Who here is enlightened?

[ratikala]

namaskaram stirling ji :namaste

The true quality of all enlightened people is their lack of sanity. I qualify on this level .

Ah then I qualify too , for what is sanity except a concept of the un enlightened ???

Truthfully I doubt anyone is enlightened as being enlightened to me would be an endless endeavor with the seeking of truth and knowledge. There is no end to it

ah but there is an end ,..... but it is also the end of the one that seeks after the truth :namaste

 

[Sha'irullah]

namaskaram stirling ji :namaste

Ah then I qualify too , for what is sanity except a concept of the un enlightened ???

The issue with enlightenment is that when enlightened one would be so bizarre and inconceivable that nobody could believe their boldness.

ah but there is an end ,..... but it is also the end of the one that seeks after the truth :namaste

I believe the end comes when one is dead or has reincarnated enough times.

 

[Leilaniana]

In your view is enlightenment a biological phenomenon?

I believe the mind body and soul are 3 things in one. the 3 come into harmony at enlightenment. In order to explain or describe it the body must experience something somehow or there would be no sense to compare it to. It is not only a biological phenomenon but it is also a biological phenomenon. the body is the last to experience it and must be used to communicate.

People get similar results from drugs or a near death experience. they are like producing the same note on different instruments:.
Meditation produces the song of the soul when the ego is dead.
Drugs produce the same note when the mind is dead
near death produces same note when body is dead

 

[idav]

This hits home for me a lot!

After experiencing what I now believe was specifically Kensho and then recieving the information for 5 or 6 of my past lives,and spiritual gifts I can't begin to tell, I am either enlightened or I fear I have a brain tumor! Total sarcasm but still.... I'm a brainiac so I'm aware of the possible biological alternatives.

In this day and age we're trying to reach the top of the mountain on foot but people are flying to the top in helicopters. If I didn't doubt, I'd be ignorant. If I wasn't angry, that after this experience, i had a huge feeling of sadness and obligation because I know in my heart that people aren't even trying to get there, or believe there is a mountain to climb. It made me scared of condition of the souls en masse. It put me in a place where I was like a child trying to make sense of the world in a whole new way. It Made me so sad I though "me? am I the only one? can I really find no other breathing person who is here at this place just past seconds of emptiness just seconds of being filled with light and sound of source? HOw am I the only person I've ever met that has had this experience? How did I find this place of solitude with no map? Am I the only one that is willing? am I alone?

this is where I am at now. From a personal spiritual climb to bliss and the fall afterward of knowing. The apple has been eaten. I feel now like angry sad buddha. It may be delusional of itself to know so surely I was at a place so confident that the place I am at now does not exist. but it does and I am. It is the rabbit hole.

I know what you mean. I feel there are countless enlightened beings hiding out there.

 

[Leilaniana]

We'll be called out of hiding soon enough and the posers won't make the cut to their dismay

 

[Prophet]

We'll be called out of hiding soon enough and the posers won't make the cut to their dismay

Boy, I bet you'll feel really superior to those posers on that day!

 

[AmbiguousGuy]

We'll be called out of hiding soon enough and the posers won't make the cut to their dismay

Who do you think will call us Enlightened Ones out of hiding? And why will they call us?

 

[Leilaniana]

namaskaram leilaniana ji :namaste



likewise a buddha is not sad he understands the nature of conditioned life .

.

I am aware there is neither a sad nor angry buddha

the anger and sadness came after kensho. I am now angry more people are not angry. Mostly at the state of our planet. I am also pulled to a feeling that there is a time and a season for everything, even anger. I wonder if some parts of buddhism are tainted just like other religions whose purpose has been distorted to control people. For instance China and its billion people have ben taking a whole lot of intolerable crap all out of harmony and peace. Nope I dont buy it. I see a metaphor of christian submision. It is the same thing. Jesus went to the temple and basically threw a fit turning over the money changers table for turnig the temple into a den of theives. I regard Jesus and Siddartha as the same. If Jesus were on the planet I believe he'd be turning tables over somewhere.

 

[Leilaniana]

they way things are going we'll probably be helping each other.

There are always posers. Priests raping children are posers. preachers beating their family are. those honest in their imperfection are closer to light than those that lie.

I wouldn't feel superior. I'd feel like I should have done more myself. I always look for how it is that I can help whomever needs a hand or a word.

 

[nash8]

I would consider myself to have experienced enlightenment before as I percieve it, a state that I compare to the Buddha's sense of Nirvana. I have experienced this a few times during meditation. Where I feel so amazing and I am literally not thinking about anything except the amazingness of this feeling. Someone who carried this sense of being into everyday life is a person I would consider to be enlightened, and that I am not.

 

[Prophet]

If Jesus were on the planet I believe he'd be turning tables over somewhere.

This is a belief solely supported by your own righteous anger and a passage in a 2,000 year old book. You believe much that you submit without actual support, leaning instead on the weight of your newfound enlightened discernment as if all should be impressed by that alone. Righteous indignation as a good is a common belief amongst religious hypocrites who use this anger and superiority to derive their self-worth. It shouldn't be shocking to anyone that someone later writing about Jesus might attribute false words or acts to him. A critical mind would look at the passage you referenced critically. Because it is in line with your ego, you do not.

Forming belief without proof breeds attachment. This is because, without proof, the believer is in a position of great insecurity. Because of this insecurity, believers who do not require proof will not fairly consider evidence and arguments to the contrary, often to their great detriment. Unable to consider alternatives, the egoic mind identifies with its own beliefs. People who think like this cannot be debated off malformed beliefs because their ego tricks them into thinking that the destruction of their beliefs is the same as their own destruction.

 

[Straw Dog]

I don't know about enlightenment, but I don't deny it either. Perhaps the term is antiquated. In experience, the personal is presence. However, the center is nowhere. I don't think enlightenment can be adequately described, but maybe it can be inspired.

Language and thinking are natural. Enlightenment must also be natural if it is to still be a tenable term. Philosophy, in a most basic sense, is approaching the moment with a calm and rational manner or attitude. How can this be different from enlightenment?

I believe that folks invoking an anti-intellectualism are mistaken. People crave the feeling of superiority and/or achievement on a subconscious level. I fear that declaring oneself to be Enlightened is an act of egojitsu. It has more to do with satisfying basic instincts than it does with attaining some higher state. Unless the basic instincts are not seperate from this perceived higher state? In which case, where does ego-death enter the picture?

Perhaps we do need to update our vocabulary in order to better communicate and understand such experience/phenomenon.

 

[YmirGF]

I have no use for enlightenment... (Yep, it sucks to be me...)

 

[Straw Dog]

I have no use for enlightenment... (Yep, it sucks to be me...)

But don't you know that there is no "you"?

Then again, if that were the case, why would this exchange even be necessary? In fact, why does it feel completely natural to communicate in this manner?

 

[YmirGF]

But don't you know that there is no "you"?

Then again, if that were the case, why would this exchange even be necessary? In fact, why does it feel completely natural to communicate in this manner?

Oddly, I understand you just fine.

BTW: That tingly sensation is me... just passing through... :run:

 

[Straw Dog]

BTW: That tingly sensation is me... just passing through... :run:

Thanks for informing. I just thought it was my feet going numb from sitting half-lotus too long.

 

[YmirGF]

Thanks for informing. I just thought it was my feet going numb from sitting half-lotus too long.

Neat-o... another person who sits in the half-lotus position for way too long. Weird, eh? What's with that? (I normally watch TV sitting in half-lotus. It's the only way I get super comfortable without falling asleep.)

 

[Straw Dog]

Neat-o... another person who sits in the half-lotus position for way too long. Weird, eh? What's with that? (I normally watch TV sitting in half-lotus. It's the only way I get super comfortable without falling asleep.)

Maybe a little strange.

I have another friend that also just starts naturally taking the position when we play games and what-not.

 

[DreadFish]

Maybe a little strange.

I have another friend that also just starts naturally taking the position when we play games and what-not.

Half lotus is just more comfortable than the regular way of sitting cross legged

it's easy to keep your lower back aligned properly and its not as tiring to keep yourself up.

 

[Windwalker]

I am already enlightened. So is everyone else. How many live it? That's the real question.