Why do some enlightened beings claim that enlightenment resulted in inner peace, while others claim that it resulted in unimaginable suffering?

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News flash, not everyone who says they’re enlightened is actually enlightened.

In fact I fully believe that most people who claim enlightenment simply stopped walking the path somewhere in the Dark Night stage. These people never had an experience of complete fruition of all of their spiritual goals.

Plenty of traditions have what are called maps. Some of these maps are better than others, but they all invariably have the same basic structure. So they can all be reasoned about similarly. First, you have a lot of trouble getting started, then you manage to make some advances, then you make a lot of advancements, then it reaches an tipping point where it becomes real for you.

After the tipping point, you fall pretty quickly into the Dark Night, characterized by the realization that the spiritual path isn’t quite as transformative as is desired. Pushing through this results in eventually reaching the end of the path. Hitting the end of the path enough times results in enlightenment.

People who stopped in the Dark Night mistake it for enlightenment. So their descriptions are not descriptions of actual enlightenment, but of just one stage on the path.