Enlightenment: A Return to What Is
By Andrej Djordjevitch
Enlightenment is not an achievement. It is not the shining reward at the end of a long spiritual road, nor a title to be earned or displayed. It does not arrive with a flash of glory, nor is it confirmed by mystical experiences or outward signs. Rather, enlightenment is the quiet, sacred recognition of what has always been. It is the homecoming—the remembrance of the truth that lies beneath all striving, beneath the stories we tell ourselves, beneath the illusions we’ve mistaken for reality.
We have been taught to chase enlightenment as if it were a distant goal, something attainable only after years of suffering, silence, or self-denial. But the paradox is that the more we chase it, the further it seems to move. In truth, enlightenment is not about becoming more—it is about letting go. It is the sacred art of subtraction: releasing all that is not real, all that we are not.
We become less—less bound by fear, less attached to our identity, less entangled in illusion. We shed layers: stories, beliefs, labels, and expectations. And what remains, when all else falls away, is simple, silent awareness. Still. Clear. Awake.
The mind, in its restlessness, wants to define enlightenment, to grasp it, to hold it as a concept. But the light of awareness cannot be contained by thought. It cannot be possessed or measured. It is not an object among other things. It is the space in which all things arise. It is the very essence of presence, beyond form and beyond name.
Books, teachers, and sacred texts can point toward it—but they cannot give it to you. Even the most enlightened master cannot transfer it. It is not taught—it is remembered. And it is remembered in the quiet, when all seeking falls silent. When the mind surrenders. When we stop trying to become and simply allow ourselves to be.
In that stillness, we begin to see: we are not broken. We are not separate. We are not the fleeting waves of thought, emotion, or experience. We are the vast ocean beneath them. We are the witness. The eternal awareness in which all of life unfolds.
Enlightenment is profoundly simple. So simple that the mind often overlooks it. It is not elsewhere. It is not in another time, another place, another life. It is here. Now. Always.
The real question, then, is not “How do I become enlightened?”
But rather, “What am I still clinging to that hides the truth of who I already am?”
We don’t have to earn our way into awakening. We simply have to stop resisting it. Let go of the need to control. Let go of the belief that you are unworthy. Let go of the idea that you are separate from the Divine.
Be still. Listen. Surrender.
The truth is not loud. It does not demand attention. It is a gentle whisper, eternally calling you home.
And when you hear it—not with your ears, but with your being—you will remember:
You are not on your way to the light.
You are the light.
You always have been.
