No matter what they call it, (enlightenment, awakening, liberation), what the few seek is something that is already there in their brain: the non-committed consciousness. Trying to tinker with or bulldoze the primary one is an irrelevant and unconnected activity, (though granted, for quite a time it seems otherwise). In truth, for those born-with-the-aim, therelentless, singular pursuit of almost any unorthodox inner activity can eventually get you there, but the different approach possible via this new limning of the internal situation can save significant time and ultimately, less than maximally efficient effort.
Why try to change Thing A if, firstly, it cannot be changed, (and next), what you want to change it to already exists in you. Your, I-wake-up-with-it-everyday primary consciousness is completely committed to activities for which it is inalterably programmed. Forget about it, it doesn’t need you – it is you, in the most radical sense. If you are truly one of the few to-this-born, what you really seek and what will satisfy your hunger is all there in the other consciousness. Its primo characteristic is that it is uncommitted to anything. Non-committed-consciousness is precisely what you yearn for; consciousness with no inherent agenda; one not limited to prearranged programming. All of that is exactly what the other consciousness is.
Every verbal attempt to say what “being awake, or enlightened” might be in essence, describes the above, but not so directly. A more enlightened man, (or mind), would be one which could look at anything fresh; with no built-in opinions, prejudices, or meaningless preferences; a consciousness that is not always talking to itself about what it sees; not constantly accepting and rejecting; not continually arguing with life as it, in its greatest refinement, reveals itself, measures itself, and plots its own existence through man.
This other consciousness is there in everyone, but un-noted or used by hardly anyone in any meaningful manner. Whenever someone attempts to “still-the-mind” or “self-remember” or “control-attention” by mediation, prayer, or chanting, they are unwittingly trying to bring the other consciousness center stage to replace their primary consciousness, while toiling under the assumption that they are attempting to bring on profitable alterations to the inalterable primary one. Why pay retail; why not cut out the middle man? Why give your attention to Peter when it is Paul you are actually wooing?
J.