The dictionary defines the word enlighten as ‘Means to give intellectual or spiritual light; to shed light upon. Enlightenment is the act of being enlightened or instructed’.  Many different religious groups share their own definitions of what it means to be enlightened.

Defining enlightenment as one goal or idea places it in a somewhat contracted arrangement. Many definitions of enlightenment lead us to believe that it is a linear process; that the obtainment comes after years or lifetimes of strict discipline placed in an order of events to which a person may one day arrive to in completion.