To the first part, the goal of enlightenment is, in theory, very, very simple: to end all greed, to end all aversion and to end ignorance of reality. It's not anything that is "airy-fairy," not anything that is too glamorous or whatever, it is very, very simple. So it doesn't actually have to be abstract. Can you end any of your desires? Have you done it? Some of you have practiced many years, ten or more years. Have you ended any of your desires? Are you going to say, yes? Some things you have let go. Have you slowed down or lessened your aversion? Hopefully the answer will be, yes. Are you getting wiser as to what is reality - in particular the Four Noble Truths? Hopefully the answer will be, yes.
In the many years that some of you have practiced, and a shorter time for a few of you, has there been any growth in these areas of lessening greed, lessening aversion and developing more wisdom? Hopefully, yes.
When we look at it in that way, it is just a matter of continuing to work on our practice, right? If you continue working with the techniques properly, your greed will get less, your anger will get less, and your ignorance will go down, your wisdom will grow. It's just a matter of conditioning. All of you have heard these things many times, a matter of conditioning. Put in the right causes, out comes the right results.
Now, as to the causes, that's up to you. It's up to you to put in more and more beneficial qualities so you get the results quicker. If you don't put in the right causes, then you don't get the results.
So how can we use the goal of enlightenment in a practical way in our daily practice? Ask yourself, "Did I get too greedy today? Did I get angry today? Can I change what happened today? What happened?" You might see that, "Oh, I did this, I did that, that wasn't so smart." There it is, that's your practice, looking at the Four Noble Truths, looking at where Dukkha came, and how it came about. What did you do in the creation of Dukkha? How could you let go of the Dukkha and how could you prevent it again in the future - practicing the Four Great Efforts? So in specific, looking at your greed, aversion, and ignorance, and working on it continually, that is your basic practice.
The other question was "Are there any enlightened people in the world? Do you know any?"
Unfortunately, there is no little halo around their heads!
I am going to sidetrack for a minute before I answer these questions directly. All of you have gone to school and you had some teachers who were really good, some who were kind of average and some who were lousy. They all had a university degree. Right? Or supposedly, they all had a university degree. They were all "qualified" to teach. Some could do a good job, some could do mediocre and some were lousy. Now, in high school I was very smart in Math. So when I was in twelfth grade I made some extra money tutoring kids who were not as bright after school . Not being boastful, just simply a fact, as a 17-year-old in high school, I could teach better than many of the teachers. And I didn't have a degree.
This is important when we consider enlightened people. Some people wonder if there are any out there, and how they can meet them and learn from them. However, within the definition of Buddhism, if a person is enlightened, it doesn't mean they can teach. It means that they themselves have ended their greed, anger and ignorance of reality. But it doesn't necessarily mean that they can teach. The Pali word is "Arahant," which means those who became enlightened after the Buddha. Some of the Arahants could teach wonderfully, almost as well as the Buddha, and others just couldn't teach. They had understood how to end their own Dukkha but they didn't actually understand how to show someone else to do it. So that's important to understand.
Now, and another thing to understand, just like me with teaching in high school, there are some people who are not Arahants, they are not enlightened yet, but they can teach. And they can teach better than some Arahants who simply can't teach. So what am I getting at here? For your own benefit it may not matter if you meet someone who is enlightened. But if you are able to meet someone who can to teach you how to develop, who can help you to get enlightened, that is more important. Even in the Buddha's day, his attendant Monk, Ananda, was not fully enlightened. He was partly, he was on the first level, yet he could teach and he was a very good teacher.
Think of it this way, you've heard me say, if you want to learn how to play piano, do you go to a violin teacher? No, you go to a piano teacher. The piano teacher only has to be better than you at piano, in some area, in order to teach you and you will get benefit. Even if a person is the best violin player in the world you may not learn anything useful from them, if they can't show or explain what they know to you. So if you wish to develop and learn, it is important to find a teacher who can instruct you on how to do the work.
Let's go back to the original question. "Are there any enlightened people in the world? Do you know any?" I don't know. I don't know if there are and don't know if there aren't. As far as the Monks and the Nuns go, they actually have a rule, one of their guidelines that they have to follow is that they are not allowed to tell lay people. They can talk amongst themselves but they are not allowed to tell lay people. So it is not actually possible for, say, a Thai Monk, who is a very famous teacher, to say "I am enlightened" in front of you.
Keeping that in mind, a Thai teacher told me, "I am enlightened," yet I saw things that indicated greed, aversion, and ignorance of reality. They said it, but I saw things that were opposite to it, so I didn't believe they were enlightened.
Thus if people tell you they are enlightened, so what? One Western teacher told people he was enlightened and then admitted he wasn't some years later. You've got to test the teacher. Test them. Do you see any greed, do you see any aversion. If you see absolutely no greed, if you see no aversion, if you see or no ignorance of reality, stick around some more and keep watching. And after a certain amount of time, if you watch long enough, then you can go "Ooh!. This person has to be enlightened. For six years I've been with this person, I've never seen any defilements." That would be fine, you could judge for yourself. But then if you go to your next door neighbor and you say, "Hey, so and so is enlightened!" Are they going to believe you? And as to helping you, it is not going to matter if they can't really teach.