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The real work begins with your first glimpse of enlightenment

JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran

I was reading today, and came across a passage which said that enlightenment when it first appears needs to be nurtured, that at the outset it is fragile and easily crushed by the weight of your past. That in fact your past is your enemy in this process. That you need to let it develop and grow.

I thought it was quite a beautiful passage, it put me in mind of Eckhart Tolle’s experience, where he spent two whole years sitting on park benches after his enlightenment before he was ready to start speaking to people.

BunkslobsterTheEccentric

Comments

  • I was reading today, and came across a passage which said that enlightenment when it first appears needs to be nurtured.

    From what I gather one nurtures enlightenment through one's Dharma practice.. In other words Dharma practice nurtures enlightenment and enlightenment nurtures Dharma practice...

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

    Jeffreylobster
  • Great advisement from @how

    Enlightenment is always amongst us. It has components of extreme ordinariness and also skilful potential.
    Imbalance, human aggrandisement, trump style humility and our core karma will drag us into zzz ... as usual ...

    What we can do to discipline the ever fleeting body/mind/emotional aggregates:

    • Be determined/disciplined
    • Polishing is a lifetime choice, wherever one is
    • Be kind, patient and perfecting

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    One example of this kind which occurs to me is that for a while now I have been having certain body energy sensations around meditation, but for my mind it hasn’t felt real, and in discussions online and in person I have held to a very sceptical position that it’s all in the mind, whereas I can feel that my mind is largely inactive when I feel these things.

    Its the kind of experience that should modify ones core beliefs, but on the level of mind I haven’t found a worldview that would fit. There is still work to be done.

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    On one occasion a monk asked the zen master Issan about the necessity for practice after enlightenment. Issan replied, it is needed because of the inertia of habit. He then went on to say, what you hear must first be accepted by your reason, and when your rational understanding is deepened and made more subtle by the ineffable way, your mind will become bright, never to relapse.

    lobster
  • I like the term 'Buddha nurture/nature' that @Shoshin1 mentions.

    Something like my sweet pea that may have started sprouting. Something fragile from seeds but through the right conditions flourishes through the fragility,
    climbs and grows, flowers fragrance ...

    In this sense we are Bodhi gardeners.

  • ChoephalChoephal UK Veteran

    I think we might need to agree on a definition of Enlightenment...🙂

  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    Ok...I'll go first....no wait....mine's an oxymoron.

    Shoshin1lobster
  • ChoephalChoephal UK Veteran

    Sorry...I didn’t intend derailing the discussion🙁 l just meant that “Enlightenment” does a lot of heavy lifting in Buddhist discussions. It covers a whole spectrum from ‘Realising Original Mind’ in Dzogchen, and Satori in Zen, right up to Sammasambuddhasa..’complete unexcelled awakening’ Teacher Of Gods And Men......

    person
  • I thought it was quite a beautiful passage, it put me in mind of Eckhart Tolle’s experience, where he spent two whole years sitting on park benches after his enlightenment before he was ready to start speaking to people.

    Ah seems like a plan. Sit to ready oneself to not speak ...
    I loves a good plan <3

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