When Buddha uses the word light he means the state of no-mind, because the state of no-mind is a state of tremendous light, as if thousands of suns have risen simultaneously within your soul. And whenever Buddha says “darkness” he means the state of mind. Mind is dark; it is a dark night, not even a ray of light. We live in the mind, we all live in the dark night, and we have no idea of the dawn because we never go out of the mind. We cling to the mind; the mind is our blindness.

A man has eyes only when he goes beyond mind. Then he starts seeing things as they are. The mind distorts, never allows you to see reality as it is; it projects. It does not allow the whole reality to penetrate to your heart. It allows only two percent; ninety-eight percent is rejected, and even the two percent that is allowed in is distorted in a thousand and one ways. It is interpreted, colored, and by the time it reaches you it is no longer real. So you live in a very unreal world. If you live in the mind you live in dreams, you live in sleep.

So whenever Buddha says “darkness,” he means a state of unconsciousness, a mechanical state in which you function but you are not aware of what you are doing, in which you move but your movement has no quality of alertness in it. You talk, you listen, you eat, you walk, you go to sleep, but like a zombie, unconscious. This is darkness.

When you start becoming more aware of what you are doing, of what you are thinking, of what you are feeling, when you become more and more aware, more and more light penetrates you. When you are a hundred percent aware you are full of light.
That’s exactly the meaning of the word enlightened.