There are some areas in our lives where we know we have power, and then there are others where we know we do not. For instance, it is not in our power to change the way this world of ours turns, but it is in our power to change the direction in which we are facing regardless of the way this unwilling world may turn. And this choice changes the world for us because it changes our relationship with the world. But what direction are we to face? Which is the right one? Most of us have been spinning around most of our lives trying to figure out just that!

Finding the direction to face begins, as it always has been, with turning to look within you. But please don't make the mistake of rushing ahead to any conclusions such as "I already know that." If you do this, you'll close the door of a whole new understanding about to be opened to you. There is always something Higher than our present perception, and there is great freedom in realizing this essential fact of life because it allows you to remain open to the ever-new and higher relationship that God wants to have with you.

Our present experience of life and of ourselves is the secret effect of our inner relationships. The result of our interplay with those thoughts, feelings, and endless energies is responsible for our ever-becoming sense of self.

Also within us lives and resides Something Greater than the content of all these fluctuating forces; Something within which these energies and their psychic forms dwell, but that is Itself not a part of them -- just as a house may hold many diverse furnishings, yet remains greater than and apart from these pieces situated within it. This indwelling Greater Something is an aspect of our True nature in God -- a spiritual energy that is in all things and yet not of them. It lends to each of us the power to be aware of all these various parts of ourselves and how their ever-changing relationships serve to continually create our fragile sense of self. It is within this awareness of the actual nature of our present self that real self change, real spiritual rebirth, is made possible. How? Because this new level of awareness first reveals what we are in relationship with and then empowers us to change it.

Try not to make so much out of the idea of enlightenment. Awakening is in scale, and to answer your question, it is instantaneous understanding. For instance, every time you can catch "you" about to defeat you, this glimpse into your own inner workings is a form of enlightenment. Why? Because what was formerly in the dark now has light. Instantly your suffering is diminished. As a person begins to prefer this inner light -- to the false sense of self that inner darkness produces, it follows (in the wake of his new understanding) that what is untrue must perish. This is the true beginning of dying to ourselves. So it follows: We awaken first in order to die, and as we die to ourselves, there is a rebirth. Ultimately, it could be said that this rebirth, this fully established Light in a man or a woman, is what it means to be "enlightened."