Renaissance and Enlightenment
They sound good, but they really suck.
According to Britannica (encyclopedia), “the Renaissance was a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages.”
(Fervent, in short, means “intense feeling,” by the way, and note how they put “rebirth” in quotation marks.)
Meanwhile, an enlightened being is liberated from clinging to an illusory sense of self and the suffering that clinging causes. Buddhists believe enlightenment breaks the cycle of rebirth, or samsara, and frees beings from suffering and karma. It also involves gaining direct insight into the nature of reality.
Renaissance, rebirth, revival. We tend to assign good connotations to these words. Same with the word “enlightenment.” All these bring to mind a brighter future, a fresh start, a change from the current condition to better conditions, an end to suffering.
And yet, the path to enlightenment - the actual process of renaissance, rebirth, and revival - is intense.
Spiritual writer, Luka, puts it best I think:
Actually, it is impossible to want enlightenment. It’s like saying you want complete annihilation in the form of a slow and painful suicide. Spiritual enlightenment is not a pleasant walk in the park. It’s a dirty business, a kind of self-mutilation. You step into the fire and burn everything that is non-truth. What remains is Truth.
The first step to enlightenment is the great disillusionment. Going through a spiritual shift or gaining greater awareness of reality is probably one of the most painful, confusing, and scary experiences you can go through.
Imagine how you would feel if you have lived lies all your life. If you suddenly realize you’re not what you believe yourself to be. There is a marked pain and confusion associated with this realization where one goes through a phase of depression or spiritual crisis known as the “dark night of the soul.”
I see all these side effects in our country, communities, and myself. It certainly sometimes feels like we are in the dark night of our collective souls.
Rebirth, enlightenment, renaissance, revival, whatever you call it… To reach the promised rewards, we must traverse the intensity, and accept the loss of illusions. It creates a pain that nobody understands. Anyone entirely invested in materialism and other everyday affairs, might medicate you (or themselves) to make it all go away, or capitalize on it in some way. But for many of us, the struggle is real.
A renaissance is happening, I hope. We’re amid a fervent cultural, artistic, political, and economic “rebirth.” Perhaps, like me, you’ve been feeling disillusioned about who we are as Americans, community members, human beings.
I sure hope we’re being enlightened.