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What is Enlightenment?
banned_crab
Veteran
What is the significant difference between somebody who is enlightened and who is not?
Is it simply somehow who lives constantly in the present moment?
Do I really have to throw away my darkness? or am I fusing it with the light?
Is it simply somehow who lives constantly in the present moment?
Do I really have to throw away my darkness? or am I fusing it with the light?
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They've had a metaphysical realization, either about who they really are or about what they really want & don't want-- that's solving delusion, greed and hate (aversion).
What are the consequences? That's fuzzier. I suppose it is safe to say that the problem you were hoping to solve by seeking enlightenment should be solved or reframed so it isn't a problem any more. But to say what the consequences of enlightenment are also implies one has been there.
The Knife of Discernment. (audio.)
Hmm what does that mean: am I enlightened? or am I aware of that, which the dharma points to and says categorically, that is what does not suffer? But I desire that which does not suffer, and so it goes on... The endless midstream caught between suffering and not suffering and experiencing both simultaneously.
just a thought!
mettha
“Don’t believe a single thought”. (I believe that is a Ramana quote.)
That’s a powerful sentence to me.
A “teacher” said (or at least that’s what I read about him) that Zen is about being able to think the thoughts you want to think (and not the thoughts that bother you). That is rubbish imho.
Throw away the whole package. Don’t believe a single thought.
Don’t think for a second about being enlightened or about what that means.
For attachment to this life -> impermanence
For attachment to the sense pleasures -> suffering
For attachment to peace -> love
For those with a more secular view, enlightenment is just self actualization where you become content with your own life, death, and where you are in the universe.
This (Buddhism) and other similar religions are ultimately philosophies where every other person will have a different view. Thus, every other person will have a different view on what Enlightenment is or isn't, OP.
Wikipedia has a nice write up about the 3 poisons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_poisons_(Buddhism)
"In the Buddhist teachings, the three poisons (of ignorance, greed , and hate) are the primary causes that keep sentient beings trapped in samsara. As shown in the wheel of life, the three poisons lead to the creation of karma, which leads to rebirth in the six realms of samsara. Of these three, ignorance is the root poison. From ignorance, attachment and aversion arise." Not necessarily. It depends if your mind is poisoned or not. Darkness essentially goes away by itself. I like the analogy of a child's teddy bear. (not implying anyone is a child, but just go with it for the sake of the analogy!
To the unenlightened, identity sees countless beings and yourself.
To the enlightened, there is just dreaming and waking up.
"Somebody" and "enlightened" are tricky to connect to each other..
Enlightenment simply manifests on it's own as the absence of delusion
and such an absence dissolves all boundaries between self and other.
If you mean your defilements, wouldn't you want to throw them away??
"This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Nibbana."
I would say there is a huge difference between someone described above, and a normal mundane person. The difference is in the mind, however,not outwardly apparent.
Do I really have to throw away my darkness? or am I fusing it with the light?You will find that some people suspect
1. there is no such thing as enlightenment
2. there is but they are not
3. they are
Those are the usual suspects
and now back to the unusual . . . as usual . . .
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, “What Makes You Not a Buddhist”
Throw away your darkness? Nothing gets thrown away .. what happens is that it stops directing us. You will stop grasping it you darkness, stop identifying with it.
"Just simply" live in the moment?
Hah. First you have to develop the ability to be mindful for even 2 seconds. And that's when you are sitting on your meditation cushion, not distracted by all this busyness we call "living".
There is no "just simply" about it.
We are talking about changing our habits, which is not easy to do. And the habits we are trying to change are habits of countless lifetimes.
No "simply" at all
But really, no better way to spend your time than working on it.
same with enlightenment..
practise practise practise, let go
This is truly it. It is the habit of change, the life and death of every moment.
http://www.khepa.org/Traktung_Yeshe_Dorje/Teachings.html
Teachings from the heart of Silence and Love
At breakfast t.k. was asked “What is the experience of the body and mind after awakening?” He answered:
First off it is profound non-specialness and utter uniqueness for, in it, the body knows all beings, even all appearance, as a single shattering of light - like the billion rainbows of dawn rays on crystalline frost. All appearance is the poetic utterance of the divine and this means a profound equality of all appearing.
The extreme meaning-fullness of all appearance arises from awareness’ luminous ground of equality and in each moment this value laden uniqueness manifests as an almost unbearable tender heartedness. It is a question of knowing, recognizing and living that knowing.
Right behind the breastbone is an expanse of Love whose extent dwarfs infinity. Every appearance subtle or obvious - realms, beings, Buddhas manifests from this expanse of openness and clarity. To the body it feels to be there, behind the breastbone - the heart... but in fact the body and all bodies and appearances are within it.
After awakening, in the absence of identity, Love lives the body. For this particular body (pointing to his own) it is experienced as a tender heartedness that is ceaselessly welling up, animating the cells with a longing to give itself away to every being, every atom of appearance. Oddly, because it is the natural state, the body almost never even notices - just as a fish does not notice the water it swims in. But if asked, and the body turns its attention toward itself, the radiance of this expanse swiftly overwhelms, engulfs, the senses in unborn bliss.
The brain is washed clean of its grasping to concept by an unborn Silence. I think maybe Silence is the context of the expanse and Love is the content and they are like a flame and its warmth. In that silence, mind perceives appearing as a network of infinite intersecting luminous threads. What we call space and time, realms and beings, are simply condensation of these threads – droplets, nodal points. Mind, as Silence, uses Love, as body, to manifest compassion in a poetry of circumstance. It does this without ever confusing itself with the concept that there are Buddhas who save or sentient beings who need to be saved, or compassion, or threads of light, or Love or Silence.
t.k. - traktung yeshe dorje
A conversation between t.k. and one of his very closest long term students whose realization is profoundly deep.
A conversation with Sky when t.k. was filling out a government form for her.
“Sky, when were you born?” – “I was never born.”
“No, I mean when was your body born?” – “It was never born either.”
“OK, but in conventional terms, when?” –“I don’t understand what conventional means.”
… and then she walked away giggling.
..........
t.k. traktung yeshe dorje
@heyimacrab Talking about light and dark misses the entire point, I think. The Buddha taught about how to overcome all forms of suffering... the complete cessation of all suffering is enlightenment, or Nirvana. When we put a metaphysical spin on it of any kind, we're off-goal.
The difference between someone who is Enlightened and someone who is not ?
In all honesty I don't know.
I think this verse from the Dhammapada gives a good feel for the state of enlightenment:
96. Calm is his thought, calm his speech, and calm his deed, who, truly knowing, is wholly freed, perfectly tranquil and wise.
Nirvana is in Samsara. If you can accept your darkness and your light and be at peace with both in your every day reality, eventually you could attain a broader concept of enlightenment. If your idea of this elusive enlightenment doesn't help you lead a more fulfilling life here and now, it can wait.