"But what about when people explore their inner selves?  Make journeys of self-discovery?  Aren't they going within to find the truth?"
    "They're just exploring the ego, making a study of the false self, which is a lifequest as valid as any other.  But you don't wake up by perfecting your dream character, you wake up by breaking free of it.  There's no truth to the ego, so no degree of mastery over it results in anything true.  Putting attention on the false self merely reinforces it."

I like happiness as much as the next guy, but it's not happiness that sends one in search of truth.  It's rabid, feverish, clawing madness to stop being a lie, regardless of price, come heaven or hell.  This isn't about higher consciousness or self-discovery or heaven on earth.  This is about blood-caked swords and Buddha's rotting head and self-immolation, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something they don't have.

Enlightenment isn't like graduating high school only to start college, or even finishing college to enter the "real" world.  It's the final graduation.  No more hunt, no more chase, no more battle.  Now you can go out in the world and do whatever you want; learn guitar, jump out of airplanes, write books, tend grapes, whatever.

The misconception about enlightenment stems from, or is at least compounded by, the fact that most of the world's recognized experts on the subject of enlightenment are not enlightened.  Some are great mystics, some are great scholars, some are both, and most are neither, but exceedingly few are awake.