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@Jeroen said:
Are you suggesting we make an enlightenment detector which works on data from a specially-trained cadre of mindfull observers? Sort of like a black hole detector which works on data from stars. For detecting enlightened ones at long distances.

This is a pretty funny visual @Jeroen . I'm imagining a machine you stick your finger in and it tells you if you're enlightened or not with a red or green indicator.

Not trying to make the point for a detector so much as express an appreciation for many different perspectives working together. Like in seeking to find what is unable to be comprehended or expressed, we can look for the signs in the things we can comprehend and express. Since we are all on different places along the path, it helps to have multiple interpretations from various perspectives pointing in the same direction. Things such as the various schools and teachers, 10 ox herding pictures, Heart Sutra, koans, etc.
Just like the Buddha indicating which of his followers were strongest in certain forms of meditation or certain components of the 8FP and if I recall correctly, would direct individuals with specific challenges to specific practitioners since those practitioners saw from a particular perspective. Or how he taught variations of gradual training multiple times in slightly different ways across many Suttas.

I believe I read somewhere a long time ago that when finding and studying black holes, scientists have a tricky time because they are not findable directly as nothing yet measurable can escape the event horizon. This causes them to be invisible against the backdrop of the blackness of space.

One of the techniques used to locate them is to view the surroundings for clues and distortions indicating a direction and triangulate to the emptiness they all point toward.

Since the black hole itself cannot be viewed straight on, the perspectives of the stuff around it are needed to guide the scientists.

Apparently this works because each thing they observe points from its own unique perspective to the same general location of emptiness. The more unique perspectives combined, the more accurate the map of the black hole's location.

Each unique perspective provides more of the missing data, more clues, a stronger picture which would be less without them.

It seems in living our own unique perspectives, we collectively become an extension of that which we indicate toward to any who look close enough to find.

I think we are all imperfect practitioners @david