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Has there been anyone in modern times who has reached enlightenment
Comments
A lot of people think of him as avalokitesvara.
I agree. "Enlightened" is a big word. I think HHDL has really taken the teachings to heart, and his humility and honesty are the things I most admire about him. I think I'll vote for "awakened to some extent". To what extent, exactly, can be up for individual interpretation. But that's going to be true for many of the candidates people suggest anyway.
Can we say, "Enlightenment is in the eye of the beholder" to some extent?
i personally don't think Ajahn Brahm is enlighten, he seems to get kind of upset and frustrated from time to time.
Not sure about the other two.
I think Acharya Shree is enlighten.
It's not, Federica I lost a piece of mine due to brain tumor removal this spring. Losing peace of mind is worse, IMHO.
Wordling
I don't know if he's widely recognized as enlightened outside his particular sect of Buddhism, but otherwise I agree with the gist of your statement. Though whether one sees him as enlightened or not may possibly depend upon whether one believes in (or can accept, to put it another way) the concept of tulkus, bodhisattvas, Avalokitesvara, etc.
True, but I think the same could be said of anyone mentioned in this thread. And I haven't seen anyone in this thread saying that His Holiness is enlightened only because of his lineage, rank, etc.
I was only responding to some discussion that evolved around Wednesday's comments (see #52 and earlier). And sure, the same can be said of anyone's candidates. Enlightenment to some extent is in the eye of the beholder. I'm just glad to see this topic finally take off. It got stuck for awhile, in the beginning. It's nice to see people getting into it. I thought it was a great topic.
And congratulations found! welcome to life
Goenka, Bhante G, Thich Nhat Hanh, these people, all serious practitioners whose characters appear to be highly developed, the dalai lama, I've read many of his books in which his candidness comes across so poignantly I am almost entirely convinced of an advanced practitioner of high regard (I've also attended a couple of his teachings, and met his personal interpreter Geshe Thupten Jinpa and Sogyal Rinpoche (author of The Tibetan Art of Living and Dying) both of whom had an air of magic about them), Stevie Wonder, wonder by name, wonder by nature, him and Cat Stevens.
There's a lot of people out there with amazing personalities and characteristics that leave me in awe and wonderment, but I don't think I have the capacity to say whether they are enlightened or not. However, here's my litmus test:
Do they appear to get wound up, frustrated, irked; do they suffer; and even if they appear to, to what extent and is it meant to be a lesson to the ignorant rather than a display of any internal turmoil ?
In my opinion, although the human world may appear to be in a mess, there's a hell of a lot of love around too, and so that points to the existence of enlightened beings. Where would we be without them? In a lot worse a scenario I imagine. If they're here why don't they show themselves ? Maybe they are doing, we're just too ignorant to see them. My advice, keep practicing and then either you'll become enlightened yourself, or else you'll start recognising higher beings as you advance on the path. I was came across something concerning Thích Quảng Đức (the Vietnamese monk who self immolated in protest of the oppression Buddhists and Buddhism) and someone had expressed how they thought that Thích Quảng Đức was stupid because of what he did, that he must of suffered enormously and that he only did this because he was skinny, ugly and couldn't attract any female companions (I'm paraphrasing of course). Well this surely illustrates how we only see and understand that to which our capacities allow. Again, I can only say keep practicing and things will become clearer (to the point that they're completely transparent, apparently, i.e. displaying emptiness, sic)
( )
even samyak buddha sidarta gautama used a "label": tathagata. even his contemporary followers used a "label" for him: shakyamuni. what is this aversion of using pointers to useful concepts?
for possible buddhas that are not contemporary to shakyamuni "my vote" goes to bodhidharma.
it may be useful to have a "semi official" list of buddhas.
"If You See The Buddha, Kill Him
For 300 years after Buddha's death there were no Buddha images. The
people's practice was the image of the Buddha, there was no need to
externalize it. But in time, as the practice was lost, people began to
place the Buddha outside of their own minds, back in time and space.
As the concept was externalized and images were made, great teachers
started to reemphasize the other meaning of Buddha. There is a saying:
"If you see the Buddha, kill him." Very shocking to people who offer
incense and worship before an image. If you have a concept in the mind
of a Buddha outside yourself, kill it, let it go. . . . Gotama Buddha
repeatedly reminded people that the experience of truth comes from
one's own mind."
The goal of all of us should be to reach stream-entry in this very life.
Anxious for your reply
There was a man who lead the Western Buddhist Order. He articulated that at the very least the goal of a lay practitioner should be stream entry, and that that is enlightenment.
From that I would guess that there have been many enlightened beings.
Suffering.
Cause of Suffering.
Cessation of Suffering.
The Eightfold Path.
If these four are not in the teachings, then the teachings do not lead to awakening.
Thanks for your excellent post. Just a few points I'd like to point out, though. The Buddha declared himself as awakened from the first sermon after his enlightenment onwards. In fact, on the road to Varanasi where he was headed to set the wheel of the dhamma in motion, he came across Upaka: so having declared:
All-abandoning,
released in the ending of craving:
having fully known on my own
He declares himself a Sammasambuddha. And when he reaches Varanasi, he again declares himself to his former ascetic companions as a Sammasambuddha (rightly self-awakened), even rebuking them for putting him on the same "level" as them: This can all be found in MN26 Ariyapariyesana Sutta: The Noble Search (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.026.than.html).
Metta,
Vangelis
I don't know about other traditions. I can name tons of names within the Vajrayana/Dzogchen tradition though, some of them recently passed on.
It's hard for us unenlightened to gauge the enlightened.
Don't think enlightened beings are something special, don't try to find buddhas outside of yourself, because there are no buddas. There is only mind and form, knowing and not knowing.
There are sleeping minds that don't see, and awake minds that see. I think there are many more awake minds than you think, but how would you know them? There's no outward change, except perhaps a free spirited demeanor and a smile. There's literally no difference except in seeing things clearly. That's all enlightenment is; it's not some special state, it's not an unbinding from the world... it's really truly coming into the world for the first time. Being here, being present.
In just a moment, you could wake up. Are you going to think that you are special then? It's not special, it's just release from all of this crap that we get sucked into, that we suck ourselves into. Then we can really help people, I mean really truly help people, without thinking about ourselves anymore.