You Can’t Calculate Enlightenment

Life should be cherished and experienced, not measured.

We spend so much of our lives measuring what we’ve done, how good it was, if we met the goal and so on. Our “status” has become a quantifiable algorithm ranked by how many followers, impressions, and likes we have in our social networks.

People still crave purpose, but so often that quest gets muddled in the quest for measurable results, a collection of achievements and a contrived list of followers. We’ve become a self perpetuating “one-up” society.

Job recruiters have designed systems around this formula. If you don’t have a degree, a thriving social network and an impressive LinkedIn profile, you’re not even in the running.

But when I’m hiring someone, I only want to know that they are driven, passionate, a great communicator and a problem solver. Anything else I can teach them, or they will learn on their own as they figure it out. And I’ve found that if they don’t have a college education, that’s just less I have to teach them to un-learn.

We’ve got to hang up the math and stop calculating the life out of everything. Life isn’t about finding answers. It’s about the journey of asking questions.

I’ve always been driven towards enlightenment. I want to understand people and the universe around us. I care about humanity. I don’t care about money or things. My priorities and values revolve around relationships and understanding, neither of which is quantifiable.

I’ve been studying the concept of enlightenment as long as I can remember, from Jesus to Gandhi to Krishnamurti. These were truly enlightened beings, passionately pursing understanding and relationship.

After years of studying these extraordinary examples, I have come to realize that enlightenment isn’t a point in which you arrive, but a state of mind that reflects your willingness to embrace the ongoing journey. It’s the realization that life isn’t a measurable calculation. It’s not about obtaining achievements or figuring out the right way.

You don’t achieve enlightenment. That’s part of the deal. Enlightenment is an ongoing journey of coming to peace with the fact that you’ll never have all the answers or achieve all the goals. You’ll never measure up.

If you can find peace, joy and enthusiasm in the journey, the challenges, the struggles and the gray areas, you can consider yourself to be on the road to enlightenment.

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