What Does it Mean to be Enlightened?

[Revoltingest]

The world "enlightened" is a vacuous term used by members who share the same worldview to claim exclusivity and superiority over those who don't share that worldview.

In other words, it seems healthy, but it's full of empty calories.

Come join us in....
http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/who-here-is-unlightened.143721/#post-3202988
In this forum, we're all low potential low achievers who reject enlightenment as too fancy & too much work!
What does unlightenment feel like?
It's sitting in the shade on a hot day drinking margaritas while watching someone else work.

 

[Aquitaine]

I've always viewed those who claim to be so as somewhat arrogant: as though they're "higher" and have access to superior knowledge.

 

[BSM1]

What does it mean to say that a person is "enlightened" in the religious or spiritual sense of the word? What all is involved in enlightenment?




BONUS QUESTION: Is it true that one should see a guru if enlightenment continues beyond four hours, or am I merely confusing that with Viagra and the advisability of seeing a doctor if an erection continues beyond four hours?

Can't give you a pat answer for the first question but it would seem that enlightenment starts when you realize that you control and are totally responsible for your feelings.

As for the bonus question: I believe that you should sell tickets to either situation.

 

[Vinayaka]

What does it mean to say that a person is "enlightened" in the religious or spiritual sense of the word? What all is involved in enlightenment?

Answers will vary based on definitions and understandings of enlightenment. At this point in time there is no common understanding.

 

[Estro Felino]

Well...maybe it deals with a person who is very rational and uses reason constantly to understand things. So therefore, I think that there's nothing wrong if someone calls themselves "enlightened"....also because rational people are usually free from religious conditioning, and -as Kant said-, they think with their own brain, without another's guidance.

 

[bobhikes]

For me enlightenment was understanding in a broad sense. A simple understanding that makes sense of everything. It is easier to say what it is not: not intelligence, not religious, not grandiose, not self aware. Probably my best definition is ultimate common sense.

 

[EtuMalku]

What does it mean to say that a person is "enlightened" in the religious or spiritual sense of the word? What all is involved in enlightenment?

From a Western Left Hand Path / Luciferian stance, Enlightenment is a gradual process of Knowing One's Self: Gnōthi Seauton

 

[Revoltingest]

Regarding enlightenment, I was always struck by what a great philosopher once said....
Douglas Adams > Quotes > Quotable Quote

“The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?”

 

[Kuzcotopia]

Come join us in....
http://www.religiousforums.com/threads/who-here-is-unlightened.143721/#post-3202988
In this forum, we're all low potential low achievers who reject enlightenment as too fancy & too much work!
What does unlightenment feel like?
It's sitting in the shade on a hot day drinking margaritas while watching someone else work.

That's the stuff. . . Thanks for the link.

 

[Sunstone]

I have social/political oppression on my mind, and I think I raise a good point.

"Social/political oppression"? I'd wager all the hats of Texans in Texas that you've stumbled onto some great truth there! Why I swear hardly a week goes by that six, eight, maybe nine unenlightened people do not show up at my cottage door in pitiful rags and begging to be saved from the murderous social/political oppression perpetrated against them by self-professed "enlightened ones". What most amazes me is how well that oppression is kept hidden and out of sight. Besides myself and the wretched people who weekly show up at my door, you yourself are the very first person I've met in my 59 years who is convinced of its existence. Be proud, Kuzcotopia! Be proud of what "a good point" you've raised!

 

[crossfire]

Precisely, Sir! Precisely! Moreover, I myself staunchly contend that enlightenment and priapism are epistemologically indistinguishable, and I challenge both humanity and the gods to prove me wrong!

Hmm. Where to start? Are your ex-wives enlightened?

 

[Sunstone]

I've always viewed those who claim to be so as somewhat arrogant: as though they're "higher" and have access to superior knowledge.

Completely Agree. I've come across more than a few of those people myself over the years. (They are even more numerous, in my opinion, than those secretly aloof folks who try to impress upon you that they are too modest, too down to earth, and too commonsensical, etc. to even for a brief moment think themselves wiser than the rest of us, let alone enlightened.) But I think thoughts and feelings both of superiority and inferiority come natural to us humans. It seems to me that our brains just work that way, that there is no escaping from thoughts and feeling that one is either superior or inferior to other persons and things so long as one has a functioning brain.

So I do not think it is just those poor, most likely self-deluded folks who go about town telling others, "I am enlightened, and you should be properly impressed by that", who are afflicted with thoughts and feelings of superiority and inferiority. I think it's all of us, every human, who is that way. The only difference is a slight one: Some of us think we're superior because we believe we're enlightened, while the rest of us think we're superior for various and sundry other reasons.

Am I am getting at anything true, Aquitaine? What's your view of all that?

 

[Twilight Hue]

I've always viewed those who claim to be so as somewhat arrogant: as though they're "higher" and have access to superior knowledge.

Quite.


Bit like a BMW logo vs a Chevy or Ford.

Any of them will get you to where you want to go.

 

[crossfire]

Quite.


Bit like a BMW logo vs a Chevy or Ford.

Any of them will get you to where you want to go.

That BMW logo really stands out on cars that are being towed. (Just sayin')

 

[atanu]

Like two golden birds perched on the selfsame tree, intimate friends, the ego self and the Lord Self dwell in the same body. The former eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree of life while the latter looks on in detachment.

As long as we identify with the ego self, we feel attached and fall into sorrow.
......

That is a popular representation in Hinduism of the ego consciousness, that assumes doership and enjoys sweet or bitter fruits, and the seer consciousness, that is in control of nature, existing side by side in all bodies. Consciousness is not two, but it is three layered: the world, the ego self, and the seer self.

(This is probably similar to the story of Adam and Eve partaking of fruits of life, which are made of knowledge matter).

Clear cut and final severance of one's awareness from the changeable and perishable ego consciousness, is said to be enlightenment.

Teachers say that unitive experiences (as @Valjean has eloquently noted) and abidance therein lead to total freedom from the notion that it is I that is a doer and is suffering. The self awareness remains as one without boundary as seer of passing show.

Hindu worship and meditation are centered on the Lord Seer Bird, which is the reality beneath all that is seen.

 

[YmirGF]

What does it mean to say that a person is "enlightened" in the religious or spiritual sense of the word? What all is involved in enlightenment?




BONUS QUESTION: Is it true that one should see a guru if enlightenment continues beyond four hours, or am I merely confusing that with Viagra and the advisability of seeing a doctor if an erection continues beyond four hours?

Door #1: Is generally something some folks say about other folks they think are really, really cool. It's something that should be ignored.
Door #2: Er, um, probably not a good idea to try to ignore that little puppy.

 

[Thief]

What does it mean to say that a person is "enlightened" in the religious or spiritual sense of the word? What all is involved in enlightenment?




BONUS QUESTION: Is it true that one should see a guru if enlightenment continues beyond four hours, or am I merely confusing that with Viagra and the advisability of seeing a doctor if an erection continues beyond four hours?

the ability to see beyond the items at hand
accurate consideration of consequence

comparisons to the flesh can happen.....
let those who have ears....listen
let those who have eyes....see

 

[Runewolf1973]

The end of dualistic self-identification.

 

[psychoslice]

To be truly Enlightened is to mean nothing, all meanings are drooped, you cannot conceptualize it, you can experience it, but that experience is secondary to that which IS, so yes, there is nothing to know, but to be silent, whatever we try to say is only ignorance.

 

[Willamena]

Enlightenment is to separate the laundry, only to realize laundry.