The idea, “Enlightenment is this,” or, “Liberation is that,” might make you feel significant or give you solidity and security, but what is it good for? It is only your best guess. Where will your ideas of enlightenment take you? Is it possible for you to cast aside all these ideas you’ve been handed?
Your Idea of Enlightenment
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I certainly hope it is possible to cast all my ideas aside. Otherwise I’ve been on a fools errand.(laughs) My idea of enlightenment these days is not having any ideas of enlightenment! This is the latest koan life has handed me.
Lately it’s come to mind that all I can do is put my faith in my intention to be genuine, authentic, and then sit back and watch what happens.
Eric,
Have you ever asked the question, “Is there enlightenment at all?”
Think of how it is looked upon by those interested in it. Think of how it is a concept pursued by others. Think of how it is used as a means of separation.
Can enlightenment do anything other than create the ideas, “I am different from them,” or “They are different from me”? If one is really clear, there is no differences or distinctions to be made. So how can anything be said at all?
There are so many interesting ways to approach the question. Have you looked into this on your own, Eric? Feel free to share more with all of us.
You are right. I have always thought of it as a state that I would experience while others would not. This comes from/perpetuates the idea of separation. What a subtle trap. I will explore it. Thank you.
When one begins this journey it seems there must be a goal or some conceptualizing of a result. If there were no words to help us find the state of no words how would one ever be aware of the possibility of waking? So the language of seeking, words like enlightenment or liberation, are necessary it would seem to me. I am hopeful that they will fall away as their usefulness is over, though. Like a vehicle one uses to reach the foothills of the mountains, there comes a time when it can go no further. One would not, upon getting out to continue on foot, turn to the car and say it was an impediment. So it is how I think of thoughts, words and the ego these days. They are part of the process; they have gotten me this far and I thank them for it.
I look forward to the time I will be on foot.
Eric,
It is very interesting to investigate all of this. I always like to ask, “Does the idealized state create the words, or do the words create the idealized state?” Although I would not place too much importance on the words as a device for personal gain.
If one lived on an island, and had never heard the word enlightenment, does that mean he or she would be doomed to suffer the indignities of their own mind? Because this person has no outside system to help them, will they be forever greedy and selfish? Or is there a something, beyond the systems and concepts we build, that might bring an end to all of it?
It is easy to say YES, but if one is not there, it is merely a concept. And if one IS there, and they say I am there (or alternately, I Am That), they have gone nowhere.
Just sit sit sit and listen. It will come. But it isn’t an answer such as, This plus This = That. Not something we can reference from what has come before.
It may just become clear. Suddenly. And there is nothing one can do to prepare for it. But that is the beauty of this life, within these limited bodies. Even in death there is always a new beginning.
It is a very curious thing. The idea of it is not it. Yet it can create a relationship with that. But in the end, we have to cast all idea of it aside or we cannot become it. I have heard it said several times that our ideas of it can be the last obstacle to being it.
As it is beyond mind, mind cannot comprehend it. We find the very word is just a concept so has nothing to do with it.
Yet, if we have no concept of it, will we turn to face it?
Davidya,
If there is no concept, what is there to face?
It goes on and on, but eventually, all things come to an end. So the question may become, Can all of this end while one is still alive?
It may very well be the last obstacle. It is an almost hidden movement, wouldn’t you say?
This is very subtle. Will we open to it if we do not look? Or is looking even what is needed? We see when we stop looking. Do we need to look to see what not looking is? etc
Can it end while we live? Yes, when we become that which does not live, yet is life itself. Yet it continues even when it has ended.
A hidden movement, yes. For it is less a doing than a not-doing. Yet, it is movement itself.