Maui wrote:The reality of knowing something is false, or wrong, yet still staying for what one may think is true, or may be true, also takes time
We are (hopefully) always waking up to something as we live and learn. The question of "staying for what one may think is true” is a tricky one but I think the awakening involved here is realising that 'what is true' is not found only in the current group or place one first sees some truth, not is it proprietary, patented at any time or place.
As I understand it, to think there is some quite specific insight to be had that will grant THE revelation or THE enlightenment is to trap oneself as a follower, either of the cult or guru who you believe will lead you there, or if you go on your own way with that same idea, trapped as a follower of one's preconceptions which dangle like a carrot before the donkey.
I think when the Buddha defined his path as being about reducing and eliminating suffering, that appears quite a humble ambition relative to the salvation, "divination” or apotheosis that most religions promise.
But, if you think about it, whatever is designated by any belief system to be their goal or attainment, what they have in common in all the various attainments and promises they describe is an absence of suffering. So, in a way, that is a good sign of where any person is at vis a viz spiritual attainment, regardless of their position in society or occupation. How much are they, in their situation, feeling suffering, and how much are they affirming life as it is, doing the best they can in the circumstances not merely stoically, but even cheerfully?
If you know anyone like that, my guess is you will find them quite self-sufficient and uninterested in pontificating or having followers. They will be better teachers or role models because of it.
“One of the open secrets of life on earth is that the answer to life’s burning question has been inscribed in one’s soul all along. The soul is a kind of ancient vessel that holds the exact knowledge we seek and need to find our way in life. Each life is a pilgrimage intended to arrive at the center of the pilgrim’s soul. From that vantage point, the issue is not whether we managed to choose the right god or the only way to live righteously; such notions fail to recognize the inborn intimacy each soul already has with the divine.”
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Michael Meade, Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul
[my footnote: many people use the word ”soul” in ways which has nothing to do with individual existence beyond death but as a way to name intangible functions of ourselves, like conscience, morality, empathy etc. It’s good to break the nexus between vedanta/BK conditioned definitions and our ability to understand others’ communications. Abnother example is ”body consciousness”. Is there anything worse than not being conscious of the state of your body or what's happening within?]