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originally posted by: 5StarOracle
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest
You are wrong it's right above you... it is an explaination that the earth was created from nothing...
Cognito, Ergo Sum: Guess that depends on your definition of "spiritual enlightenment". Which, from what I see, doesn't seem to require much apart from being being able to claim such or perhaps even have a firm yet delusional belief.
vhb: Not mine, yours obviously has degrees of enlightenment as attached aphorisms (would like to see those).
CES: Self praise is no recommendation and all idols have feet of clay. Though some are without belief as you say, this is because they don't believe it themselves.
vhb: Self praise as in Demi-Gods manipulating the human? Those without belief are the Gnostics (those in knowledge pure) not needing a structure/belief system someone else matrix'ed for them.
CES: There is no "self" to begin with (in the way it is customarily believed), there is only an illusion of self. This is well known to most neuroscientists, as it was to many mystics.
originally posted by: vethumanbeing
originally posted by: Cogito, Ergo Sum
a reply to: Cogito, Ergo Sum
Cognito, Ergo Sum: Guess that depends on your definition of "spiritual enlightenment". Which, from what I see, doesn't seem to require much apart from being being able to claim such or perhaps even have a firm yet delusional belief.
vhb: Not mine, yours obviously has degrees of enlightenment as attached aphorisms (would like to see those).
CES: Self praise is no recommendation and all idols have feet of clay. Though some are without belief as you say, this is because they don't believe it themselves.
vhb: Self praise as in Demi-Gods manipulating the human? Those without belief are the Gnostics (those in knowledge pure) not needing a structure/belief system someone else matrix'ed for them.
CES: There is no "self" to begin with (in the way it is customarily believed), there is only an illusion of self. This is well known to most neuroscientists, as it was to many mystics.
You are speaking of EGO (self) and Cosmic Will. Cosmic Will is in search of an embodiment into objective form so that it can manifest a consciousness. A body must exist in order to do this. Ego is just a manifestation of the 'survival of the fittest' (BODY) aphorism. Those bodies without sophisticated ego development perish first.
originally posted by: Belcastro
"Nothing ... is something."
At some point every "enlightened one" is a believer. In every system, no matter how much it is supposedly based on experience, there will be a point at which a "leap of faith" is required to go further....at which point "abandon all hope, ye who enter here", and delusion follows.
originally posted by: glend
a reply to: Cogito, Ergo Sum
Not in every system. Buddhism is less believing
The Buddha warned not to take anything for granted, even if it came from his mouth, for we all have to determine the truth for ourselves.
The term enlightenment is clearly specified in some Indian religions .
People might be "more enlightened" without achieving "full enlightenment" which means they are still haven't attained absolute truth.
So if an self professed enlightened person starts preaching their BS, I'd raise my shields, vetting everything with the logic available to me.
A man said to the Buddha, “I want Happiness.” Buddha said, first remove “I”, that’s ego, then remove “want”, that’s desire. See now you are left with only Happiness.
originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: 5StarOracleThe Soul is our consciousness. It must be restored in white robes.
The Spirit (which must be born again in Christ) is what connects us with God via the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Body is the flesh. It must be resurrected after death.
The "I" is an illusion, a result of the neural processes, yet in a strange way Buddhism creates further illusion. It is not possible to exist without want/desire.
The "enlightened ones" who believe their mind doesn't rely on the physical (the mind is a result of the processes of the brain), but also divide their psyche up into different and competing aspects, seem to end up the fruitiest of the lot. So obviously delusional and the very antithesis of what the term "enlightened" might imply that it is laughable. Yet people revere them (well, many do at least).
Lets hear it.
originally posted by: glend
a reply to: Cogito, Ergo Sum
Buddhism teaches that our endless wants and desires is the source of all suffering.
For example nicotine disrupts the normal relationship between the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the receptors acetylcholine binds too. If we stop feeding nicotine to the addicted brain, is it is the "I" that wants nicotine or a small part of the brain that we presume is the "I", that is sending signals demanding nicotine to stop the suffering. Does appeasing todays nicotine demand lessen suffering when we stop using nicotine the following day.
Even though there are many different schools of thought concerning dualism even in Buddhism, the middle way of Buddhism teaches that we should embrace both spiritualism and materialism. That our nature is not divided into two opposing aspects. dualism itself is the mirage.
No, because enlightenment itself cannot be attained from ego. Suffice to say, I'd be surprised if any enlightened souls are walking our earth today.
originally posted by: payt69
OK here's the simple answer: Enlightenment is being what one is.
To specify it a bit more: It is being what you are before you can think of any concept. As soon as you think of a concept, it's no longer the real thing, but it's reduced to a concept.
Our human mind can only think in abstractions and concepts. Therefore it can never 'grasp' that which you actually are. You can't get there through thought, since it is before thought. It is that in which thoughts happen (you could call it consciousness, at the risk of ending up in more concepts).
There's this well known example of the ocean: if we are the ocean, then everything that happens in it can be likened to waves. The waves are what we experience: the world, thoughts, sensations, etc. But these are just the surface of the ocean. They come and go, while the ocean remains unaffected by them.
So enlightenment can then be said to be the realisation that you're not just the waves, but the ocean.
You're already IT. The only thing that keeps you from seeing that is your attempts to become it.
The mind can only know things in relation to other things. You know what hot is in relation to cold, you know what up is in relation to down, wood in relation to metal, plus in relation to minus, etc. But that which you are isn't distinguishable as such.
It's not something that can only be reached by rare individual who meditate their entire lifes. In fact, that which we are is so close and so obvious that we overlook it all the time, thinking that that can't be it.
It's just what you are here and now. Don't try to think about it. It's that which sees everything, the external world as well as the internal (in that sense it's all-knowing). It's that in which all of this appears.
I've heard people talk about this for many years, listened and read nonduality teachers, and again and again they said the same. Until recently it never really clicked for me: I accepted it as a concept, but the 'shift' never happened.
A few weeks ago however, it spontaneously hit me: My mind has been trying to get me there, but it's utterly pointless. It's like a lion who thinks he's a sheep, and then upon being told he's a lion tries to become a lion. It was incredibly funny to me, since it hit me how futile those attempts of my mind were to become what I already was! I just never saw it before.
So this for me was a glimpse of what this is all about. Forget about all the spiritual and religious mumbo jumbo; it just stands in the way. No quote from the bible or any other book is going to get you there. Beliefs are useless. You don't have to discard them or try to get rid of them, but just leave them where they are and see what you are without interpreting it for say 1 second. That'll do it for you. Once you've 'seen' it, there's no unseeing it.
Basically, in the beginning there was nothing, out of this nothing came everything. in other words, in the beginning was the void, (The opening of genesis describes the world as void.) And within this void, was the spirit of God. God and the Void are One. In other words, In the Beginning was the void, and the void was with god, and the void was god.