What is enlightenment?

What is enlightenment?

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

“Enlightenment” is a loan word used in the 18th and 19th centuries to translate technical terms from eastern religious texts.

As a word, in modern use, “enlightenment” doesn't actually have a formal meaning. It's often used to refer collectively to dozens to hundreds of conflicting concepts from a multitude of sources.

In other words, it doesn't really have a meaning.

However, people commonly assign meanings to it. These meanings change from person to person using the word.

probably what you mean, with your question, is something like “What do you folks think “enlightenment” is?”.

And that's going to vary from person to person.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Hi Bill

Yes, I mean “what do you folks think enlightenment is?”…
:)

I'm interested to hear of the different meanings…. nice short ones if possible…

In my experience it is a dropping of the false….

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Well, the big problem with 'nice short' definitions of enlightenment is that if you look around I think you'll find that there are different 'schools' of “enlightenment” - and the nice short definition for one school will be contradicted by the nice short definitions of another school.

Then you got the “enlightenment experiences”, which are something different from the schools.

I figure there are three common schools.

The oldest is the “inspired” school.

Then you have the “unity” school.

And finally you have the “freedom” school.

I'm kind of “post-freedom” school myself.

—

In my experience it is a dropping of the false….

What causes “the false”?

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Hi Bill…

I'm not interested in different schools contradicting eachother….just peoples personal experience or thoughts…there is no right or wrong for this…all is accepted…..

What causes the false?
Conditioning….

peace with what is,
love
Soul

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

… that includes the dropping of the false belief that enlightenment is an 'event' that will happen in some made up future , dependent on what so called practices are done :)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

How have you countered the conditioning? That sounds interesting.

What kinds of conditioning did you drop?

What do you figure is a true belief? How do you tell the difference between a true belief and a false beleif? Is it easy?

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

I don't want to go into all that…
just look and feel…and all reveals itself….
there is no how to…

peace

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

nice and short…i see enlightenment as the awareness that all is one. 

not sure that i would agree that there is no 'how to'.  though i would agree that the 'how to' is often very different for each individual. 

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Beautiful :)

and i totally accept what you think it is….
no argument…
something in me wouldn't be bothered with arguments….


Thanks for sharing….
I love just hearing of peoples views of what enlightenment is….
and there's heaps of people on this forum…

hello?

want to share and accept and not play the game of “i know better than you what it is” ???

ha!

love to All
Soul

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Soul:

I would say that awareness is the realization there is an all inclusive consciousness, and enlightenment is the acceptance of that realization such that explanation of it is unneeded.  Enlightenment is the opening of the door which is the separation between knowing and understanding.  The process of enlightenment is, necessarily, different according to perspective.

I think people often confuse the process of becoming enlightened with being enlightened.  Good for you for asking for these comments in the format:  “want to share and accept and not play the game of “i know better than you what it is” ???”

Blessings and Peace

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Beautiful…thanks Dennis.

:)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

In The Name of GOD. the ALL-Knowinig. The Teacher.

Hello Bill,

Inspirations are Beliefs of GOD. Vertical Knowledge.

self beliefs are dellusions of People. Horizontal Knowledge.

So, now is the Question which beliefs are fake and which True.

That ONLY God can teach His blessed human.

The Real Truth is that you cannot have inspirations, without cleaning the Worlds inside your chest. And then you will, God Willing, realize that Inspiration is Experience. Not Understanding.

Who ever tries to explain Inspirations, fails.

Because that's now a knowledge that starts from self.

Inspirations are the Light that enables the Insighs beyond what people who oprate inside their Matrix of the Mind can comprehend.

That's why one is to be observant as to whom is talking :)

People may call you names, because of the fake conditionings to let the self make meanings.

The self has no clue. If it had, there would be no problems.

As Prophet Jesus has said: Do not Judge, you won't be judged.

And you may want to re-read this post, without letting your self make meanings, and with the antenna - Mind - tuned to GOD.

It's HIM who Clarifies Things to People of Understanding.

The rest are lost in the forests of their dellusions.

So, in closing. True beliefs are Inspirations. Fake beliefs are whatever knowledge that is Not Inspiration.

No wonder people nowaday play vegetarian JaZz. Because they rely on their intellect.

Intellect serves Dellusions.

Inspirations Purify the Heart. And People Understand with Their Hearts, not with Minds.

Praise be to GOD. The Lord of the Worlds.

Peace,
Rinon Hoxha - Ustahi

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

there is no god but god.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Here is the simple explanation of enlightenment that makes the most sense.

Enlightenment is not a fixed state we someday achieve. Rather, it is a lifelong process of challenge and renewal-a vigilant championing of the inherent dignity of life through thought, word and deed.
It is a deep conviction that we already possess “Buddhahood”. We are Buddha's. This conviction overrides our habits and preconceived attitudes, enabling us to call forth the Buddha's courage, (which resides inside ourselves, not some external power), compassion and wisdom, which we can apply to any circumstance. Even the daily challenges we face head-on become the means by which we can live fulfilled, happy lives.
Makes sense hum.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

hi, Soul –

I think it's the most overused and misunderstood term in spiritual circles….  *grinning*

seriously – to different people and different schools and traditions, enlightenment has many different meanings and layers.

in my own understanding, it happens in stages – there are stages of enlightenment, not just a few experiences that happen seemingly at random and then can't be sustained, or not just a few definitions of how enlightenment plays out in people's experiences and spiritual lives.   

some traditions refer to people as 'awake', whatever that means, and assume that it also means enlightenment.  others mistake a blissfulness as an enlightened state.

(don't get me wrong, I think bliss is great.)

to me – enlightenment means, in early stages, a sustained experience of conscious connectedness with all beings – ie, knowing, experientially, not intellectually, that all beings are the same because you have that awareness in a sustained way.

having a kind of detachment – an informed, not a reactive, detachment, based in spiritual experiences – from the relative drama of life and its ups and downs – knowing internally (again, through direct experience, not through intellect) that the world, the souls in it, all are part of the greater illusion of Nature (including ourselves), and in that detachment, finding a kind of bliss and inner enjoyment of the play.

in later stages, my understanding is that the soul itself can be made to leave the physical body, as an act of conscious will, take care of spiritual works outside the physical body's capacity while teh body is essentially dead, no heartbeat, respiration, any vital signs at all. 

this ability to move in and out from the physical form – at will – from the soul level is an enlightened state, a highly enlightened state – since the attachment to the human form is completely dissolved in that action. the soul knows itself to be primarily soul, and free from the confines of the human form – and the body is just the body, useful for certain actions in the physical world, but also a temporary home for the soul, which has much greater work to do in the world than just inhabit a form and sit in the bliss until the form ends.

to me, this is the real enlightenment – other stages are nice to experience and observe, but aren't necessarily the depth of what's possible for all human beings.

Alx

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Hi Alx,

Beautiful…

Thanks for sharing :)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Enlightenment is realizing who/what you are…you are That and there is no other.

Of course, this ends seeking (one who is “enlightened” is not a spiritual seeker).  It also is true freedom - the truth shall set you free, as Christians say.  You are liberated (moksha), to use a phrase from Hinduism.  As such, suffering has ceased - as mentioned in Buddhism.  You are in the world but not of it (again from Christianity).

That is my personal experience and direct realization.

Namaste,

~ Eric Putkonen
http://www.awaken2life.org

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Beautiful… Thanks Eric
I'll take a look through your web  site

:)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Enlightenment is realizing who/what you are…you are That and there is no other.

and who are you?

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

good question…

it's a great question to ask to directly look at the truth of your being in this moment

:)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Enlightenment is unfolding the divinity within.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

There ya go - typical examples from the different schools.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Enlightenment is literally turning into light… Everything is energy vibrating at different frequencies. Light is the only constant by which we can measure our surroundings and behaves as both particles and waves. Through spiritual practices we raise our vibrations to the highest available vibration on this plane, which is pure light. This is Oneness and dissolving the ego and ecstacy/bliss and such since the higher vibrations are the most pure. This is why meditators have been known to emit light.. they are through conscious connection with the higher vibrations, ridding themselves of gross material existence(light at a certain frequency gives us the impression that things are solid). Once we shed the physical body(or at least are awareness from it) we are free to explore more of this truly Divine and Beautiful creation. This means every since cell and particle of your body and every though wave in your mind being directed at higher reality. Love

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Thanks for sharing Marco :)

I love reading about everyones thoughts and experiences on what enlightenment is….
This question was asked out of a curiosity…..
and there is no right or wrong answer….



Enjoy :)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

This question was asked out of a curiosity…..
and there is no right or wrong answer…

what makes you say that?

m

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

That's what i wanted to say…


:)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

That's what i wanted to say…

Soul isn't playing the ancient game, which makes that a perfectly reasonable and intelligent and sensible answer.

It's only the gamers that have to concern themselves with the ways and the means.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Soul just wants its vehicle to function properly, to be fully awakened, and appreciative of the nature of reality. It's less of a game and more of a maintenence issue, if you ask me

m

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

I'm not sure I fully understood which level or set of levels you were commenting on.

I think because there might be a tendency to flow between the meanings of the word “Soul” in this context.

“Soul” is the nick of the original questioner - but “soul” is also a common english word for essential identity.

Did you mean both, one, or the other? ;-}

The word which triggers the multi-level question is “its” - does “its” mean the gender neutral pronoun, equivalent to “her” in this case? Or is “its” (“it's” - it is or it has), the possesive is of identity.

I meant “Soul” the original questioner. 

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

I see.

:-)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

What is enlightenment?

To answer that question, I should first ask, “What am I?”

“I am simultaneously the brilliant sun-like center of a universe, and a tiny spark of light, struggling to survive…” (visionsfromthelight.com, 2007).

I am not a master, nor a studied learner. I simply believe what I “know/dreamt”. It most likely will be argued that it is a mish mash of many theologies, or already spoken by someone ages previously and simply a stolen philosophy, but it is a knowing/dream that I would like to share and talk about with you.

In the beginning (for lack of a better way to begin), there was the Mother and the Father. Pure love. Pure light. One yet separate. They took from themselves a piece of their light and divided it equally all the way down to me, a tiny spark of light. With no knowledge of “other” or “self”, just as a human infant believes itself to be an extension of its mother, or its mother an extension of itself, without thought however.

This tiny spark of light that was “me” was nurtured, loved, and eventually prepared to begin the journey. First starting out with the smallest of exposures to “other” and “self”. These experiences did not start here - here is an advanced and difficult place, but as an example, to help you understand what I know/dreamt, I will use a human life. First, seconds of experience as a seed and egg colliding and dividing…then seconds as a barely discernable fetus…then first trimester, then second, then third, then a lifetime which consists of birth and a single breath…and onward. Each experience/lifetime designed to teach and illuminate.

Why? Because throughout these “exposures” learning occurs. Gifts to be given when the journey is completed. Mother and Father are perfect love, perfect light, and perfect peace. They cannot be tarnished or tainted or imperfect, therefore they cannot experience these “exposures” for themselves, for we all know how many times we fall down, lash out, hurt and be hurt, create karma, or do that which we “know” we shouldn't in these “exposures”.

However, when “I” came into being, while I was still a piece of Mother and Father, I was incomplete. In the act of my “creation”, I became separate and unlearned. My goal as a tiny spark of light is to reunite with the “whole”, bringing the gift of experiences/exposures with me. In reuniting, I do not mean being swallowed up, never to exist again, however. Just as Mother and Father exist as one, yet separate, I too will be one again, yet separate, upon completing my travels.

I look forward to the “day” when I can stand before them, hands outstretched, with a tiny gift for them saying, here is what I bring to thee with love…

Light,

M

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Beautiful Maggie….
thanks for sharing

: )

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Hi Soul,

I reckon enlightenment is another illusion.

I believe in liberation from all illusion - both materialism and spiritualism.

There is only naked reality, and we cannot conceptualise naked reality because our minds are too small.

We can perceive naked reality but only in small or narrow ways due to the limitations of our senses and the ultimate limitations of perception (you can't be everywhere or perceive everything at once).

But naked perceiving is plenty.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

But naked perceiving is plenty.

A nice way to express it.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Sure is…

thanks Martin

:)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Every one seems to have an answer to this age old question……….but i really do not know! i dont believe i have ever been enlightened, perhaps in finding enlightenment you have no further need for questions and therefore answers. Ahh the mysteriesof life, how uplifting they are. 

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

It's cool not to know…

:)

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Enlightenment is an overused term.

“God is dead.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

“Enlightenment is a fad.”  - Rev. Travis B. Eneix

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Ha !

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Catch me up, but didn't Nietzche himself die….say… a century or more ago?  Ah well, lifegoeson and on…and on….

Cheers,

Bruce

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

The best definition of enlightenment I've seen is “Absolute Absence” (from Ask The Awakened, by Wei Wu Wei).

I think confusion arises not because enlightenment is too mystical, magical, or esoteric to be defined and understood (after all, it is our most basic state of being), but from trying to conceptualize (imagine) nonduality with the dualistic mind.

There are no concepts in “Absolute Absence” and that which conceives is also not there.   So enlightenment (nonduality) is something completely different, and completely apart, from the dualistic mind which is, by definition, conceptual.    Neither has any relationship to the other.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

How can we possibly define “enlightenment” when we cannot with any degree of validity define “consciousness”?

We do seem to know that we are conscious, but how to define what that IS?

Therefore, collectively defining what is experienced as higher consciousness, or “enlightenment,” seems impossibly problematic until we can collectively define that which we colloquially refer to and label as “consciousness.”

Oh sure, I can state that I experience “consciousness” but how to define what it is other then “I AM.”

I cannot with any degree of validity state that “YOU ARE” other then as an object of MY consciousness. Even though you act as if, and inform me that, you are conscious, how can you prove it and how can I, since niether you nor I can even define what IT IS since we can't in anyway see, hear or touch it?

If “enlightement” is a process or event in “consciousness” maybe we need to define “consciousness” before we seek to define what “consciousness” can process by naming that process “enlightenment.”

Maybe 'enlightenment' is something that occurs the very moment in which consciousness can finally define ITSELF?

But I don't know, I'm just saying…

Thanks,
mike S

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Sorry guys

After the first post I get that Gaia is having a problem and they are sorry and so they're making a pot of chai?
So I write and submit the post again and now both are up. Seems like Sunday mornings Gaia tends to sleep in.

Mike S

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

How can we collectively define “enlightenment” with any degree of validity, when we cannot even define “consciousness”?

I certainly experience consciousness as “I AM.” But, although you act as if, and inform me that, you are conscious of the same I AM, I have no valid experience of the truth of that, since you may simply be an object of my consciousness and nothing more than that.

Therefore, if “enlightenment” is a process or event that occurs in “consciousness” what is consciousness? Just because we all seem to colloquially refer to consciousness as what WE ARE, does not mean we have in anyway defined what IT IS.

Maybe “enlightenement” is the process or event in consciousness in which consciousness finally defines ITSELF and nothing more then that?

But I don't know and I'm just saying…

Thanks,
mike S

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Hi Mike….
I asked the question to find out what enlightenment means personally to each person….. not to try and agree on some concept altogether….

I guess your definition is in your post… ” when consciousness defines itself …”

so far I have found it very interesting to read about peoples personal definitions of enlightenment… as I wrote before…there's no right or wrong…just what does it mean to you…
kind of just a curiosity about what it means to different people…

peace

soul

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

Hi Y'all ….or….er, Everyone???…. (or maybe are y'all allOne?),

Maybe we're kind of looking at this backwards or askew.  I know that for me that would be no surprise.  I think enlightenment isn't a process but a state of being (be-ing).  That's perhaps the fundamental difference between “bottom-up” or gradualist enlightenment which would be a process, and the sudden occurence of an enlightenment which is experiential, “top-down”, occuring suddenly and that's it… . . What's the old Zen adage?  “Before enlightenment , chop wood and haul water.  After enlightenment, chop wood and haul water.” … Or as my friend Harry taught me (my friend and teacher who had his “bright light” experience after 22 years of practicing affirmative and invocative prayer together with transcendental meditiaion), “If you are on a train reading the newspaper, and all you're doing is reading the newspaper, that is enlghtenment.”  Moral of the story?  When you're peeling carrots peel carrots.  And when you're listening on the news to what is happening Tibet, do not figure out how you will solve that problem. (Now if only I could bear that in mind when I am on the train reading about Tibet.)

 Common sense says “nothing changes, if nothing changes.  But I've often told my friends and those I work with (work, not in the sense that I'm employed doing it, although I talk about it there too), that in these times we need ”uncommonly common sense”… . It's not that,  “nothing changes if nothing changes”, I think; but, rather that, “Everything changes if no-thing changes”.  One of the only 'absolute' constants in this relative world is that everything is always changing (transitory, insubstantial and impermanent, as the Bhudda would tell'ya)… .

But, if the one thing that we perceive to be permanent in this egoic state which causes suffering changes, then every-thing does change  - that is, in the “outside” world, or at least in our perception and emotional reaction to the objects, even mental objects, of the exterior world, everything changes.  And that one “thing” that needs to change?  Our identification with, and the relentless persistence of the internal dialogue of our unexamined,  habitually conditioned thinking without true awareness.  The inner “voice” which in our egoic state we take to be “us”. The stream of thinking that we can fall back into at any time, and that can carry us away, precipitating virtually any action on our part - from the most altruistic of acts to murder or self-immolation.

For, of course, the one permanent firmament and fixture that we have is our awarness, our “consciousness”.  We are conscious in our dreams and even on awaking from dreamless sleep, again we are conscious… . We are aware… . It is our portal from the Absolute to the relative.  If our identification with that ceases wholly - and I believe that this is a spontaneous event if it is to be permanent, even if it occurs for us after years of prayer, meditative and contemplative practice - a “top-down” experience even if after years of “bottom-up” practice in mental discipline.  This, I believe, is both the experience and the state of enlightenment that all wisdom traditions and religions speak of and aim at.  “What manner of man,” Jesus taught, “can add one cubit to his stature by taking thought?”  And, less so, it should be added, to the extent that one is carried away by the thinking of and identification with this seemingly real but false “self”.  Jesus also said, “Of my self, I am nothing… .”

(Don't forget, that the Christian mystics speak and spoke of the Mystic Union - the experience of “union with God” or the Absolute that Jung wrote of  and called “the thirst of our being” - even if these mystics, the not-so-famous and the famed, like St. John of the Cross, Joan of Arc and Meister Eckhart ,were variously imprisoned, martyred by the Church or forced to recant  in the West, unlike the experience in the Orthodox tradition, where the mystics of the Church, high and low , were and are equally reverenced along with the Bishops, the Fathers of the Church and the Saints.  All spoke of and variously described this experience of the mystic union, this enlightenment and communion with the Divine, with God, with the Ground of Being.)

I undestand that Andrew Cohen makes great distinction between these two approaches and experiences -  bottom-up approach adn experience, and the sudden spiritual awakening that he seems to have experienced by all accounts.

Peace and blessings on the Path,

Bruce

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

To me 'Soul,' I sense that enlightenment is KNOWING something without a shadow of a doubt. Subsequently, the Power of Love can manifest itself through that knowing and we can create an amazing, harmonious, light-filled world. I am not so inspired by the Buddhist view of emptiness, or 'what is.' Although it suits these times because the world is full of suffering.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

I've copied my favourite answer to that question for you here. It is quoted from an interveiw with a teacher/freinds of mine, Maitreya Ishwara. As for my own experience, I'm still formulating the articulation, unitl then I offer this….

A. Enlightenment is a state of consciousness in which the mind becomes completely expanded and full of light; literally, the mind merges with light and consciousness, and in this merger, it is like an impregnation: the divine light of consciousness merges with the human mind and totally transforms that mind so the mind is no longer busy with just thinking. The mind is really a vehicle for light; it becomes full of light, and with this light there is tremendous bliss and love and ecstasy; so enlightenment is a state of grace, of love and bliss and ecstasy wherein the mind is a vehicle for light rather then just a machine that is cranking away with endless thoughts.

    print   send    permalink

Re: What is enlightenment?

a step.

    print   send    permalink