Enlightenment is discovering one’s true nature, and in order to maintain the state of enlightenment, you have to practice taking action with that enlightenment. Without action, there is no enlightenment. The place where enlightenment happens is the place of nothingness, so when your false self dies and disappears, you can see and know it from within yourself.

When I was younger, I was only concerned with making money and succeeding in the world. I considered myself an ordinary and realistic person, someone you’d find anywhere. Out of nowhere, my friends recommended I try meditation. I thought it was like a vacation that would give me a week of eating good food in nature, but beyond that, I didn’t expect much. I was not a spiritual person, nonetheless, I experienced true enlightenment, and suddenly I realized, “Ah! There are things like this in the world too!!!”

I will never forget the moment when I realized I was living a false life. Until that moment, I genuinely believed that I was happy and doing well in life. My whole body trembled as the realization settled in, and I felt a deep shame well up from within me, such that I couldn’t lift my head for a while. I sincerely wanted to disappear, and I truly despised how selfishly I had lived.

“How long has it been since I started meditating?” I briefly wondered. At that moment, I had completely disappeared, and I had gone to that place of nothingness where enlightenment happens. This place has a silence that is beyond words. I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything was the same, and yet it looked completely different. I could hear the birds singing and the gusts of wind outside so clearly. A smile formed on my face. Without saying anything, I was happy and in harmony with nature.

I had been living the life of a hamster running in a hamster wheel, but finally, it stopped, and I took my first step into this new world. While I lived a repetitive life in a hamster wheel, I kept saying that sometimes it was fun and sometimes it was difficult, but either way I couldn’t stop. The world where there were no more wheels to roll, and where I could walk and run wherever I wanted was really new.

The more I meditated, the more I could return to that place of nothingness again and again. You have to learn little by little, like a baby, to live a new life that you have never lived. You need someone to teach you, and there is the joy of learning step by step. I am just an ordinary person, but my enlightenment changed my life. It is my wish to live a life for the world now, rather than a life that only I know.