Why is enlightenment like sex?

by L. J. Williamson

What is enlightement? What is it to be an enlightened being? It's a difficult question to answer -- so complex there's many books and even an entire magazine devoted to that very question.

Could you just walk around, being enlightened all of the time? Wouldn't everything be blowing your mind constantly? How could you function in that rarified state?

The best explanation I've heard compared enlightment to sex: "Sex can be amazing, earth-shattering... but it's also an everyday occurrence."

This is the best analogy I've heard to help me to wrap my brain around the concept of enlightment. Mindblowing but commonplace, and within reach of us all.

Enlightenment may be like sex, but that doen't mean it is sex. Which is too bad. I wish I could take a tantric shortcut to enlightenment, but of course, the world never works that way.

| 10/27/06 | Love and Sex