The enlightened individual lives in the same world as everyone, and so experiences the same events and conditions which can bring pleasure, pain, hope or fear, those things which cause feelings of attraction or revulsion. But enlightenment brings a kind of emotional immunity, revealing that what appear to be the dualities of life are not opposites. The enlightened person feels pain and fear but does not wish it were no-pain or no-fear. He or she experiences loss but does not wish the loss undone anymore than that his or her happiness should go away. Our aim in spiritual growth is to achieve an abiding sense of unity with what is, and to be free from comparing what is with what was or what might be.
Nick Hilton - Reflections 