Enlightenment

Literally to bring something out of darkness by shedding some light on it.
The same definition could be used for guru, a sanskrit word meaning someone who brings you out of darkness.

But in the end it is a word based on a concept like the one described above therefore it was created by a human brain which has but one purpose, to produce happy chemicals through actions to stimulate its five senses and through thought. And ironically it is the frustration felt by that brain when it fails time and again to find a permanent and constant source of happy chemicals that it wants the panacea of enlightenment.

Most teachers point to a great mistake, an illusion, a maya perpetrated by the brain or mind as the source of all suffering. The brain keeps trying to end this suffering by making another mistake, this time to seek enlightenment.

It is when the brain realises its error, the great mistake by retreating from the endless loop of seeking happy chemicals, the light goes on.

The curse can only be taken off by the witch who caste it; the great mistake or illusion  of separate self can only be realised by the one  that created it. There can be no guru other than you.

All living things with brains share the ability to generate happy chemicals through the senses. Nature designed this as a way to protect and perpetuate the species. Human brains have a special ability to create these happy chemicals through thought, concept and ideas including illusion. Magic, movies, art, music all represent this remarkable human brain feature. Its a natural result of this brainpower that humans create the illusion of self.

It starts at inception as the special ability of thought and deductive reasoning, used by the brain to create a separate self which is and has to be served by others to keep producing these happy chemicals. Its not the milk that makes me happy but the mother who gives milk. The biggest bondage for the human mind is the mother child relationship. This is the beginning of the great illusion and cause of more subsequent suffering. It leads to other emotional illusions like love, hate, jealousy, envy.

The great illusion is not that there is no Mona Lisa but that Pablo Picasso painted it. Yes there were two hands of a body labelled Pablo which went through the motion of moving colours on a canvas. But this great work of art is the creation of millions of years of training and evolution at the cellular level. This is the great illusion of separate self.

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