Does enlightenment mean rising above thought????

Question

What is above the mind then???

Answer 1

You are right. When you rise above the thought you come in contact with the know-er of the thoughts. If just think rightly, you will come to know that the thought process is not in your control. You are just the chooser of the thoughts. You may choose one thought to be right and one as wrong. You can only choose when you are above the thoughts. So you as a spiritual being is the know -er of thoughts so when you rise above the thoughts you are enlightened person which means you come to know your existence as different from the mind.

Answer 2

It means rising to thought, certain thought in and of its self. Mind equals thought equals action.

'A. The Sensuous Consciousness.
11. The simple sensuous Consciousness is the immediate certitude of an external object. The expression for the immediateness of such an object is that "it is," and moreover a "This," a "Now" according to time, and a "Here" according to space, and different from all other objects and perfectly, determined (definite) in itself.

12. This Now and this Here are vanishing somewhats. Now is no more while it is and another Now has entered its place, and this latter Now has likewise vanished. But the Now abides all the same. This abiding Now is the general Now, which is both this and that Now, and is likewise neither of them. This Here which I mean, and point out, has a right and left, an above and a below, a behind and a before, etc., ad infinitum; i.e. the Here pointed out is not a simple and hence definite Here, but a unity including many Heres. Therefore, what in truth is extant is not the abstract, sensuous determinateness [the simple "it is"], but the General. '

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/ol/ol_phen.htm

Answer 3

I guess it means very different things to many people. The western interpretations of what enlightenment means is different from the eastern philosophies. Even in the eastern religions / philosophies there are so many interpretations of it. To me enlightenment is closer to 'awakening'. To awaken to the truth that all things are 'one'. However, since I can only glimpse this reality on rare occasions (perhaps in the order of a billionth of a second) I cannot be sure of what I experienced. So to answer you question, that is not how I interpret enlightenment (as being above thought). A more accurate description might be to know who you are in reality. I may also be misinterpreting your statement / question. That maybe you mean that knowing this reality is 'rising above thought'. Either case you are already enlightened as you are. The question is do you believe it?

Thanks for your question

Answer 4

When you shed a light on something you see it more clearly. Becoming enlightened is to see things from a better perspective, more closer to reality. I heard "woo woooo" in the woods one morning and thought it was a ghost. But I shined a light on the situation and saw the reality, an owl.

Rising above thought involves being in that place in the mind that sees and realizes rather than that place of chatter that has to think it's way through everything. Realization replaces analyzation, understanding replaces knowledge.

Answer 5

Rising above thoughts is necessary! Then emptying the mind is second. With a clear mind, no thoughts; comes meditation. Or meditating in order to empty the mind. Then we're going above the mind, we're passed the mind; we reach the Light; indescribable type of light, never seen before. This Light brings warmth, peace & wholeness. This pure awareness and feels like nothing else known... And with practice, we can do it as much as we want.
It's impossible to explain in word, how it is, it's so far fetch than the known... Thanks, Rena.

Answer 6

I think it might mean rising above the action a thought might bring and behaving in a better way. Doing the better thing. A lot of people think good behavior is stupid but in fact IT IS more enlightened than using base reactions. I mean, what is THAT? One step above animals?!
One step above enlightenment would be absolute wisdom and godliness. That is how the Dalai Lama is viewed.

Answer 7

No, enlightenment is the best kind of thought.

It is questioning old wisdom and asking just what is 'the truth' and what makes it 'true'.
Enlightenment is saying that dogma, although comforting, cannot stand in light of reason.

It is not an abrogation of faith, because faith is beyond reason. But faith likewise cannot abrogate knowledge as knowledge is created by empirical reasoning.

Never stop asking why, for that's the pale image of total knowledge with which we have been blessed.

Peace

Answer 8

Conditioned patterns of thought (and misperception)? Yes.

We cannot know anything for certain, nor respond appropriately in the now without self-knowledge, meaning understanding the origin of our illusions/beliefs that control our thoughts and feelings.

Mind can be described as the intersection of soul/ authentic being with the brain/body system. Above the mind? The quantum non-material field that is responsive to consciousness.

Answer 9

"The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flushes, or short-circuits of reasoning. In fact they may be likened to an immersed chain, of which only the beginning and the end are visible above the surface of consciousness. The diver vanishes at one end of the chain and comes up at the other end, guided by invisible links." - Arthur Koestler

In popular usage mind is frequently synonymous with thought: It is that private conversation with ourselves that we carry on "inside our heads" during every waking moment of our lives. Thus we "make up our minds," "change our minds" or are "of two minds" about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere with unlimited power. No-one else can "know our mind." They can only know what we communicate.

Answer 10

Enlightenment is uber thought and without the brain to
discern it, it couldn't exist. Even a pure love state depends
on our concept of this, ergo, the brain....then there's the
components of a brain and thought..atoms, sub atomic
particles, DNA, etc. Even the concept of a God is a
sociological or theological one and is filtered through
the decision making or thought process. Besides this,
there is the whole of the physical universe and all of
it's mysteries..... so far above defining "enlightenment"
that it would be impossible to speculate.