Enlightenment is like putting on the light. In the darkness we can’t see things. From the Buddhist point of view, enlightenment is not something new that we gain and that we didn’t have before. Neither do we get rid of things that we had before. We just discover what we didn’t know or see before. It’s like clearing a misunderstanding. When we clear a misunderstanding, we don’t change anything. Nothing is changed; everything remains just the same as it was before. Only the mistaken way of seeing is gone and we now see differently, in the right way.

………..In the same way, we don’t change the world, we don’t change others and we don’t change ourselves. We just change our wrong, confused or distorted way of seeing. Sometimes enlightenment is described as nothing more than clearing a misunderstanding, seeing slightly differently. That is also why enlightenment is possible. Enlightenment is possible because, from the Buddhist point of view, it is just clearing a wrong way of perceiving, no more than that – at least in theory!

………………So wisdom doesn’t necessarily come from developing an intellectual understanding, but from deeply seeing things as they really are. There are many different ways of developing it. From a Buddhist point of view one way is not necessarily the best way for everybody, because there are many different kinds of people. Each person has a different way of seeing, understanding things and of reacting. So people may understand it through teachings and learning. Some may understand it through devotion. Some may understand it through compassion. Some may understand it through yet another way