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How Do I Know If I'm Enlightened ?
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Well now we know......Or do we ?
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@Shoshin
How Do I Know If I'm Enlightened ?
You could start by not trying to equate "I" with "enlightenment"
or by letting go of all interest in the asking of such a question!
When it is realised that there is no more separate things or events. There never was any.
All lines fall away, there is no more boundaries between anything, including you and me.
My opinion is no more important or less than yours.
The only place we exist is in thought. Thoughts are seen to attempt to divide everything into separate things and bits. But never believed again.
There is no space, and time. All of this is thought.
A spontaneous flowing of life, nobody doing or not doing anything.
The awe rips all ideas you've had apart as well as you. It's like dying as you slowly realise you never existed. Only this dance.
Nobody realised anything, nothing was attained. Somehow the brain sees through it's greatest survival tool. "You"
You never did anything to bring it about. Because you were always just a beautiful story believed in.
You could research what enlightenment is and compare and see if that is you. Do you believe enlightenment ever existed?
TERRIFIC second video, @Shoshin! Very nice! I thought the first one spooky and suspect, and will listen to the third one later. (Eckhart Tolle also spooks me.)
Again, as others have suggested, perhaps it's the question of What Enlightenment Is that is more pertinent here than the awkward egoistical ones that seem to fly in the face of the very concept of enlightenment. Speaking of the second video and Sri Ramakrishna, that Saint once said that an enlightened person would not grow two horns [of conceit], but would always be deeply concerned for the well-being of all.
Who cares?
If you're not, there's no point in asking, because you wouldn't understand.
If you are, there's no point asking. YOU wouldn't understand.
Thanks @Shoshin
Great understandings, clarity and insights from the vids. They key points for me:
Here is the seal of approval from my meditation cushion ...
When you wake up in the morning, how you do know you have woken up?
You just know.
Things are NOT the same as they were when you were dreaming. But this cannot be put into words. Try explaining to someone what the difference is between being in your dreams, and having woken up.
Words fail.
In the just the same way - say our teachers - we will know when we are enlightened. Remember that "Buddha" means "the awakened one".
Trying to "measure" our level of enlightenment traps us IN not being enlightened. Let go of your yardstick, work on your practices, and be very very patient. Buddhism is not a goal .. it is a process. Either you are doing it or you are not. And "measuring" is not.
I need to add ... I am NOT enlightened. But I no longer try to measure myself ... nor even my teachers. I just know that change happens over time.
Thanks @Shoshin! Great video's.
Happy Summer Solstice for yesterday btw. I watched the last rays of light disappear in the West at about 9.45pm and the first rays this morning at around 5am.
A beautiful time of year........
How Do I Know If I'm Enlightened ?
If you have to ask, you 'ain't'
Paraphrasing from a certain cold war satire:
Stop worrying and love the voyage
Peace to all
Happy Summer Solstice back at ya for yesterday
...Yes it is a nice time of year 
But @how there's an "i" in Enl"I"ghtenment ....However no "I" can be found in Awareness...Thus "I" have heard
I should add, tis just a play on words and letters nothing serious
I forgot to add - Interesting videos..
in Awareness there is Arahant and Wisdom
Thusness is Thathagatha
Enlightenment or Enlightened
each letter has a specific meaning
One should be very careful about this kind of relativism. If someone is harming another, should be just say, "Oh well, their opinion that it's ok to hurt or assault someone is just as valid as my opinion that that is wrong, so I'll just shrug and walk away from the scene, and do nothing"? The Buddha taught that we should speak up about wrong-doing, and he clearly delineated non-virtuous acts from virtuous ones. Virtue was a cornerstone of his teachings. If his opinion was no more important than anyone else's, then he and his disciples were all wasting their time, and so are we, to follow his teachings.
It's not like that at all.
it's all a play of life.
Everything is happening spontaneously, so if I agree or disagree. That will happen as it does. No one doing any of it.
You, me, Buddha, opinions, all just flowing thoughts. There really is no control. It's beautiful.
If you can see with a "stainless dhamma eye", as it is written in the suttas, which probably means to see the dhamma without any obstructing kilesas or defilement, I believe this would be one thing that would be observable for starters.
^^^ Outstanding @Jeffrey
Many thanks.
It must be Christmas
Here is a direct link to the video teachings
http://wayoflight.net/Teachings.php
BTW I don't know if any of that (my post) is true and I just posted it as an example of a description of enlightenment.
Integrity of ones knowing and certainty. That same knowing and certainty exists for the enlightened.
As close as a blink missed and gone beyond ... as far as I know ...
Change happens, no doubt. No change, nothing happens ...
I always wonder why some people are in such a hurry to attain Enlightenment.
Or strive to describe it.
Or attempt to explain it.
Why just not sit back and enjoy the ride?
Some wise Zen master once said:
"If you don't understand, the world is just as it is. If you understand, the world is just as it is."
Why not just simply... flow with what is?
But, @DhammaDragon, the problem is that too many people are Greedy for more than their share. And spiritual greed is the worst kind of greed.
I agree but then sometimes trying to figure it out is part of the fun. I think the problems arise when we actually invest and identify with our ideas of what enlightenment is or isn't.
when people experience 'truth in this world' for the first time they want to tell 'that' to others because their hearts become full of compassion for others who do not see 'what is obvious to them from the moment they saw 'Truth in this world'
and
sometime they 'think' (specially those who have no knowledge of Buddha's Teaching) they are fully Enlightened
but they are just awaken to the Truth only (at this point their view become Right View)
instead what happened is they are awaken to the Truth (the first stage of Enlightenment, namely Stream-winner)
they need to live with the awaken mind for a period of time to become fully awakened (they have to go through other three stages, namely Once returner, Non returner and Arahant (Full Enlightenment) - those who read, heard Buddha's Teaching know what happened to them
others think they are Enlightened but they are just awakened to the Truth only
because they want to tell other people 'Truth' is different than the 'truth' and they want to help others to see the difference
'Everything evolves' will come to mean 'nothing is true' !
~Friedrich Nietzsche~
Good post @upekka.
What you have said is exactly right.
There are increasing depths of realisation ...
Except that everything evolves.
I don't think he thought that one through.
THANKS
So nothing is true
Perhaps hot cocoa on a cold winter's night.
(or not)
Depends on definition of 'True'.
The classic definition of enlightenment in the suttas is freedom from craving, aversion and delusion. So if you have any of those left you're not enlightened. So there.
No need for definition...My truth is the only truth, all other so called truths are of course lies...and an't that the truth
Nobody has ever attained enlightenment - Tony Parsons
Maybe because they realize that death is literally one breath away and you may not have much time left. You may only have a couple days! The zen masters of old considered a sense of urgency in such matters to be a very good thing. Zen Master Dogen said the urgency should be as "when we realize our hair is on fire" and to "practice like your hair is on fire". It's considered skillful, at least in some zen traditions, to cultivate a sense of urgency.
It would be more like everything is true.
If something doesn't change, it isn't real or true because everything evolves and there is no such thing as nothing.
when we say 'everything' we refer to all that we know through our own eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind
but
'seeing Dhamma' or Enlightened means 'go beyond everything'
words that shoot straight to the heart, @Earthninja ! spontaneous play like pinwheels in the sunshine...
Is that true ???
if you are enlightened you would not ponder on this question or ask it,that is how you know you are enlightened.
there is only nothing. There is no such thing as a thing.
How can you have no thing without having a thing to have none of?
Unless we subscribe to magical thinking I don't see how it couldn't be.
I can show you a ball or a leaf. They may be process rather than static things but they can be shown.
Nothing is just a concept.
Because it's all a hologram, there appears thingness. But you can't find any separation, because there isn't any! Awesome.
No, a ball or a leaf is a concept. And a you, showing me something is a concept.
Nothing is a word that points to no-thing!
Closest word I can find to describing this...<3
Somewhere between nothing and everything, I prefer nothing.
robot that's what Nagarjuna said too.
Mu
Nothing means there is no hologram.
Logically, you wouldn't know nothing even if you witnessed nothing.
Nothing is a word that points to the lack of absolutely anything including an illusion or hologram.
It is an impossibility because if there was ever nothing, there was no potential to be tricked into thinking there was something.
Not-a-thing or no-thing points to how things as we see them are really action (verbs rather than nouns) not that they are a hologram.
Anytime you are asserting existence or non existence, it's not the middle way.
Nagarjuna will shread your position.
@ourself no-thing , nothing. Same thing, they are no thing. Haha. Words words words. All pointing at nothing.
Ok @robot let me talk to nargarjuna. Oh wait, he doesn't exist.
I know what you are saying. I'm just playing with words. Like I said.
Jokes mate!
Somewhere between everything and nothing. Nothing is a better word.
Because can we ever find a separate thing?
We can only find nothing. It's incredible
Maybe we should approach this with Zen don't know mind...