GENIUS FORUMS

What is it ? What isn't it ?
What do you know when you're Enlightened ?
How do you know IF YOU are Enlightened ?
Are YOU Enlightened ?

The question "Are you enlightened?" is wrongly put (although it can be useful, at times, for purely rhetorical purposes). Enlightenment is not something possessed or attained by a "self". Enlightenment is best defined negatively, as an absence:

When all delusions, gross and subtle, regarding the nature of self and Reality are not arising, and this state of affairs is understood to be what it is, enlightenment is present.

Enlightenment is not any of the ridiculous things you stated in a post elsewhere. That is best described as "religious fiddle faddle", or "nonsense on stilts", or, "You gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me" :)

Ok...i watched the video, it was good. Nice voice...was that you David ?

Kunga wrote:Ok...i watched the video, it was good. Nice voice...was that you David ?

Dan

Dan is essentially correct in that enlightenment is, simply the absence of delusion. It's your senses and by extension your brain processing just what is going in, without any coloring, tainting or distortion by the emotions or in fact the very sense of self-identity which the psyche has formed.

That's how it works in theory, but in actuality very few people are able to even comprehend this idea, since it represents the stripping away of pretty much everything they are familiar with about how "reality" works. Because for 99% (as just an off the cuff figure)of individuals, the anthropomorphic lens is glued in place from birth to death.

When you can see this aspect clearly, of the human life-cycle, the fact that a designer created this situation also becomes clear. This is where I differ from Dan and DQ.

A premature enlightenment is seeing no borders between anything, that all is the same, and fundamentally it is. The last step is to see an elegance within the forms to you had until now rejected, and realize there is a higher intelligence at work. The aesthetic value only is enough to distinguish it from what could arise by nature alone (not guided)

This is enlightenment. Recognition of a creator as you, and you as the creator, you are one and the same, you meet him in blissful union, and it can only happen within your own mind, which is a microcosm of the totality.

got a question for ya... this creator, is he different from cause and effect?

As all things arise and dissapear, it would indicate not only a creator, but a destroyer ( in ur scenario ).

is these two the same for you?

As a room burning cannot hold a human in it, so can a human in a room not hold fire in it. (unless the human is a super-cyborg with a heat-shelled armour!)

Anders Schlander wrote:got a question for ya... this creator, is he different from cause and effect?

Yes, if this what not so you wouldn't exist to be able to ask the question.

Anders Schlander wrote:As all things arise and dissapear, it would indicate not only a creator, but a destroyer ( in ur scenario ).

Destruction does not have to be a facilitated occurrance, it happens by default simply in the abandoning of a creation.

Destruction does not have to be a facilitated occurrance, it happens by default simply in the abandoning of a creation.

Destruction makes for an absence of the thing that is destroyed.

Which you tell me is abandoning a creation, if i understand right. This may be so, because if a thing is destroyed, it is un-created. But if there is a creator and he decides to not-create things(equal to destruction) is he not the facilitater of this occurance?.

However, prince, only finite things can have a cause(or a creator) not the All, wether there is creator(s) or not, the All can't be a creation, as something other would have to be the creator...

if you think you are enlightened, you are more delusional than those who know they are not. as long as we're human, we will be of delusion and illusion.

Anders Schlander wrote:However, prince, only finite things can have a cause(or a creator) not the All, wether there is creator(s) or not, the All can't be a creation, as something other would have to be the creator...of a creation.

You have to grasp that the concept of finite is built into humans. The concept of infinity is harder to understand, but it is neverless the realm in which God is.

If you are truly enlightened, you can understand infinity, as it merges in your consciouness as a single moment of understanding, your brain is capable of this level of realization, it's a merging between God and your body self.

The All as a random occurance makes a mockery of your own self. I see aesthetics in my life, which I clearly acknowledge as a collaboration between God and my own perception. A Bat doesn't experience it, A Cow doesn't, but I as a human do.

Dan

Thank you for your insight into Enlightenment. At one time I thought enlightenment was experiencing one's dual nature, in other words experiencing one's opposite, going from one to the other which I've experienced many times. Here is what I thought to be an enlightenment for me. I went from having zero opinion which contributed in my thinking I was stupid, to being very opiniated.

That's what I thought Enlightenment was, I have since been educated through this place, thank you for being a part of that.

prince wrote:

Anders Schlander wrote:However, prince, only finite things can have a cause(or a creator) not the All, wether there is creator(s) or not, the All can't be a creation, as something other would have to be the creator...of a creation.

You have to grasp that the concept of finite is built into humans. The concept of infinity is harder to understand, but it is neverless the realm in which God is.

If God is truly infinite, then He is in all realms. He is all realms.

If you are truly enlightened, you can understand infinity, as it merges in your consciouness as a single moment of understanding, your brain is capable of this level of realization, it's a merging between God and your body self.

If God is truly infinite, there can be no such merging. Every part of yourself is already 100% God. There is nothing there that can do the merging.

The All as a random occurance makes a mockery of your own self.

It can certainly prick the ego's cosy view of itself.

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David Quinn wrote: If God is truly infinite, then He is in all realms. He is all realms.

yes but in layers, just a character in a computer game can hold certain parameters and exists within the realm of a game's context, it is not aware of the outer reality that is controlling it.

If you are truly enlightened, you can understand infinity, as it merges in your consciouness as a single moment of understanding, your brain is capable of this level of realization, it's a merging between God and your body self.

David Quinn wrote: If God is truly infinite, there can be no such merging. Every part of yourself is already 100% God. There is nothing there that can do the merging.

But there clearly is a difference between the enlightened and the unenlightened. The difference is in the level of merging between the self and ultimate reality.

Self merges with parent, then family, then relatives, then society, then country, then planet, etc etc, and finally merging with the Totality.

The All as a random occurance makes a mockery of your own self.

David Quinn wrote:It can certainly prick the ego's cosy view of itself.

I am talking about the rebuilding of ego from scratch, in context of the universe, not from the view of a society, which creates the original framework.