What is enlightenment? From the Buddhist standpoint enlightenment is described as the awakening, or the point, when one acquires all knowledge through the method of meditation and eliminating ones greed and materialistic values. German philosopher, Immanuel Kant described enlightenment as, “Man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity."(Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?) While, enlightenment seen in Western secular traditions is described as gaining much wisdom and understanding of the human perception.

(Enlightenment in Western Secular Traditions) Whether it be through buddhism, personal beliefs, or a phase through history, all definitions of enlightenment are similar. They are all defined as gaining insight or knowledge. All enlightenment shapes humans into living wise virtuous lives. Enlightenment can be a long process. I believe enlightenment is the only way one can live up to terms of peace and happiness.

In the past, I found myself stuck on an endless search to what is the meaning to life. Being someone who gravitated towards having no religious affiliation, I performed research and proposed explanations to what the meaning could possibly be. However, at the end I never felt confident enough to believe the evidence and reasons I concluded were true. Growing up, I was raised to just be a good kid. Through life experiences and confrontations, I taught myself the morals and the expectations I abide by today. Family members around me contributed by guiding me through tough situations and difficult choices. My grandmother, in particular, mentored me, through self improvement techniques and through introducing me to communal leadership and relationship seminars. Through this I gained insight on treating others with respect and caring about others just as much as caring about yourself. Still this information wasn’t quite what I needed to find the meaning of life.
Later, I was introduced into living a positive lifestyle during a defining moment of my life. Not in a million years did I believe ones music could shift my mindset so much that I become a different person. Before, I felt like I had established a solid baseline of what my character would be, then I discovered Brandon McCartney’s music, which only made my life better. Through music, McCartney spreads happiness, positivity, and the love of all human beings. In a song named I Love You, Brandon spreads the world to “stay based.” “Based” started as a term meaning to be on crack cocaine, however Brandon McCartney refined this meaning to this: "Based means being yourself. Not being scared of what people think about you. Not being afraid to do what you wanna do. Being positive.”(qtd. in Lil B Talks Getting Sucker Punched, Gay Rumors, & Drake Envy.) Discovering what it meant to be based, again, changed my whole perspective of the world. I brought this teaching on with me by spreading the word of what it meant to stay based by leading by example. I wanted to present myself as a role model and set the example of what's right to my peers. Even with Brandons McCartney’s words of wisdom though, I still contained many imperfections

It wasn’t long until I began to seek out a way to solve these imperfections. I began delving myself more into methods of self improvement similar to the ways my grandmother had taught me years ago. I learned that in order to understand myself, I must first attempt to understand the knowledge and functions of the people around me. This lead me into the topic of psychology. I became interested in what made people behave the way that they do and why they did. As I began to understand humanistic behavioral functions of others, it became more clear what I needed to do in order to become a better person. Eventually, I even delved into social psychology and social engineering. I kept striving to be perfect, the best person I could ever be.

There were so many solutions, so many answers yet my purpose remained vacant until one day. The smallest thing happened to me during one of my days, only to know it would have the greatest impact on my since my birth. I was in history class when I received the message. However, it was no ordinary message like one you would receive from a text. It was information, knowledge, a way of living: Buddhism. We were simply studying, taking notes on the different world religions that spread around the world during the early years of emperors and kings, when the way of the Buddhist stood out to me. I was caught by its mesmerizing and philosophical teachings and was reeled in after doing background research on the topic. Meditation, an important role that plays in the life of a Buddhist, already surrounded me with people doing it to rise awareness levels, and the lifestyle itself agreed with all of my beliefs and perspectives on life. Everything I had learned before this point helped contribute to catching this way of life. At first it seemed it could potentially be difficult considering I’d have to give up my materialistic values, but I ignored that. I believe that if this is the right path for me then these values will naturally seep out of my life, so that I can become pure.

So what is the meaning of life? What is the reason that us humans inhabit the Earth? In all honesty, I don’t have the answer. It’s a question that must be answered yourself through wisdom, virtue, and enlightenment. Through enlightenment, one is able to come to peace with ones mind. One becomes a balanced individual that contains no suffering or greed. Until you reach this state, one cannot solve the meaning of life. Once enlightened one can answer any question is the universe. The person will become fully aware, more wise, and virtuous. So how do you obtain the path to enlightenment? The path to enlightenment can be achieved in many ways. No matter what though, in order to achieve enlightenment it takes experience. Life experiences layout more than just the path to enlightenment, but they also teach how to become a better person. So in a way enlightenment is a way of life. You must live before you become enlightened. Once you’ve lived, enlightenment is yet another change to undergo, but only this time will it be the last one you’ll ever go through.


Works Cited

Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment? 28 Dec. 2005. Web. 28 Dec. 2005.
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Enlightenment in Western Secular Traditions. 7 Aug. 2005. Web. 7 Aug. 2005.
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Lil B Talks Getting Sucker Punched, Gay Rumors, & Drake Envy. Complex. Complex Mag, 9
June 2010. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.