Is it possible to be born enlightened?

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One must first define enlightenment before it is possible to give a rational answer to this question. The way I conceptualize enlightenment, as a function of a person’s level of perceptive responsiveness and their level of surrender, such that the person can maintain a consistent state of perceptive nonduality, then yes, it is possible for this to happen.

That was dense, so let’s break it apart. Think of perceptive responsiveness as roughly analogous to ‘smarts’. You acquire more of it by focusing intently on anything. Think of surrender as your willingness to ‘let go and let God’. A high level of both of these produces a person that acts in ways we generally call enlightened.

Nonduality is just the idea that you don’t perceive a self to exist. If you’re focusing on something very intently, you lose yourself in the other thing. If you are letting go of self, you lose yourself in God, or the universe or whatever you want to call it.

A high level of perceptive responsiveness means you can easily lose yourself in the world. A high level of surrender means you can easily lose yourself in God. Constantly losing yourself means you’re enlightened. As you get closer to finding it, you spend less time mired in self. Once enlightened, you spend no time mired in self. You’re either drowning yourself in the world, or God, which is really the same thing, only our minds create the difference.

An enlightened person can even conduct their entire life without ever coming to an awareness of what enlightenment even is. I suspect that some 90% of the people born enlightened are unaware of the state they possess. They’re amazingly productive, humane people. Because they’re always losing themselves in whatever they dive into, they find some weird and amazing places.

My go-to example for non-aware enlightenment is the esteemed Franklin Veaux. He’s a staunch atheist and that’s just fine, he’s so badass he doesn’t even need a conception of religion in order to exemplify it.

Was he born enlightened? Good question. Let’s return to what makes you enlightened. Most people find a consistent level of perceptive responsiveness at childhood and if they’re lucky, manage to avoid the numerous pitfalls that modern society places around childhood that they’ve managed to convince us are barriers. Like getting classified as having ADD and being given drugs. Society thinks it helps, but mostly just harms.

A person can work hard to become smarter, but what tends to be easier is to learn how to let go, to surrender. I think many people think they need to become smarter and more capable and slowly wind their way around to wisdom eventually. Their personal development works on many levels. Surrender techniques work to bring your thinking mind in concert with your emotional functioning. This allows a greater sinking of self into the world, even things like talking to others about the weather can provoke what’s called satori states, which is a temporary experiencing of nonduality.

Eventually a person can have an awakening, which is a permanent unlocking of perception to some new reality. Awakened people live in two realities, the one we all exist and interrelate in, and the other one that they awoke to. This provides further opportunities for the person to experience losing the self in.

Naturally awakening is not required in order to lose the self. It just helps you learn how. In fact nothing is really stopping anyone from losing the self, it can happen right from birth. And nothing says that anyone has to know the terms and definitions and progressions in order to enjoy the state.

But observation and experimentation tell me that everyone has a level of consciousness that they can raise throughout their life if they so choose. And that it’ll rise slowly either way. You can’t stop yourself from chasing the novel, and that leads to lesson learning and growth.