Would an Enlightened Person Know for Certain...?

[Sunstone]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?






*Enlightened in the sense of being psychologically, religiously, spiritually, or mystically enlightened, rather than in the sense of the European Enlightenment.

 

[Buddha Dharma]

In the traditional Buddhist view, an enlightened one does indeed know. The Buddha was even called the teacher of gods. There are texts recording his interactions with Indra, Brahma, and others. There are realms around us we cannot see. Of those living beings we cannot see, are gods and various fields they generate.

A Buddha can see them, however. I understand this is a faith position though. I trust this as much as I trust the Buddha himself. I accept he was a trustworthy source and didn't lie.

 

[Buddha Dharma]

Some of the lesser paradises one can be reborn into from the traditional Buddhist perspective is a Deva field. That's nothing to turn one's nose up at either. The gods are good guardians of their realms, and a person will have almost endless pleasures. The one thing they will not have, even a god cannot give: escape from Samsara and inevitable birth into another form.

 

[ajay0]

In an enlightened being, it is direct knowledge that operates and not mere conceptual or belief systems.

If you know there is no need for belief, and in belief there is no direct knowledge.

 

[William Milverton]

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“Would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?”


Wikipedia says :-

”The English term enlightenment is the western translation of the term bodhi, "awakening", which was popularised in the Western world through the 19th century translations of Max Müller.
It has the western connotation of a sudden insight into a transcendental truth.


The term is also being used to translate several other Buddhist terms and concepts used to denote insight (prajna, kensho and satori); knowledge (vidhya); the "blowing out" (Nirvana) of disturbing emotions and desires and the subsequent freedom or release (vimutti); and the attainment of Buddhahood, as exemplified by Gautama Buddha.


What exactly constituted the Buddha's awakening is unknown.
It may probably have involved the knowledge that liberation was attained by the combination of mindfulness and dhyāna, applied to the understanding of the arising and ceasing of craving.
The relation between dhyana and insight is a core problem in the study of Buddhism, and is one of the fundamentals of Buddhist practice.


In the western world the concept of (spiritual) enlightenment has taken on a romantic meaning.
It has become synonymous with self-realization and the true self and false self, being regarded as a substantial essence being covered over by social conditioning”

Enlightenment in Buddhism - Wikipedia


People all over the world use their own lives as a laboratory and, through experiments, discover the reality of God


God The Father exists outside of matter, energy, space and time, in eternity
He also exists in your soul. You know him as your conscience
When you develop a relationship with your own conscience to the level that you do what it tells you even when you don’t agree, your life will start to go right again
and you will be directed towards your life purpose


The Holy Ghost is TIME. Time creates space
The Holy Ghost is the video game that you call ‘life’. He is your environment
You live inside him/her
The Holy Ghost coalesces in personality wherever people worship God
no matter what their religion or doctrine


You can contact the Holy Ghost at any time and in any place
The usual ways are through prayer, meditation, deep thought or focussed reverie


Lord Jesus is the ruler of your universe
In High Estate he is the Temple Of God in the Lower Heaven
In personality he is with those who mourn, those who suffer, and the weak
In personality he is not in the Churches, though the Churches can reach him in High Estate
In personality he is available to the criminal


Every human being is at a different level of existence
The easiest way to move up the levels of existence is by using Talk Therapy
to disperse the trapped emotions of the past from your body
Scientology revolves upon a speeded-up version of Talk Therapy which delivers results in days instead of months and months instead of years. Of course, they charge $thousands for a course of treatment.
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[Jedster]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?

*Enlightened in the sense of being religiously, spiritually, or mystically enlightened.

@Sunstone

I concur with @ajay0's post #4 above.

I am also reminded here of the Rig veda creation hymn, which isn't really to do with the OP, but maybe demonstrates some of the thought processes that lead to enlightenment.


HYMN CXXIX. Creation.

1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
2 Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider.
That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
3 Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
4 Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit.
Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent.
5 Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it?
There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
6 Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation?
The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
7 He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.

Rig Veda: Rig-Veda, Book 10: HYMN CXXIX. Creation.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Good question!

All we need to do is find an enlightened person and ask them.

But enlightened beings are rare indeed at this point in our history - you would probly never meet one unless you are REAL lucky!

Buddha was one of the few I can think of and he really deliberately didn't speculate on some matters - feeling they weren't terrribly helpful to achieving Liberation.

Tha's about all I got. If you find an enlightened human let me know - I would love to chat with them

 

[wizanda]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?

Enlightenment is to ascend in consciousness past the dimensions of the Matrix... Which is basically all the 10 commandments as dimensional quantum physics...

So that we've come to the levels of 0neness (Heaven); where we've encompassed unconditional love, and come to a state of constant bliss (Sat Chit Ananda).

The higher level of Heaven being wisdom, is only fully reached by the consciousness of a Buddha/Arch Angel/Elder/Ascended Master/etc.

Thus to even encompass any of these dimensions properly, we have to acknowledge the CPU, the multiple dimensional quantum physics it manifests; otherwise we can not really call it Enlightenment, if the person doesn't recognize where light comes from or how we are all part of it.

In my opinion.

 

[PureX]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?

No.

The first requisite of enlightenment is that one recognizes one's own profound ignorance.

 

[allfoak]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?






*Enlightened in the sense of being religiously, spiritually, or mystically enlightened.

Yes

 

[bobhikes]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?






*Enlightened in the sense of being religiously, spiritually, or mystically enlightened.

An enlightened person would lead the person to find out for themselves as any answer they give would be met with skepticism because they do not share the same experiences and the journey is just as valuable.

 

[shunyadragon]

I maintain a philosophical agnostic skepticism even though I believe in God, In another well known religious forum I was forced to post agnostic as a belief and not theism. I proposed that Atheism and agnosticism were reasonable logical choices, and that pissed off some of the more conservative believers. There were some who argued I was atheist. I get harassed by what I call the 'Gang of Four.'

 

[Vinayaka]

I can't recall ever finding a definition of enlightenment that was universally accepted. That puts the question pretty moot.

In my personal POV, enlightenment is a state of consciousness beyond words, so terms like 'God' would be irrelevant.

 

[Thief]

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People all over the world use their own lives as a laboratory and, through experiments, discover the reality of God





Every human being is at a different level of existence

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the Enlightened tend to be brief

there you go

 

[sun rise]

The fully enlightened, those who have realized the Divine know that there is nothing real but the Divine and all the experience that individual had before was illusion.

One example was the sufi Mansur al Hallaj who reportedly was killed for heresy after exclaiming "I am the Truth (God)".

 

[George-ananda]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?






*Enlightened in the sense of being religiously, spiritually, or mystically enlightened.

I am going with the 'Yes' answer.

An example that comes to mind is Paramahansa Yogananda in his book
'Autobiography of a Yogi', he tells how after years of deep meditative practices, he had the full God-Realization experience. He experienced merged as the One consciousness.

It is an experience and can not be proved or even explained adequately with words to others. But he says you can only take what he says about God as a premise and don't just take his word for it. Strive to experience it yourself and then you will know (not just believe).

So, yes, I believe an enlightened person can know for certain.

 

[Enoch07]

In your wise and esteemed opinion, would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?






*Enlightened in the sense of being religiously, spiritually, or mystically enlightened.

Not for certain.

But definitely a strong feeling there is.

 

[BSM1]

Sunny, Sunny...an enlightened person would know that God/not God is a moot point.

 

[Sunstone]

Tha's about all I got. If you find an enlightened human let me know - I would love to chat with them

Unfortunately, the one person I know in real life who I would consider likely to be "enlightened" to any genuinely superlative degree (which seems to me the only degree that comports with your own notion of an enlightened person) is someone I've lost contact with - so I can't arrange for you to meet her for a chat. I suppose, however, that people like Thich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chodron would feel at home with her, but I don't personally know those two people.

 

[syo]

would an enlightened person* know for certain whether or not there was a god?

yes.