This sense of the ordinariness of true nature is a kind of freedom that in time becomes traceless enlightenment. When enlightenment doesn’t leave a trace, it means that there is nobody there thinking about it and feeling liberated. We don’t feel liberated, because the question of being liberated is irrelevant for true nature. And when we are not concerned about whether we are enlightened or not, we are not concerned about whether other people are enlightened or not. Everybody is who they are, and we relate to them naturally, freely, and spontaneously.

During the first and second turnings of the wheel, this energy appears as the enlightenment drive beginning to fuel our work, leading us always to deeper and subtler realizations. But, at some point, realization can become steady and established. What is spiritual life then? This is the perspective we are exploring in this book. Many traditions believe that after enlightenment, you simply abide in the enlightened condition and nothing new happens, and that is the case for some people. But for most people, enlightenment itself becomes a ground for discovery, and true nature is liberated to reveal other possibilities, not because we are seeking them but because that is how reality expresses itself. Seeking ceases and liberated living is continual discovery. When the essence of our consciousness is activated, it reveals not only the forms and dimensions of true nature but also everything about true nature, all the secrets of reality. This unfoldment is the runaway process of realization realizing further realization, the process of endless, and finally traceless, enlightenment.

Sometimes I refer to it as “reality mode,” as reality manifesting itself and perceiving itself from a particular location. This way of living reality is simple and free, with no traces of enlightenment and no traces of true nature. In other words, there is no feeling in it of “I am experiencing true nature,” or “this is the realization of true nature.” It is simply reality living itself. Now this might sound strange and is, in fact, quite mysterious. Some traditions call it “traceless enlightenment,” which refers to freedom that has no traces of enlightenment. You don’t think of it as enlightenment, and you don’t feel it as enlightenment; enlightenment actually becomes an irrelevant word.