What role does enlightenment play in ending the cycle of reincarnation?

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The right way to think about topics in a religious way is to not think of them as “purely” spiritual. Death and rebirth don’t just happen at the end of one’s physical lifespan. They are constantly happening within us, in countless ways. Every change is a little death, every little thing changes. Cells die, beliefs die, situations die. Then new ones are born.

Enlightenment changes how you see the world. It eliminates the gap between you, and what it is you see. When I listen to the song, “Daisies” by Katy Perry, I am Katy. I am the song’s uplifting message. I am the long shot, I am the hail mary. There are no longer any distinctions between me and the world I’m living in. I no longer exist separately, rather than there being a me in the world, there’s just existence.

So while things still arise and pass away, I arise and pass away along with them, I don’t try to hold on to them and keep things alive and stop them from dying. Nothing reincarnates, every moment is simultaneously eternally present and also ephemerally transient.

Enlightenment ends the cycle of reincarnation by dissolving that which would reincarnate into the waters of pure existence.