Nirvana/ enlightenment

Jackson792

Hello!
After following the 8 fold path correctly, can the state of enlightenment/Nirvana be identified at a single point in time, where one minute you are not enlightened, and the next minute you are? Or is it more gradual?
Thanks

lobster

Hello

Why do you ask? If you are awake there is no question. If you are not ... back to practice. Come to think of it ... if you are awake practice is a good plan anyways ...

Unfortunately traditionally, awakening is not always revealed or discussed by the Sangha. However for your information every minute minute contains awakening ...

Shoshin

After following the 8 fold path correctly, can the state of enlightenment/Nirvana be identified at a single point in time, where one minute you are not enlightened, and the next minute you are? Or is it more gradual?

I'm reminded of this quote:

"Don't practice to become Enlightened...Let your practice be the natural expression of your Enlightenment"

I guess one could say it's not a goal, it's a journey, so the time in which one would like to reach their destination is not all that important....

Buddhadragon

I personally believe that as long as you are too eager to attain Nirvana, or even consider yourself to have attained Nirvana, that's living proof that you have not attained it.
Suzuki said that there are no enlightened people, but only enlightened activity.

The whole point of treading the N8P is cessation of dukkha, attaining a decent level of inner peace, whatever that may mean for everyone.
But sometimes it so happens that the joy is in the path: the things we learn, the serendipity nuggets of wisdom one gathers along the path, the companions one travels with.

We may not attain Enlightenment, but we can still lead as much as possible a life with enlightened moments, enlightened choices and responses.
Equanimity, inner peace, seem to me terms more within reach than Enlightenment.

I like Adyashanti's definition of Enlightenment, by the way:

“Enlightenment is a destructive process.
It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier.
Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth.
It's seeing through the facade of pretence.
It's the complete eradication of everything we
imagined to be true."

????

karasti

It is not something we achieve but rather something we already are and just haven't found yet. Like when I go metal detecting. When I finally uncover something, it's not that it wasn't there before. I just had to dig through the dirt to find it.

But to answer your question, my understanding is that it is both. Because the process is quite gradual but it can happen with particular lightbulb moments or experiences in an instant. When we look at things in terms of lifetimes though, it seems it is always a process. Just because something seems to happen in an instant in our current life doesn't mean it hasn't taken a very long time to get there. Such as what Eckhart Tolle has described his so-called awakening to be. I couldn't tell you if he was enlightened or not, I don't really think so myself because someone who is, I don't think, charges what he does for his seminars and so on, lol. But he described the major shift in his consciousness as a break through moment. Buddha too, basically (not comparing the 2).

Back to my analogy, lol, there is always a moment when the coin/item isn't visible and then the next moment it is. But some of them appear as soon as you put the shovel in the dirt and some of them take a whole lot of sifting and searching to find. Always a process. But always a moment of delineation as well.

Jackson792

@lobster
@Shoshin
@DhammaDragon

Thank you all very much. This has been extremely helpful

Jackson792

Thank you @karasti I appreciate so much the time you took for this response. It has been such a help.