I have had two truly profound experiences of enlightenment in my life. The first was related to love, and oneness. It lasted from about 9am to midnight, and then I was still in the glow for many days, but the state had definitely past.
The second was an almost psycadelic experience of "nowness," and I wasn't on drugs or anything, and that one lasted on and off for a month I would say, but also eventually faded away.
Both experiences changed me forever, because enlightenment was no longer an abstract concept to me, but something real and tangible and live able. No one can convince me that love doesn't have magnificent power, because I felt it, I was there. I know that love, when it is your entirety, erases everything dark inside you and around you, and fear is entirely absent.
Both experiences were not abstract and in my head, they were completely bodily and of the world right in front of me, and that also changed me forever, because it put my priority on my body above all else.
It has been a long time since either experience, and I've gone over in my head why. In some ways it's been hard to forgive myself for not being there. Like, what am I doing wrong? Both experiences are by far the high water marks of my life, and I wonder how or when I might ever return, so I just go on living in my own imperfect way, and hope some twist of circumstances will lead me back there, but I don't really know.
