Verse 1
I went looking for a jewel
hidden somewhere in the sky
I went looking for an answer
that would finally tell me why
I went looking for a doorway
with a golden sign above
I went looking for a silence
I could earn, become, or love
I had maps inside my pockets
I had teachers in my head
I had stories about freedom
and the holy life ahead
but every step I took there
made the distance reappear
as if the thing I longed for
was always over there from here
Chorus
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
not a crown, not a bell to ring
not a place where the angels sing
not a secret you hold
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
not a robe, not a hidden spring
not a prize for the suffering
not a story of gold
It’s the hand letting go
of what it never could bring
it’s the search growing tired
of chasing its wing
it’s the laughter that comes
when the seeker can see
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
and it never belonged to me
Verse 2
I tried to make it special
I tried to make it mine
I tried to reach forever
from inside a thread of time
I tried to call it waking
I tried to call it grace
I tried to put a halo
on an ordinary face
But the kettle kept on boiling
and the dog still scratched the door
and the body still got hungry
and the rain still crossed the floor
then a thought came in softly
with its clever little claim
“I am now enlightened”
and the old self changed its name
Chorus
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
not a crown, not a bell to ring
not a place where the angels sing
not a secret you hold
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
not a robe, not a hidden spring
not a prize for the suffering
not a story of gold
It’s the hand letting go
of what it never could bring
it’s the search growing tired
of chasing its wing
it’s the laughter that comes
when the seeker can see
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
and it never belonged to me
Bridge
Nothing was missing
nothing was found
no one ascended
no one came down
the door never opened
the wall never stood
the path was a story
that did what stories could
The centre got thinner
the burden grew light
the old names loosened
in the plain morning light
not gone into heaven
not dissolved into blue
just less of the fiction
that everything happened to “you”
Verse 3
Now tea is only tea here
and fear is only fear
and sadness is not failure
when it quietly appears
a thought can still go walking
through the rooms it used to own
but it doesn’t find a monarch
sitting on the inner throne
There is laughter in the kitchen
there is aching in the knee
there are bills upon the counter
there is wind inside the tree
and if somebody asks me
what awakening can bring
I smile at the trouble
of trying to name no-thing
Final Chorus
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
not a crown, not a bell to ring
not a place where the angels sing
not a secret you hold
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
not a robe, not a hidden spring
not a prize for the suffering
not a story of gold
It’s the ending of needing
a final song to sing
it’s the ordinary morning
without the old sting
it’s the joke of the seeker
who was trying to be free
Enlightenment isn’t a thing
and it never belonged to me
Outro
No badge
no throne
no sacred thing
to call my own
No final state
no self made new
just life less tangled
in the story of “you”
The rain still falls
the kettle sings
the world goes on
without a king
Nothing to find
nothing to bring
Enlightenment
isn’t
a thing
