Answers By Mr. S. N. Goenka: Enlightenment

-Before, you mentioned that Buddha was enlightened. What do you mean by “enlightened”?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Someone who explores the truth within oneself and explores it to the ultimate end, experiences the reality pertaining to the mind and the body, and then transcends that experience to the ultimate reality beyond mind and matter, is an enlightened person.

-If there is no “I,” then what is it that needs enlightening?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Good question. Ignorance needs enlightening, what else? The bondage needs liberation that’s all. Nothing else.

-How can we become enlightened as Siddhārtha Gotama did?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Everyone can become enlightened. Enlightenment is not the monopoly of Siddhārtha Gotama. He said: “Before me, so many people became enlightened, and after me also so many are going to become enlightened.” Anyone who comes out of ignorance at the experiential level is an enlightened person. Any human being can practise this and become enlightened.

-Can you tell me if it’s possible to reach enlightenment by any path other than Vipassana?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: You can give it any name. People have reached the stage of enlightenment and have not given it the name of Vipassana. But when we go deeply into what they did, we find that they did Vipassana. They didn’t call it Vipassana because they didn’t know the name Vipassana. Unless you examine yourself and take out the impurities, you cannot be enlightened. And when you examine yourself and take out the impurities—this is Vipassana. You can call it Vipassana, or you can call it any name—what difference does it make?

-Are there any liberated people living presently?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Yes. Vipassana is a progressive path to liberation. As much as you are free from impurity, that much you are liberated. And there are people who have reached the stage where they are totally free from all impurities.  

-Is meditation the only way to get liberated? 

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Yes. Just accepting something with blind faith will not help. You have to work for your liberation. You have to find out where the bondage is, and then you have to come out of that bondage. This is Vipassana. Vipassana enables one to directly experience the real cause of bondage, the real cause of misery, and enables one to be gradually liberated from all miseries. So liberation comes from the practice of Vipassana.  

Source: https://www.vridhamma.org