Okay, there are other threads that deal with such topics as what enlightenment is and what may or may not happen if and when it is attained but as exciting as a destination may seem, there is always the journey to be considered and it is this that I would like to make the subject of this thread.

In my mind the first and most important step towards attaining Enlightenment is simply this:

Put all thoughts of attempting to attain Enlightenment out of your mind.

Anyone else want to add some more?

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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to anything.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few. - Suzuki-roshi

So, if Step 1 is: Put all thoughts of attempting to attain Enlightenment out of your mind.

I guess Step 2 must be:

Open your mind to the fact that you are already Enlightened but that you are simply not aware of it.

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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to anything.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few. - Suzuki-roshi

Thank you, Scarecrow. This reminds me of "Jesus, will come like a thief in the night."

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There's nothing in "my" life or in "my" ambitions (if any) that needs the notion of "Enlightenment".

Hey scarecrow-love Suzuki & his notion of "beginner's mind." One of the phrases sometimes used in zen is "selling water by the river," meaning all the stuff Buddhists do to realize what's really there, (& not there). Thing is initially we have to "buy it;" that is it takes a fair bit of meditative effort (& to some degree dharma study, though I think that's secondary to the experiential process of the meditative journey) to achieve some awareness that the river is there & ultimately we are in & of the River. One never gets to be of the River, however, unless/until one lets go of many things including concepts such as "enlightenment." I think, though, that that journey will until the final release continue to be an alternation between exerting effort & letting go. Have a good one, Earl

It does seem to me that at the heart of "awakening" is the realization of grace, that all thought of personal "attainment", of having "gained" by ones own effort is a false understanding. D T Suzuki has said that "all things are empty from the beginning".....................we can strive to "empty ourselves", to "transform ourselves", yet all is already given. Theravada Buddhism, a way of self-power where "Buddha's can only point the way, each has to walk the path themselves" speaks of the final realization by saying that "effort reaches the end of its scope and falls away".This perhaps points to the paradox, that though effort to attain is a false path, effort is in some ways needed to realize this!

I think scarecrows original quote brings to mind one of my own favorites from St John of the Cross......................"If you wish to be sure of the road you tread on you should close your eyes and walk in the dark" Perhaps too much judgement of "where we are", of what has so far been "attained", is misguided and misleading. In a book by a Pure Land Buddhist, full of autobiographical anecdotes, the author speaks of learning more from his father's sigh than from all the books of philosophy he has read.............My own experience is that any "learning" we truly have is a grace, a realization of what has been given; that ultimately we have been found, rather than that we have sought and found for ourselves. "Not all things are found by seeking"

P.S Nice to hear from you again, Earl!