07/30/2025
On Enlightenment, Devotion, and the Many Roads to the Self
In my experience, enlightenment is not a fixed destination, but an ever-evolving return to the self, a shedding of illusions, and a remembering of essence. Whether one walks the path through prayer, meditation, devotion, study, service, or surrender, the common thread is alignment, alignment with truth, with presence, with love.
Religious frameworks like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and others offer sacred methodologies to help us reach this return. I deeply honor the sacred rhythms found in practices like Islamic prayer, Christian contemplation, Buddhist meditation, and Vedic ritual. Each tradition offers powerful ways to bring the body, mind, and soul into attunement. Yet, the method alone is not the measure of one’s enlightenment. It is the sincerity of the heart, the presence with which one prays, meditates, breathes, or serves, that transmutes any practice into a path of awakening.
When I speak of enlightenment, I speak of that quiet inner shift when the noise fades and one remembers their divine origin. It’s not earned by repetition alone, but by sincerity. It’s not confined to one path, but is revealed uniquely to each seeker.
We can hold space for the sacredness of scripture, and the truth that God meets each soul in the language they understand. The divine does not demand uniformity, it desires intimacy.
So whether your devotion looks like salat, silence, mantra, or movement, ask yourself not only how you practice, but why. Are you returning to yourself? Are you dissolving into peace? Are you awakening to love?
That is the real pilgrimage, that is the true enlightenment.
— Samantha Lynn 🤍
Founder of Beacon of Resilience