What are the characteristics of the enlightened individual ? Is it possible to pick an enlightened person out of a crowd ? Because I have meditated for many years, people often ask me this these questions with the expectation that I will give some dazzling description of the enlightened person walking on water or performing a miracle.

This expectation stems from the belief that enlightenment is a super-normal state, far removed from the realities of everyday living. In fact, the enlightened person does show some remarkable characteristics but at the same time appears more normal and natural than the so-called “normal person”.  Because enlightenment is the most normal, natural state of living, its special characteristics are not extraordinary, but, rather, fully developed qualities already present to some degree in the unenlightened state.

The enlightened person enjoys an unshakeable happiness. Underlying all shifts in mood or emotion is an inner contentment that assures maximum enjoyment of whatever is at hand. The enlightened person doesn’t walk around thinking how happy he is or how much he is enjoying himself. On the contrary, a natural innocence, almost childlike in quality, characterizes his interactions with others. Just as a child enjoys the spontaneous bubbling up of happiness, the enlightened person radiates an inner happiness, that wells up from within the most basic element of his being. The strong baseline happiness of the enlightened person permits a re-emergence of that childlike spontaneity against a background of mature emotional and intellectual development.

The optimum mental temperature of enlightenment means that a person wastes no energy on worries or anxieties. Perfect balance in the autonomic nervous system allows for a smooth, and unruffled flow of energy. Feelings of fatigue, dullness,or loss of alertness are foreign to the enlightened individual. The enlightened person discovers ripples of pleasure in everything he does. In no way should enlightenment be thought of as a state of dry serenity. On the contrary, the enlightened person enjoys such an inner fullness of happiness that he cannot help but overflow in laugher and in expression of warmth and friendship.

Another important characteristic of enlightenment is freedom. In the process of becoming enlightened, Transcendental Meditation dissolves all of a person’s deepest fears and inhibitions. When enlightenment finally dawns, these limitations are nowhere to be found. As a result, the barrier that most people feel between their inner and outer lives melts away and a harmonious integration is spontaneously achieved. No longer do unspoken wishes or pent-up feelings keep a person cut off from himself and others. Intimacy becomes the natural way of relating to others, rather than game playing.

Another characteristic of enlightenment is ease of activity. Straining to achieve is a classic feature of the average neurotic, but nature does not work according to the principle of strain. Meditators typically report that they are doing less but accomplishing more. As a result, work becomes more pleasurable, and the enlightened person enjoys the process of achievement as well as the goal itself.

One further characteristic of enlightenment that needs to be mentioned. The ability to perform spontaneous right action. Wise men of every generation have sought ultimate criteria for right and wrong behavior. If a person acts naturally to bring the best effect to himself and others, his actions are right. People who practice meditation seem to report that issues of right and wrong become less troublesome because they begin automatically feeling or intuiting what’s right in any given situation. When following these intuitions turns out to produce positive effects for all, a meditator grows in confidence about his ability to intuit what is right.

Enlightenment results from the continuous and progressive refinement or purification of the nervous system through meditation until a state of psychophysiological integration is achieved. This physiological state of maximum ease and order supports the state of enlightenment.

It’s been said in many of the books that I have read about meditation is that the average person is like millionaire who has forgotten his wealth and position and goes begging in the street. Everyone has the natural capacity to gain access to his or her full creative intelligence in the state of enlightenment.

This blog is based on the book, “Happiness, The Transcendental Meditation Program; Psychiatry and Enlightenment” by Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D., Copyright 1976.

Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D. is a Yale-trained psychiatrist and a respected leader in alternative medicine and integrative psychiatry. He is the best-selling author of Making Peace with your Parents, Making Peace withn Yourself, Hypericum (St. John’s Wort) & Depression, How to Heal Depression, How to Survive the Loss of a Love, and TM Transcendental Meditation. His books have sold more than seven million copies and have been translated into twenty-six languages. His work has been featured in every major media outlet, including 20/20, Oprah, Larry King, Good Morning America and in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, Forbes and People.

So enjoy your journey…

delete reply welshdoug wrote on Nov 13, ’07 I just read this and I think I’m in biiiig trouble………..

delete reply lachlann wrote on Nov 13, ’07 So that’s where I’m being pushed…….. And from the small tastes I’ve had so far…… well, bring it on!

delete reply strongwilledwoman wrote on Nov 13, ’07 One who seeks enlightenment will never find it. It is a way of life and a state of mind. The answer is simple, live your life to the fullest, don’t hurt your self or others, protect our earth, and animals. Listen, don’t judge.