Can Only Monks Become Enlightened? A response to Brad Warner's response to Johnny Samadhi

I wasn't going to shoot a video today. I'm sick!! But Zen teacher and author and friend Brad Warner mentioned me in one of his great videos re: a question he got about enlightenment from one "Johnny Samadhi."

Thank you Dr. Samadhi for providing the springboard for this video!!!

Mr. Samadhi insists that to "become enlightened" one must be a monk; monks live the only kind of lifestyle where enlightenment experiences are possible.

In this video I pick apart Herr Samadhi's argument. Why do I do this? Because I do not like it when people diminish lay life. This creates ignorance, confusion, and suffering, and it also puts certain people ("enlightened" teachers) and certain experiences (the monk's life) over other people and other experiences, which obfuscates the whole point of Zen and Buddhism, which is to wake up. Wake up in your own life regardless of your circumstances. Regardless of where you find yourself, whether it's in a monastery or some crappy job or failing marriage etc.

Wake up!

First off, the term enlightenment is not helpful or skillful. In my experience it's a term that either novices or cult leaders fall back on. Secondly, it's true that monasteries are wonderful spiritual laboratories where "enlightened experiences" can occur, but in my experience these enlightenment experiences don't change people.

Not really.

Not in the ways that you need to change to become what most people consider to be "enlightened."

To wit, this video closes as I remember my teacher. The most amazing and impressive thing about him, to me, was watching him slowly grow old, and then die. And watching how fascinated he was by this process, watching how open he was to the most basic facts of his human existence. Nobody but nobody could brush their teeth in an enlightened manner the way he could! Or eat a plum. Or just stare out the window.

It's the simple things, the simple activities, done completely, that constitute the enlightened life (in my unenlightened opinion). We have to commit to our lives over and over, moment after day after month after year. We have to live fully, and die fully. And ya don't need to live at a monastery to do that.

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0:00 Intro
1:05 The Case of Johnny Salami
4:17 What Does "Enlightenment" EVEN MEAN?
6:42 My First Dai-Sesshin Retreat
12:03 All Enlightenment Experiences Pass Away
13:10 How to Engineer an Enlightenment Experience
15:19 Enlightenment Experiences Only Get You So Far....
18:25 The Most Impressive Thing About My Teacher
21:57 You Have to Manifest Enlightenment Over & Over