People tend to think of enlightenment as a glorious personal accomplishment, the pinnacle of all personal achievements. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. At least from the point of view of the ego-self, spiritual enlightenment is more failure than success. In truth, enlightenment dawns when we conclusively see and accept the absolute futility of living as an ego-identified person, and give up on our ego-selves. The resulting surrender allows ego to be Undone. see article