, because that which comes and goes is subject to interpretation (and interpretation is very often inaccurate). Inarguable, irreducible truth is about recognition of one’s true nature—that which is and always has been the basis of all experience. The name we give to this is awareness.

That word, recognition, is vitally important. We humans are very, very good at imagining things. And our imagination acts up just as much in our “spiritual” pursuits as it does in our “worldly” ones. This is why we have so many different accounts of what enlightenment is, how we should practice to achieve it, and what beliefs and superstitions must or must not come along for the ride.

But if we make our practice about ceasing any and all mental fabrication; if we resolve to only recognize what is already so, then—if we’re careful—we may be able to stop fooling ourselves.

And look, you’re not “wrong” for fooling yourself. Fooling ourselves (A.K.A. “using our imagination”) can be greatly valuable. But only when it’s used as a tool—for example, in the invention of the iPhone. The trouble starts when we unconsciously confuse imagination with reality—for example, when we imagine ourselves to be incapable of confronting a boss, then feel anxious about doing so (which can lead to decades of misery—rarely will anyone else negotiate better working conditions for you).

If you want the real jackpot in this life, what you’re really seeking is the recognition that everything—including that which you take to be “yourself”—is perfect, just as it is.

This doesn’t mean you don’t fix things when they’re broken. It means there’s beauty in the broken. This is celebrated in the Japanese art form, kintsugi, in which broken ceramics are joined with gold:

Of course, if what’s broken is your bike and you need it to get to work, fix your damn bike!

None of what I’m teaching here will turn you into some kind of “spiritual zombie”—unfeeling, uncaring, unable to brush your teeth or earn money. Quite the opposite, in fact. The realization that everything is perfect as it is frees up the mind and heart to function optimally. Because they no longer run on the dirty fuels of guilt, shame, anxiety and envy, but on the clean fuels of gratitude, compassion, wisdom and discernment.

If anyone says or implies that there is some state off in your future called enlightenment, the achievement of which depends upon you doing certain things, they’re talking about something imaginary—plain and simple.

You may be wondering, now, “where does this leave me? What do I do if I’m interested in genuine enlightenment?” I’ll answer this question by tackling the next misconception…

Misconception #4: “Enlightenment requires x, y, z…”

When something is wrong, everyone asks, “what should I do about it?” But what if the ultimate solution were to not do anything at all?

Humans are extremely biased toward action—even if we’re merely distracting ourselves, we tend to prefer that to doing nothing.

In a famous experiment, 42 people were given a mild electric shock. They were then asked if they’d pay to avoid experiencing that shock again. Most indicated that they would, indeed, pay. Each participant was then left unattended in a room with only one significant feature: a button which, when pressed, would give them that same electric shock.

67% of men who had previously rated the shock as unpleasant—and said they would pay to avoid it—still chose to shock themselves at least once during the 15-minute period. 25% of women who had similarly rated the shock negatively also voluntarily subjected themselves to at least one more. One male participant (treated as an outlier) reportedly shocked himself 190 times.

The researchers concluded that for many participants, being alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes was so aversive that they preferred negative stimulation to no stimulation at all.

Of course, if we were to run this experiment again with TikTok, beer or Maltezers in place of the electric shock, we can safely assume that many less participants would choose to be alone with their thoughts.

Unless you’ve done a significant degree of spiritual inquiry, this is your whole freaking life. You bounce from one distraction to the next, hungry for satisfaction but, typically, being disappointed with the potency or duration of satisfaction that you find.

And when you came to spiritual practice, you brought a hidden assumption with you: you assumed it was going to be about doing something. In this regard, you’re just like everyone else (myself included). It took me 4 years of extremely dedicated practice to finally figure out how to rest. Not rest as in put my feet up, but rest as in rest naturally without seeking or describing anything. This turned out to be the most profound spiritual instruction I ever encountered, and it is the core of my teaching today.

When I give people this instruction, rest naturally without seeking or describing anything, most respond with something like, “but how do I do that?”

See the issue here?

Collectively, we’re so wired to do that we’ve forgotten how to stop.

So, depending on the student, I may give a more deliberate practice that will lead them to their own experience of non-doing. This is a concession. The “doing” involved here is only for the purpose of leading that student to non-doing. This, I argue, is the true purpose of all genuine meditative techniques. Sadly, that purpose is often lost.

Non-doing is the only way to escape mental fabrication. It’s the only way to allow truth to be revealed, as opposed to imagining some version of “truth” with the mind.

See, any attempt to make yourself into something—whether a champion boxer, a billionaire investor or an enlightened master—is just more fabrication. You first imagine yourself to be a “someone”, then attempt to turn that someone into “someone else”. But if you’re interested in that inarguable, irreducible truth then the only way to recognize it is natural, uncontrived rest. You may use deliberate practices as a means of convincing yourself that it’s okay to rest, but—ultimately—they’re just a diversion.

Rest naturally, without seeking or describing anything—in the presence of all that arises.

“All that arises” means sights, sounds, smells—of course—but also thoughts, feelings, memories, the body, anything you take to be “you”. And, especially, that which you take to be unbearable—that which makes you restless. Rest as the experience of that restlessness itself. This is how you learn to settle into what is naturally occurring and be at peace in the midst of all experience—which is the only true peace there is.

Now, most students I work with will, at some point, tell me something like, “Dan, I can rest when things are easy; I can rest when I’m talking with you… But when it gets busy at work I just get caught up in all my old tensions.”

To which I typically reply, “good seeing! So that’s where your practice is. Now rest as the experience of getting caught up in all your old tensions. Don’t try to do anything about them—that’s just creating tension against tension! Just rest. And if you feel you can’t rest, rest as the feeling that you can’t rest!”

This is sometimes frustrating for the student. “How could it possibly be this simple?” they ask, “don’t my problems matter?”

This isn’t about hand-waving your problems away. And it’s certainly not about neglecting them. But feeling bad about them is not the only way to solve them. And it’s certainly not the most effective way to solve them. Calm, wise, compassionate discernment is the most effective way to solve any problem.

So how many people are enlightened?

The real answer: no-one is—and, at the same time, everyone is.

As I wrote above, enlightenment is not a thing; it is not an event; it is not an achievement; it is not a state. It does not happen to a person. Rather, it is recognition of what is already so. And that recognition is natural in the absence of obscuring mental fabrications. Enlightenment is synonymous with the recognition that—in your direct experience—there never was a person who could “get enlightened”. The person you experience yourself to be is only a convenient illusion.

You don’t have to give up that illusion. It’s very useful when buying groceries. You only need to recognize that it is an illusion—one which you can pick up and put down as you please. What a relief!

If you understood this post…

…then you’re in a very privileged position.

Even if your understanding was only intellect-level (as opposed to heart- or gut-level), that’s still amazing. And with that understanding—depending on its depth—you may be ready to begin to serve other truth-seekers in one form or another.

Even before I made full recognition of the truth I illustrated in this post, my monk teacher gave me formal teaching lineage to the historical Buddha, and instructed me to guide others to enlightenment. I rejected that instruction, though, feeling that I wasn’t ready. I continued my own practice, seeing through more and more mental fabrication until there was none remaining. I continued to compare notes with other teachers and dedicated practitioners (including my wife, who has 3 degrees in psychology). We confirmed that there was a teaching of enormous value to be shared from my experience, and that’s when I came online to start sharing it.

Following that, I made 2 years of deep study in the game of one-person business, and that’s what led me here to write this post to you today. I now teach people like you how to build purpose-based businesses on the foundation of their own experience. For you, perhaps that’s something to do with spirituality, but perhaps it’s something to do with selling Notion templates or teaching people how to repair classic cars. Whatever it is, I’m here to help you set up or overhaul your online profile, find people to serve, and start generating at least $6,000 per month within 6 months.

To see how I can help you, click here and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours Monday-Friday.

With love from my desk,
dg💙

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