So You Seek Enlightenment ??

reply to post by sign00


The search for enlightenment is no different than looking to material possession for happiness. We think a new car will make us happy, and it does for a while. A new pair of shoes, a new girlfriend/wife/husband, a different job or a new house, all an attempt to make us happy. This fleeting happiness we get when we get what we want is really nothing more than a short release from desire. It is not that we got what we wanted, more like the wanting stopped briefly, it soon starts up again though.
The freedom we look for is the freedom from wanting (desire).
To seek enlightenment, is desire. To seek anything is desire.
The trick is to stop desiring but how is that possible?
Stop seeking things. 'Things' can not fulfill us.

Enlightenment is the cessation (end) of seeking. There is nothing to find 'out there'. Happiness, contentment, joy and peace come from inside, and when this is felt the inside and outside become one.

But you forget that even wanting to not want is desire. Wanting to be enlightened is desire. Wanting not to desire, or to desire, or wanting to want to not want. All desire.

We're here on Earth as humans for a reason. We each have a reason why we are here. To not desire is way above us.

I think that enlightenment is very possible, but not desiring is something much further away, and we have to work towards that way after our enlightenment.

Ok, I admit I'm basically paraphrasing what I read in that book I mentioned above, in the last couple of chapters on philosophy. But I think it's totally true.

-sign

EDIT:
Ah ok, maybe we're saying the same thing. Just reread your post and it seems I misread it the first time.

I like your computer game analogy. A game begins tedious if you use the cheat modes, the challenge is removed, although you may get to see more of the game, you wont actually enjoy the experience as much.

in life when we are faced with challenges, sometimes we get it wrong, we may keep getting it wrong, but each time, we learn something new in the process, the same with a difficult level on a game. Each time you fail, you remember at what point you failed and try to change your tactic to deal with the previous failure. Soon enough you master the level and take the experience from that level on to the next.

If you imagine life as a game, it opens up more possibilities and makes life seem a little more fun, you dont have to view everyone else as competitors, rather as people to assist you and whom to learn from in your challenge to the next level. You too can help with others with their challenges and help yourself in return.

reply to post by sign00


The trick is to stop desiring, but is that possible?
Desiring and thinking are the same thing. If you notice, each thought is a wanting. Each thought that appears is telling you that there is something missing, we are driven to find something, anything that will remove the feeling of lack.
It is the feeling of lack and incompleteness that makes us feel dis-ease, which in turn drives the desire. The desire is to feel complete, we think that if we get what we want this will stop the pain of being human.
The fulfillment that we long for can not be found in things, as things on the material plane are fleeting. Happiness, peace and contentment allude us.
The 'thing' that sees all things coming and going is not a thing. It is the ever present moment that you are. Where ever you are the present moment is.
To stop seeking (desiring) stay with the self. No where to go to find what you are.
The source of every thing and no thing is god, look to the root of thought (where thoughts spring forth from) and the desire for worldly things will drop away.