Is enlightenment possible?

i think our natural state of being is good enough and doesnt need this whole "enlightenment" charade that other people have made up to make things even more complicated.

sure, it gives people the idea to look within themselves and search for some sort of peace...but ultimately i wouldnt want to burden myself reaching some "goal" others have set and defined

 

without enlightenment, our species would still be dwelling in caves, rueing in our own shit.

 

Really? News to me.

Care to tell in what regard? Just how is (good) philosophy not able to keep within the constricts of reality, of nature?

You do realize that we are animals, born of nature, part of nature. And that science is the study of nature?

Whatever we do is "natural". What we have to make a distinction of, is what is reasonable and what is not. As such, philosophy need very much to be founded in what we know to our best current ability. Or more succinct, in science.

 

enlightenment itself is a vague term.

there is natural enlightenment, studying of natural phenomena; science. there is self enlightenment; philosophy.

i didnt mean to make such a grandiose statement. i just feel in order to delve into something on other planes require a philosophical mindset. science, through the SM, is concrete; which in most situations is appropriate.

 

Then perhaps education is a better term.

Though, it do happen from time to time, through various education, that things seem to connect, one reach understanding more or less at a sudden pang of realization.

One may call that enlightenment. Ofcourse, even if a powerful experience, it says nothing of the validity of what one is "enlightened" to.

But it sure is fun when one do get those experiences

 

that is what i feel true enlightenment to be, no matter the complex being observed.

 

thats what i was trying to say. way to one up me, man

 

Not true. Some science is very much introspective. Understanding human nature by any objective means.

You can call meditation an introspective method if you wish, to explore ones own mind. But there is nothing that says such a method cannot reach objective results, indeed we know such exist. Where one can control by mind body functions believed to be only steered by our unconscious for example.

There is a reason why the term "enlightenment" is called what it is. To go from the dark, stumbling along without knowing, to having at least some luminousity in our understanding and navigation of what surrounds us.

We're no longer entirely in the dark, well, many of us. All we need to do, is keep that beacon of inquiry and knowledge shining, and we'll do good, eventually

 

Well, then we're just talking semantics. Enlightenment means many things depending on context.

But still the root of the expression is the same, as I outlined in my previous post.

 

Hehe, I did not mean it like that.

Sure, one feel enlightened when one make a hard to get at connection or association, I do not mean to take away anything from that feeling of realization, as it can be quite powerful and defining for ones outlook.

I just think it important to know what words mean. In this case, that there is no such thing as a set standard for being "enlightened". It is just a label we set on ideas or experiences that we think are somehow transcending normal cognitive functions. Something that requires an undefined creative power of association not usually found.

Like say Newtons ideas of Gravity was enlightened. Einsteins even more so. Most of us have such connections of the creative with the cognitive, yet near none of us with the impact our best thinkers through time have had.

Which is why they are celebrated, and you and me are not. At least not for our published and accepted superior thinking ability

 

Red herring. No tangent to thread.

Knowledge is neutral, what we do with it not.

Reagan is not celebrated for being enlightened.

 

perhaps enlightenment is as much of a perceptual lie as what our mind tells us we 'see', etc...

perhaps their is nothing above this plane of existence...

and perhaps there is no such thing as the confines of time, and we are perpetually, and continuously, living as the joint awarenesses of our constituent particles...

and perhaps there is some driving force behind the formation, and progression, of life unimaginable (haha, anything is imaginable) to us.

IDK

(and neither do you [whoever bothered to read this far])


(this pessimistic attitude towards human consciousness and being will fade in a week or so, with the progresion of t-break, and the introduction of massive amounts of shrooms to my mouth)

 

Honestly I do believe in enlightenment but I also know that you can experience it without taking drugs. There have been times where a bestfriend and I spoke about issues in our lives and really figured out who we were. I used to think I needed weed to think the way I think but then I found out that weed doesn't make you think it may help you think but you can figure it all out by yourself.