what signifies it? a different awareness or something? I read that enlightenment is the idyll for Buddhists, so how do you know when you have got it?
2006-11-03 08:00:08 · 14 answers · asked by andylefty 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I don't think you can ever really know 100% for sure. I believe it is a really deep feeling and sense you get within you from chanting/meditating. You feel elated by your life and start to realise you are connected to everything. I think it is also when you realise that fundamental happiness is attainable in this lifeltime, and experience it. You still get obstacles in every day life but you develop a real fighting spirit and shine like a sun that can't fail to shine on those around them! Problems? No anger or self-righteousness - Just chanting til your throat's dry!!
It is definitely an awareness, and I am so pleased that I found this practice! I really deeply appreciate myself as a person! At last!!
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!
Peace to you!
2006-11-03 12:15:56 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
My Buddhist yoga teacher tells me there are two meanings of enlightenment.
The first is a simple understanding that there's more to life than consumerism.
The second one, and the one most people think of as enlightenment, is when the spirit no longer needs the body. When an enlightened person's body dies they are released from the wheel of reincarnation and get to float off and be at one with everything.
This type of enlightenment can be briefly glimpsed by an individual at points in their life. Yoga enthusiasts say the practise of yoga brings this enlightenment closer.
2006-11-03 16:11:14 · answer #2 · answered by salvationcity 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I suggest that most know it when we realize enlightenment comes from the inside, not from an outside source. Somewhat the same when Christians know when they are saved. Incidently, not only are Buddhists seeking enlightenment, but most all belief systems seek enlightenment (they just call it something else). For instance, even though my name is BuddhaBill, it just signifies that I believe in some of the principles of Buddha, and alot of what Jesus's message teaches. I am an ordained minister of spirituality, and feel strongly that each belief system has something we can learn from. One journey, many paths, one light, many lanterns!
2006-11-03 16:08:52 · answer #3 · answered by buddha bill 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Enlightenment is not really a state of personhood. You can't look at someone and say "He [/I] is [/am] enlightened". Nor can you really experience a single event that defines when one has achieved it.
Enlightenment is probably best described as a relationship that exists between your world and yourself that is realised when you begin to treat it as such. Once you have released yourself of your ego and separated from the world (as through the eightfold path, for instance), the way you treat everything around you flows naturally without any sort of personal strain or effort.
2006-11-03 17:40:34 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If a person thinks to themself 'I am enlightened', then that person isn't enlightened, it is the ego playing tricks.
Enlightenment is like someone switiching on a light where there has been darkness. One aspect of it is realising that one's thoughts create one's reality. Another is the putting of the ego to it's rightful place (as servant rather than master). Also, a sense that the person is at one, or united, with the world - this is more difficult to describe, but it is as if the world is you and you are the world.
Usually the truly enlightened person would reject this term as a description of themselves.
If someone tells you they are enlightened, they are not. Enlightenment is shown by action, not by words.
2006-11-03 17:31:57 · answer #5 · answered by Sun is Shining ❂ 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Through much effort we get a glimpse of it and then we realize we are not enlightened! But it is an absolute peace. Yes an awareness too.
2006-11-03 16:07:56 · answer #6 · answered by a_delphic_oracle 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you're released from egoic identity, and know, on the level of pure awareness, that you are transcendent nonduality. And, it's not that desire goes away. What goes away is craving... that egoic grasping for objects and/or phenomena that will bring fulfillment, and quell the gnawing emptiness. Except, no object or phenomenon can ever bring that fulfillment. Also gone is the flip side of grasping: aversion. With neither grasping nor aversion, life becomes a state of free-floating in now, with no craving that now be different. It is true freedom.
2006-11-03 16:33:52 · answer #7 · answered by Alex S 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
One will know if he was enlightened when he reaches enlightenment . None of the people here are enlightened , so i think you will not get your answer here.
2006-11-05 05:14:49 · answer #8 · answered by YoBro'' 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it was a great question... i would loved to have read an answer from an actual Buddhist though
2006-11-03 16:04:39 · answer #9 · answered by me not you 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sit zazen and you will experience the enlightened mind.
2006-11-03 17:59:37 · answer #10 · answered by unseen_force_22 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋