We do not attain enlightenment. Rather, we stop attaining non-enlightenment.

There is no way to get the experience of enlightenment. There are only ways to stop pushing it away. And it comes naturally. How far must we go? How much work is left? These are questions based on the ideas of philosophical distance, or that you have a certain amount of work to do. They stem from misperception and misunderstanding.

You will enlighten when you accept to consciously observe the cause of your disquietude. The concept of suffering is often limited to the most atrocious pain. The Buddha did not teach that extreme suffering is the cause of absence of enlightenment, but that this cause is anything that prevents you from being in a state of harmony. This is why we use the word "disquietude". Observe consciously anything that brings a sense of disquietude, from apparently insignificant irritation, to the most extreme suffering, altogether. Be mindful of these causes, and they will dissolve. Then, enlightenment comes, because you are conscious of nothing, yet conscious anyway

Consciousness dissolves what is not the true nature of the Self. Thus, contemplating yourself, your behaviors, your conditionings and reactions, with an empty mind, with no intention but to contemplate the cause of suffering, this cause will fade away, will be dissolved. Consciousness is the solvent and dissolvent of the false nature of the Self. When there is no more false nature of the Self, only the true nature of the Self remains.

You noticed for yourself, any level of intellectual understanding is not worth the actual practice of self observation. But still, intellectual understanding is an important tool, especially the intellectual understanding that intellectual understanding is not important. Thus, we use the intellect to gain competence in focusing on an isolated part of our false nature, and then, contemplate it until it dissolves. This is not just done in the intellectual mind, but it is felt, as much as it is observed.

Free Consciousness, when consciousness in the human nature is free of intention, is:

1. observation
2. feeling
3. inhabiting
4. breathe

The general categories of the false nature of the Self are the three poisons of existence thought by the Buddha:

1. greed
2. hatred
3. ignorance

The samw way that suffering is anything from gentle disquietude to worst disturbances, greed includes all types of yearning and attachments. Hatred includes all types of reactive behaviors that brings up an emotional response. Ignorance includes the pretention of intelligence that traps itself in thinking it knows something, but yet does not have the conscious expereince of it.

It might seem too big for a human mind to contemplate the dissolution of what holds value to itself. You can work at dissolving the three poisons as a whole, or you can segment the process, for it to seem more acceptable for the human greedy, hating, ignorant mind. You will find more compartmented insight in the study and dissolving observation of the 21 aspects of the ego.

One step at a time, dissolve a part of your false nature. Progressively, as you free yourself from yourself, the true nature of the Self is revealed, and there is enlightenment.