In enlightenment, there is no separation between “me” and “you.” So in enlightenment, there is no impulse to say that “I” no longer identify as “me,” but “you” still do identify as “you,” or that all desire and fear have completely vanished “for me,” but “you” are still stuck with them, or that “I” am like Ramana Maharshi and “you” are just another bozo on the bus. In enlightenment, it all happens Here / Now and none of it is personal.

Once people start identifying themselves or others as “permanently enlightened people,” the bullshit begins.

One of the more sophisticated dramas that consciousness produces is “me” trying to step out of “my story,” the character trying to free itself from itself. This is like a mirage trying to eliminate a mirage, or a phantom trying to pull itself up by its own imaginary bootstraps, or a dog chasing its own tail.

Unlike some who claim that a line in the sand was forever crossed on a particular date in time, no such final event has happened in Joan’s story. And, in fact, true enlightenment is not concerned at all with “me” being enlightened.