Awakening versus Enlightenment

The key word in enlightenment is “light”. Here, light serves as a symbol for knowledge or information. Enlightenment, then, means an increase in understanding or information about something.

Awakening, on the other hand, has to do with the coming to life of a faculty or ability one possesses but has not been using. To awaken from sleep means to bring the faculties of sight and sensation back into operation. Before awakening, a faculty lies dormant; awakening means that faculty has begun to function.

Enlightenment concerns the expansion of knowledge; awakening concerns the beginning of perception. Enlightenment gives you information, while awakening gives you the capacity to see.