Thinking about the hippies in the 70's who left their corporate job to go to the Himalayas and search for a guru that could guide them towards enlightenment there.

I am not sure if they found their enlightenment. But I am fairly certain that they lived and experienced more during the years they decided to be free, than they had experienced in all the years prior.

We call our routines and our safe way of life "living". But is it really?

I asked AI.

"One clear example of this is "Be Here Now". Ram Dass left behind an academic career, went to India, and eventually met Neem Karoli Baba. What stands out in his writing is that enlightenment did not arrive as a permanent state of bliss. What he found instead was perspective. He returned more grounded, more compassionate, and more aware of how much ego survives even spiritual seeking.

Another is "The Snow Leopard". Matthiessen went to the Himalayas partly for spiritual reasons, partly for grief. The book is quiet and unsentimental. The mountains did not solve anything. Instead they stripped things away. What remains is not enlightenment but clarity.

What’s interesting is that even when they did not “find” enlightenment, most of them did not describe the experience as wasted. The value was not the destination but the rupture. Leaving routine, status, and long-term plans forced them into direct experience. Risk, uncertainty, discomfort, and awe compressed life into something denser."

As for Ram Dass, I would argue that enlightenment is a perspective. Perspectives are not easily gained. They require understanding, before the perspective can be claimed. And as I have touched on before, understanding is "the light that shines on ignorance" - enlightenment.