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Arahats are indeed enlightened, but it is not the ultimate goal. Becoming a bodhisattva or buddha is both a higher achievement, and there may be another one that i'm not thinking of. This is not to say that arahant isn't great, it's just there is more.
- you reincarnate on a physical world over and over.
- after so many reincarnations you finally learn all your lessons, you graduate, you become enlightened. You are liberated from desire and suffering and you spend the rest of your life in bliss.
- after your physical vehicle dies you merge with the universal energy and God.
- from now on you are not bound to a karmic conditioning. No need to manifest in a physical form anymore.
But learning and evolving cannot stop here, can it?
Maybe this is what happens.. ?
- you keep learning and evolving in the spiritual plane and occasionally you 'choose' to reincarnate on earth or any other physical world system to help others in their journey. It will NOT be another "conditioned" existence; instead, you are free.
anybody with first hand experience here that can confirm this? by first hand I mean any information from a guide while obe or in deep meditation. Buddha or Jesus never mentioned what happens after we graduate. Or maybe we don't need to know that yet.
Conceptual problems that need to be corrected in my opinion:
*There is no reincarnation in buddhism: There is no soul (Atman)
*You need to contextualize what you understand by "enlightenment" (Ugh I hate that word, I prefer awakening)
*In buddhism the "universal energy" (like Prakrti for example) or God (be it Isvara, Yahve, Brahmanirguna/saguna, etc.) is denied.
*This point is interesting from a Mahayana (more specifically a tantric) point of view: the distinctions between Nirmanakaya, Samboghakaya and Dharmakaya.
All the following you wrote sounds to me more like a New Age stuff or something... Buddha or Jesus? Buddha and Jesus taught different things... there are certain convergences in the practical ethical plane, but in a more metaphyisical (metaphysics in the CORRECT USE OF THE WORD, as in ONTOLOGY, PHENOMENOLOGY, etc.) it is completely different. There is not a concept such as "graduation".
Also, you are going to get answers that seems contradictory with each others if you ask certain traditions, for example a Dzogchen answer will seem very delirious if you have in mind the common Mahayana or Theravada idea of Buddhism that people in occident have.*
*Just to clarify: In my opinion there is no contradiction whatsoever in any tradition of Buddhadharma from any point of view; I don't think that there is a real contradiction between Dzogchen/Mahamudra and the Canon Pali teachings.
Comments
Thanks for your response. That's how I understand it as well.
Kind regards,
S
Conceptual problems that need to be corrected in my opinion:
*There is no reincarnation in buddhism: There is no soul (Atman)
*You need to contextualize what you understand by "enlightenment" (Ugh I hate that word, I prefer awakening)
*In buddhism the "universal energy" (like Prakrti for example) or God (be it Isvara, Yahve, Brahmanirguna/saguna, etc.) is denied.
*This point is interesting from a Mahayana (more specifically a tantric) point of view: the distinctions between Nirmanakaya, Samboghakaya and Dharmakaya.
All the following you wrote sounds to me more like a New Age stuff or something... Buddha or Jesus? Buddha and Jesus taught different things... there are certain convergences in the practical ethical plane, but in a more metaphyisical (metaphysics in the CORRECT USE OF THE WORD, as in ONTOLOGY, PHENOMENOLOGY, etc.) it is completely different. There is not a concept such as "graduation".
Also, you are going to get answers that seems contradictory with each others if you ask certain traditions, for example a Dzogchen answer will seem very delirious if you have in mind the common Mahayana or Theravada idea of Buddhism that people in occident have.*
*Just to clarify: In my opinion there is no contradiction whatsoever in any tradition of Buddhadharma from any point of view; I don't think that there is a real contradiction between Dzogchen/Mahamudra and the Canon Pali teachings.