Enlightenment

Beats me. I guess one would have to know what enlightenment is first. How does a person know if they are enlightened or what the meaning of it really is or is supossed to be?

 

In short, enlightenment is the realization of the non-dual nature of reality.

The Heart Sutra

Or as the Buddha said, "The end of suffering."

 

^ in other words letting things be..

 

Enlightenment IMO is simply being spiritual awake and aware. You first have your awakening/realization. After that you are on a never ending journey to full "enlightenment". After your initial awakening, you learn more and more and you understand more and more. Symptoms of progressing in enlightenment would be shedding your ego, becoming more calm (less negative emotions), control over your body, removing all negative actions from life, being happy and positive, a greater understanding of the universe and its laws, having a correct intuition, and then once you are pretty advanced you will even get into powers such as channeling, reading people, energy work, telepathic communication with humans, guides/angels, and others, etc. So that is basically my idea of enlightenment

- peace, joy, love, and light

 

i agree 95.7% until the bolded part. Yes i believe in guides or "angels" to put it in a broad perspective, but communicating with them seems far fetched...? idk brighten up the topic for me

edit: my definition would be an awakening that is life changing, and makes realizing easier. A full understanding of one self while at the same time having a driving force on full gear to better the person you are. I'm a strong believer in karma.

 

I like your definition as well. Much more general and easier to understand then mine.

As far as the guides and angels things go, I believe we have guides (Angels meaning an exact synonym for guides). These guides are beings that come to us to help us advance in a certain aspect of our life and to help us learn certain lessons. I have had personal experiences telepathically communicating with my guides. You can take that for what it's worth, but I know for myself that they are there and that I can communicate with them. You may not agree with that and that is perfectly fine. Just trying to clarify for you...

- peace, joy, love, and light

 

budsmokn gave a good description. There is the initial awakening. I don't call this enlightenment, but some people do. To me it doesn't make sense to call it enlightenment, because people who have had the experience can have pretty vastly different ideas, so how can it be enlightenment? After this awakening the real fun begins. Your negative qualities have greatly diminished. Your positive qualities have greatly increased. Your understanding of the world has greatly increased. So you should already be happy. You've made great strides. And yet there is much work to be done, cultivating the good and increasing in knowledge.

 

Thanks my friend...you definitely have a good description too. The overall quality of your life improves so much once you reach some form of "enlightenment"...that's for sure.

- peace, joy, love, and light

 

Most definitely id give ya a 100% on that...I'm moving up second by second , minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day,

I'm excited now because this is how it was last year but now I've learned so much and have the full understanding...so now its all coming back to me and I understand as the days weeks months and year progress we will only be more learned and happier

yeah i believe they call this initial enlightenment or taste kensho or satori

 

you can use a buddhist method to inspire your own enlightenment

enlightenment is just a word...the thing is found within...its you.

its who and or what you are...the thing that is to...to fully understand this...and the world you live in and what your motives are

whats your goal and purpose...do you have one? are you content just living a life?

the most beautiful thing about enlightenment to me is that YOU DONT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING.

literally you can sit down in one spot until you die if thats what you wish to do...its a good way to dissolve your problems...understand you dont have any responibility to do anything

its not your job to not get caught for pot and arrested...its not your job to graduate from college...its not your job to murder somebody...its not your job to have kids...

its all about conforming really its this trick making us think we have to do things

we're very free if we can see it... I feel very free

and then once you're free its all YOU...and a matter of what YOU want to do

Remember just as Jesus lived and taught wisdom the Buddha lived and taught enlightenment

but you're living today...and if you realize yourself you could emerge a greater teacher than even them....

why do you think so many people in society today especially youth dont like listening to Jesus talk and Buddha talk and religion? Its because its all old...people today have a hard time visualizing,understanding, and most importantly truely believing these things because of how outdatted they are

We're not going back in time and we're not here to wait for someody of the past to emerge and solve all our problems...We're here to write the future and make history

its up to you really what would you like to do?

 

It indeed sounds scary. I thought the same thing. However, it's one of those things where you have to see the wisdom in what you can prove of the buddha's sayings and take on faith that he's right that the path will bring you pleasure. The pleasure gained from following the path is dependent on nothing. You will ALWAYS be happy, basically, irrespective of circumstances. It's much better than pleasure from specific things. And you don't have to be perfect as far as abstaining from sensual pleasures right away. Do what you can. Over time you won't even have the desire. I'm not saying I have no desires, but my desires have decreased so much. I don't even really have much of a sexual desire anymore, and that's the most powerful form of sensual passion. And it's not that i'm doing it because i'm following some rule or someone told me to. I honestly just don't care about those types of things as much anymore. It's my own choice. There are no rules. The buddha is just telling you what will happen, what you will naturally want to happen, as you progress down the path.

 

thanks for making that clear for me. When you told me that you communicated with them i just wanted to make sure i understood correctly. Nothing against you, but i'm that guy that doesn't believe it till he sees/experiences it. Maybe one day ill be lucky and get that far on my journey(which i would love to do ), but until then i'll be good living life to the fullest.

 

enlightenment:

LOVE

 

Yeah man and thats good thats why i wanted you to understand its all within you... and thats the important distinction that should be mad between todays people and the people of the past...I dont find any humor in their teachings which is not to say they aren't as good but its true

a reason people like alan watts theories is because he not only speaks truth and knowledge but he does it in a fun way

and thats what people need today...they need to understand life isnt so serious like people like to make you think and with that understanding you'll watch all your things you thought were problems fade away

If I think its funny to be like "Holy shit that was fucking crazy" " Watcha doin niggga?"

I can say and do these things because I'm only lifting up my spirit

its like I read an article yesterday about how people who curse could take more pain...they put their hands in ice cold water first without cursing then with it and they lasted on average almost twice as long being able to curse

obviously showing itsa natural thing... so its important to eliminate whats right and wrong and teach there's nothing wrong with calling yourself a christian hindu muslim and buddhist all in one if you'd like

you are free to do and believe whatever youd like

 

I used to be the same way. Drugs are actually a big part of what got me into this type of thinking in the first place. I began to study buddhism and it just made so much sense. It seemed so obvious to me. Like, a lot of it were things that I had already figured out, and I didn't know hardly anyone else believed, and then I started reading up on buddhism and the buddha taught the same thing. This gives me basically absolute faith in the buddha, since he confirmed what I learned independent of him.

As I say, there are no laws in buddhism. Most buddhists have sex. Some buddhists do drugs. Sex isn't really immoral, as long as you're not doing it in a immoral way such as with someone else's wife. Drugs are the thing that I struggled with the most. I just didn't see what was wrong with them. But it's made more and more sense over time. I haven't done any drugs in a long time. I made a conscious choice not to do anything besides smoke weed, but I haven't even done that in a long time. That wasn't 100% a choice, circumstances have kinda fucked me in the weed department, but i'm not sure what I think about it. I'm proly gonna smoke weed a few more times, to see whether I think it conflicts with my path with buddhism, but in all likelihood my smoking career is near end.

 

I thin pezz and journey have already nailed it, but remember its not all or nothing, you can follow as much of it as you choose, and that little bit will still help you along your path. You will probably find it is like a snowball effect anyway, and do a bit more and more in your everyday life.