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Is it true you can't feel the difference when your Enlightend?

One_of_dharma_waysOne_of_dharma_ways New
edited January 2014 in Buddhism Basics
I read today that when you are Enlightend you can't feel the difference so how do you really know you are?

Comments

  • BhikkhuJayasaraBhikkhuJayasara Bhikkhu Veteran
    What difference? The post and question is a bit confusing.
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    Try to imagine going from the delusional grasping of self to unhindered selflessness. What "you" do you think would exist to ask or care about such a question?
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    I think you can tell the difference because you are beyond life and death. You are beyond anger, greed, and confusion.
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    If you could dig up the source of your information that would help us to understand what is meant better.
  • lamaramadingdonglamaramadingdong Veteran
    The difference is that you know there's a difference, even though there's no difference.
    lobsterBeejanatamanrohit
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    lamaramadingdong said:

    The difference is that you know there's a difference, even though there's no difference.

    That is the experience you may have read about. You know you know as you may also have read. This is the difference between reading and knowing . . .

    and now back to the 'read all about it . . .'

    rohit
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Being enlightened means defilements can't arise because the base for them, ignorance, has been cut. It would seem to me that a mind with defilements and one without would feel different.

    If the statement is true maybe it is only focused on the insight aspect and not the tangential defilements.
  • pegembarapegembara Veteran
    If you don't feel the difference, it means you're are not.
    seeker242
  • misterCopemisterCope PA, USA Veteran
    I've heard that it feels like when your foot falls asleep, and then it wakes up.

    But in your brains.
  • TheswingisyellowTheswingisyellow Trying to be open to existence Samsara Veteran
    I found my enlightenment refreshing! Then I got back to doing the dishes
    lobsteranataman
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    Theswingisyellow said:

    Then I got back to doing the dishes

    Did you put them away? I just did BUT I did not clean the kitchen floor for that clear light sparkle . . .
    image
    anatamanTheswingisyellow
  • BhikkhuJayasaraBhikkhuJayasara Bhikkhu Veteran
    This is what the buddha said in terms of how he knew he was enlightened.

    http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html

    "And, monks, as long as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras, & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. But as soon as this — my three-round, twelve-permutation knowledge & vision concerning these four noble truths as they have come to be — was truly pure, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the right self-awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk. Knowledge & vision arose in me: 'Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming.'"
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    When I was enlightened, all I felt was happy.....

    Still good!

    :D
    lobsteranatamanjae
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    One_of_dharma_ways said:

    I read today that when you are Enlightened you can't feel the difference...

    What's the point of practising then? :p
  • footiamfootiam Veteran
    One_of_dharma_ways said:

    I read today that when you are Enlightend you can't feel the difference so how do you really know you are?

    Don't always believe what you have read. Use common sense. When you are not enlightened, it feels dark inside. If you are enligtened, you will be all bright inside. Isn't that how a bulb works?
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited January 2014
    Few terms are as loaded with opinion as "enlightenment".
    Because a Buddhist practice is a path of discovery of ever more subtle delusions, I think it is safest to simply think of enlightenment as an awakening that transcends the need to label itself.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    I agree, @how; the word 'enlightenment' is almost as convoluted and loaded as that other much-misunderstood word, 'suffering'.

    Gradual enlightenment is a bit like 'Running Water'... Mini~ha-ha.

    I am of the personal opinion that there is 'little enlightenment' and 'BIG Enlightenment'.
    I further believe that BIG is impossible, without several predecessor littles.

    But as, if and when you experience the BIG one - no more little ones either come along, or are necessary.
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    @federica
    Enlightenment and Nirvana are usually the pair much discussed and analyzed as if their existence is just a right definition away from being manifested. I try to bypass most mental mastication's about them because of all the Ego wake that so often seems to follow such exercises.

    Including "suffering" though in this group is surprising.
    Is suffering not just dukka? Is suffering not just our meditatively observable attachment to any phenomena? Is suffering not just an isometric response of heart/mind to what ever we are unable to accept?
    The only confusion that I see about suffering is just where folks can have trouble discerning the difference between pain and suffering. What were you talking about?
    I might just be a little low on my morning caffeine!
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    What I mean is, that the word 'dukkha' has been translated as 'suffering' but it's so much more than that, in interpretative translation.

    Same with 'Enlightenment'. It can mean so many different things to so many different people, on so many different levels....

    Have a coffee dearest! :D
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    image
    image

    Coffee is enlightenment. Profound eh?
    :buck:
    Jeffrey
  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    As a guy you ask me. If you are a lady of course.

    Does this shirt go with these pants? And you give me two option, five options.

    Though I know there is a difference and I may have my preference, I can also admit that either way I don't care.

    And its very much like that.

    You just see the evenness of all things and brings a holy disinterest.

    And at the same time everything is compelling equally.

    lobster
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Part 8 - Nirvana

    And his heart becomes free from sensual passion, free from the passion for existence, free from the passion of ignorance. "Freed am I!": this knowledge arises in the liberated one; and he knows: "Exhausted is rebirth, fulfilled the Holy Life; what was to be done, has been done; naught remains more for this world to do."

    Forever am I liberated,
    This is the last time that Im born,
    No new existence waits for me.
    This, verily, is the highest, holiest wisdom: to know that all suffering has passed away.
    This, verily, is the highest, holiest peace: appeasement of greed, hatred and delusion
    lobsterpegembara
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    Maybe . . .
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