Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Is enlightenment a reality for the average Buddhist?
I have been heavily absorbed in literature on Buddhism upon my discovery. I am intrigued and fascinated by the idea of enlightenment; yet don't fully understand the concept. I would assume it is different for every individual, seeing how no person is the same or perceives the world the same way. But I still don't understand exactly what happens, is the individual transformed after they reach enlightenment? And furthermore, is it a realistic to assume that the average person who practices meditation and the teachings of Buddha, without the intent of becoming a spiritual leader, will ever reach enlightenment? 
0
Comments
Here's a little bit what enlightenment might be like (I don't know, I haven't been there). I got this from Steven Hagan's book, Buddhism:Plain and Simple
Look at this picture. There's a cow there. If you don't see it at first, it's ok. Your mind isn't conditioned yet to see it. But once you do, you'll ALWAYS see the cow, and nothing else!
When you see the cow, are you transformed? Yes and no.
So transformed in the sense as you've now had that experience, and not transformed in that you're not a butterfly leaving a coocoon... you are the pupa, cocoon, and butterfly all at once.
Fly away happily
Thus the "Sutra of Perfect Awakening" has the Buddha teach that, like gold within its ore, Bodhi is always there within the being's mind but requires the obscuring mundane ore (the surrounding defilements of samsara and of impaired, unawakened perception) to be removed. The Buddha declares:
"Good sons, it is like smelting gold ore. The gold does not come into being because of smelting ... Even though it passes through endless time, the nature of the gold is never corrupted. It is wrong to say that it is not originally perfect. The Perfect Enlightenment of the Tathagata [Buddha] is also like this."
^gassho^
What if I can't see the cow?
And maybe drop your desire to see the cow
I, for one, have never been able to see those 3D images on the posters that were popular in the 90s. I'd get close, realize it, then lose (or regain, as the case may be) focus.
This isn't like that. Once you see it, you will always see it!
I'll tell you this. Everytime I look at the cow I see something new that I didn't see before. I think the cow pic is a good example of how we are always changing. Just like when you watch a movie over and over and you can see something you missed after seeing it 100 times.
Enjoy.
^gassho^
I guess you have to define "know" I have been in sehins and spoken with two for certain. but know as in friends with hang out and have coffee with? no. My biggest impression with the two of them was just an undeniable honesty and clarity about them. the things they would tell you were inarguably the truth. even still in the throws of conditioned mind the truth of the words was almost palpable. I once read that we have all met enlightened people and probably didnt know it because they were "ultra-mundane" or so "ordinary" that our egoic minds could not see them for what they were. interesting.
^gassho^