Enlightenment Isn't Found; It Is Created.

Do not, monks, address the Realized One by the word ‘friend’, that will not be for your welfare, benefit and happiness for a long time, the Deathless has been experienced by me, monks, and the Path to the Deathless, I am an Awakened One, monks, all-knowing, all-seeing, one who has cooled off, without pollutants, I have power over all things, and I teach the Doctrine, monks, you should come, listen, undertake and give an ear, I am advising and instructing, having been properly instructed by me, properly trained, you will be free from the pollutants, freed in mind, freed through wisdom, and in this very life, having seen directly, having attained, you will be able to say:
‘Destroyed is (re)birth for us, 
accomplished is the spiritual life,
done is what ought to be done,
there is no more of this mundane state - this we know’.

- The Lalitavistara Sutra

Siddhartha sat beneath the Bodhi tree vowing to never arise until he had discovered fundamental truth, dharma, or an answer to his questions about suffering. Weeks later he arose apparently enlightened, awakened, “The Realized One”, discovering what it was he searched for despite having no inkling about what he was supposed to find. As his insights and teaching flowered into a religion, spiced with every mystical or supernatural imagery supplied with every oral tradition, this attainment of supreme knowledge became something to be strived for, in the chance that we too, us mere humans, might attain this enlightenment.

To be honest and candid, I have always been disappointed with the “spiritual search for truth”, with its twists and turns and forever dead ends. I found I didn’t desire the peace of mind they offered, as I still sought the frenzy and chaos from which I find beauty is conceived. Even in my own spiritual searches, whether I failed or not, I have yet to stumble upon anything I could call enlightenment, or any glimpse of my true spiritual nature. It seems I am simply incapable of such access. But the very fact that there can be a thousand and one different formulas for enlightenment, true understanding or divinity, varying by whomever priest, monk and philosopher fathomed these formulas, proves to me quite reasonably that there is no such state of being to search for or attain. For with each promise of enlightenment, revelation or cosmic disclosure that I’ve heard spoken from the lips of those who spoke them – each with their various definitions, methodology and dogma – comes a different interpretation and presentation of an idea about which no one has any real experience, or to which no one can really compare to.

This confusing outlook pained me when I first contemplated it (the result of a necessary end to a negative line of thinking), for it puts in doubt the enlightened ones around us, our teachers and any spiritual authority whom we know and love, and perhaps even give ourselves up to. The promises, the visions of becoming spiritual beings somehow blessed by the cosmos, as if to an impossible transcendence beyond what we already are, lose their grace in the wake of this very thought. How does one know he’s enlightened?

It might show that someone who was enlightened, or possessed of some sort of mystical omniscience, would of course know that he was enlightened; but this would involve an infinite inquiry from which not even an enlightened master could escape unless he had some sort of decree or certificate of authenticity from the universe itself: How does one know that he’s enlightened enough to know that he’s enlightened? And so on to infinity. It further show that one who declares himself enlightened is simply too weary to continue asking that question any longer. Either way, whether the enlightened ones are truly enlightened or not, us un-enlightened ones can only know with confidence that for them the search has stopped, true conviction has set in, confidence in knowing there is nothing left to search for.

Questions arise. When we read the accounts of Siddhartha – most written many hundreds of years after his existence, translated and re-translated to the interpretations we read today – are we beholding the truth? Or are we being told what is thought to be truth according to men so distant from the facts? Only someone who has found enlightenment would know the answer these questions. We can only imagine.

With our common powers, we can approach Siddhartha’s situation as if we too sat beneath that tree. Since we are not enlightened nor were we witness to the events, it seems easier to rely on empathy, intuition and reason, rather than taking these texts (such as the one above) for their word. With this in mind, when imagining Siddhartha’s search for Wisdom, I don’t see much searching being done. How can one search while seated with eyes closed? Searching for truth seems a misnomer. The idea that one must search for Wisdom, that it can be found, stumbled upon, attained and possessed in some manner through contemplation or meditation perhaps, or simply bestowed by the hand of God himself, couldn’t have been what Siddhartha was doing at all.

Insights are not discovered; they are not out there somewhere floating in a Platonic realm for us to have access to. It never shows that we are divinely injected with wisdom by anything other than ourselves and our fundamental relationship with the universe whenever we produce an idea. Insights are generated not found. Siddhartha was creating his enlightenment, creating “truth”. He wasn’t observing or having access to supreme wisdom; his middle way, his noble truths didn’t arrive out of thin air. He cultivated them from his own thoughts and methods, derived from his own life and experience, putting it into words for all to understand. Siddhartha was creator here. He created his ideas, and wasn’t a conduit through which the entire universe itself spoke, but a man, a human being capable of thinking and generating insights that would prove to live in the minds of cultures for thousands of years.

But a truth remains in any declaration of enlightenment or access to God whether they be from Buddha, Jesus, Joseph Smith or David Koresh – Anyone can declare themselves or someone else enlightened. This can be verified by the sheer volume of claims of an access to divine knowledge, whether it be through interaction with a talking white light, a “vision”, a dream, or through sheer introspection. Anyone blessed with a voice can say “I am enlightened” – or more honestly – “I am convinced I am enlightened”. Even so, this very declaration seems an act of creation. It comes from the inside out as an expression. This conviction was not found, it was created.

The idea that enlightenment is created and not found, I think, gives a purpose to spirituality again, especially to those to whom it has failed. We desire to be spiritual because we wish to become something other than what we are. For that, we create our spirit. We create our enlightenment, and in turn, ourselves, presented to the world as works of art. The enlightened ones desire to become enlightened, there is a motive in their declaration, it is why they practice their methods – they search to search no more, for certainty, “truth”. But like all humans, a species that cannot acquire such access to such knowledge, it must therefor be created, like all insight, conceived and devised, manifested in language or practice and presented to those that would hear it.

reply to post by NiNjABackflip

Enlightenment Isn't Found; It Is Created.,

My understanding that enlightenment , wisdom, grace or whatever we call it is not found or earned or made...

it is a gift.

reply to post by intrptr

it is a gift.

A gift from whom?

Originally posted by NiNjABackflip
reply to post by intrptr

 

it is a gift.

A gift from whom?

You tell me.

From beyond? As far as I know we aren't born with it. We don't "work for it" like a paycheck or retirement. We can't seek it for we don't really know what we are looking for... until it arrives. And by "arriving" one can see that it comes from outside ourselves and into and through us. Like a light shining on our path. Like an example to others.

I don't claim to be enlightened, by the way.

energy flows where attention goes...

it can certainly be said that persistent focus upon spiritual concepts and the application of them to one's inner/mental evolution will serve to feed and encourage psycho-spiritual evolution, but the concepts won't stick if the seeker doesn't make it a point to self-reflect on their behaviors, thoughts, and words...

and to break through the veil of illusions completely and ascertain a permanent enlightenment level, requires the awakening of the kundalini. in no other way can one be made aware of the false projections of ego and re-integrate with the energy of the nameless absolute.

when this occurs, one achieves a certain level of understanding that cannot be regressed upon, but they must still put in self-reflective work to continue progressing 'up the ladder'.

in this way, enlightenment is the inevitable by-product of kundalini awakening. the two cannot be separated.

reply to post by NiNjABackflip


The idea that enlightenment is created would certainly explain the multitude of "enlightened" states that one might achieve depending on the technique employed. From moksha, to nirvana, to a Kundalini awakening, and even mediation (more commonly called god-form assumption), our world is full of diverse methods of enlightenment. My opinion has always been that enlightenment is a personal state of self-knowledge, not an overlapping one.

My enlightened revelation, and that of my neighbor, might share similarities, but only superficially. Human beings are subjective creatures, and our personal worldview will always shade our sense of enlightenment. However much we may think we're following in the exact footsteps of Ani the Scribe, Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus, the Buddha, or any other spiritual teacher, we're actually creating our own divergent path based upon their instructions, but not the same.


~ Wandering Scribe

reply to post by intrptr

As far as I know we aren't born with it. We don't "work for it" like a paycheck or retirement. We can't seek it for we don't really know what we are looking for... until it arrives.

I have to disagree here. Ani the Scribe, Moses, Jesus, the Buddha: they all left a "user's guide" for how to achieve enlightenment.

Whether it is living by the 10 Commandments and praising the Lord through the Counting of Omer, preparing the proper funerary rites and rituals so one might overcome the trials and tribulations of death, or acknowledging the 4 Noble Truths and living the Noble Eightfold Path, all of Earth's spiritual visionaries have left behind a guide for those seeking to follow them on their journey.

Perseverance on the part of the seeker is instrumental in the process of enlightenment. If you never seek a Truth, then you're not likely to find one that is personal and meaningful.


~ Wandering Scribe

i would still say that kundalini awakening necessarily precedes attainment of moksha and nirvana.

IMO, 'enlightenment' without kundalini awakening is merely intellectual, and therefore can't really be called enlightenment...wisdom...sure...but not true enlightenment, not complete anyway.

...my $.02

Really really great thread. S & F. Thank you.

reply to post by Wandering Scribe

If you never seek a Truth, then you're not likely to find one that is personal and meaningful.

I agree with that. We are looking for something... (you called it "a truth" just now). Labels are fine but really fall short of what it is we are looking for. It finds us.

Just a personal opinion.

By the way, the guide posts are there in ancient writings. A lot of them have been muddled over the centuries though. All the guide posts do is tell us we are on the right road on our journey to "there".

A state of enlightenment is really nothing more than knowing what the right thing to do in the moment is. Thats "knowing the truth" or existing in a state of grace or being wise, whatever.

Not going down the wrong path will eventually lead to the right one.

reply to post by Qi Maker


Please tell me, how does one activate one's Kundalini? Thank You.

Originally posted by HUMBLEONE
reply to post by Qi Maker

 

Please tell me, how does one activate one's Kundalini? Thank You.

well that my friend, is a very touchy subject, and honestly it would be irresponsible of me to give you much advice on how to do it, because the kundalini awakening can result in a very dramatic episode, involving body convulsions accompanied with catatonia/out-of-body states.

it certainly isn't something that one should try to unnaturally force to happen. it will happen when the time is right and when the vessel (physically and mentally) is properly refined. it feels literally like a surge of lightening or energy snaking its way up your spinal column. you can physically feel it occurring. the only advice i would grant on the subject, would be to have no fear, because it is one of the most profound things a human being can experience in the flesh.

it's a totally personal transformation that i'm sure can occur at different rates and with different results depending upon the person.

suffice it to say, if you consciously seek and are mindful of the interconnections and exchanges going on between your individual microcosmic orbit or energy field, and that of the universal macrocosmic orbit or energy field (unified field), treating your vessel as a temple and avoiding the heavy energy of excessive meat consumption, and increasing awareness through meditation and shamanism, you will be able to open your chakric channels up to the potential for the manifestation of kundalini awakening.

reply to post by intrptr


We're all entitled to our personal opinions, and I don't disagree with yours that truth exists in nothing more than knowing the proper response to a moment. I used "Truth" with a capital T only because it is most commonly how those interested in enlightenment refer to truth.

I've always considered there to be two kinds of truths though: universal and personal.

A personal truth would be the kind one finds while following the Noble Eightfold Path. It makes them feel more aligned with themselves, their values, and their fellow man. Personal truths are what we're seeking when we read the Egyptian Book of Coming Forth By Day, the Mahabharata, the Dhammapada, the Holy Bible, the Tao Teh King, or some other spiritual/religious treatise on living the perfect life.

A universal truth is one that objectively defines us. Like our connection to star dust, which means we are, atomically, mirrors of the Universe; or, the cultural spread of mythology (through religion and literature) which help define the 7 personas all human beings wear during their lifetime. These types of truths don't necessarily give our lives meaning or definition, but they help us understand why life, and one another, are important.

Universal and Personal truths. That's my opinion on the multifaceted nature of enlightenment, at least.


~ Wandering Scribe

My personal experience with enlightenment involved me being at my wits end with regards to what my actions should be in his physical realm.

I was curled up in a ball, knowing not what I should do about my state of affairs. What happened next was not something I had ever read about or sought to attain:

I turned on my side and completely gave up my mind and body. I then experienced what I an now call spiritual death: I closed my eyes and I heard a a voice say, "What if they're ALL wrong and you're actually right?"

Then, with my eyes still closed I was transported through different periods of time beginning with the garden of Eden and ending with my own headstone with my name and the current date (5/25/13).

Then my eyes shot open and I felt a surge throughout my body. A renewed energy caused me to stand up from my laying position on the couch and immediately felt connected to a soul in New York as if on the phone with someone except I could sense their movements as well as converse with them (im from California but always dreamt of moving to New York). I paced back and forth as I had a conversation with this other soul as we both described what was happening to each of us. This occurred at 9pm PST which is Midnight EST

Then I was brought to my knees with a state of immense bliss and uncontrollable laughter. Im sure if anyone had seen me in that state i wouldve been admitted into a psych ward.

Still on my knees I felt several more surges of bliss. The kind you feel when you recieve a gift or achieve a goal that you had been striving for and indeed with each surge I saw a vision of an earthly goal that I desired being attained. Wife, career, material posessions were all mine.

Then a voice thundered from above stating "YOU. ARE. RICH!!!"

I laughed and laughed for a short time still on my knees.

There is more that happened that night but I'll never forget it. Life has never been the same since.

So, I guess my contribution to this thread would be: Enlightenment is indeed a gift. While it was never something I knew about or sought I am immensely grateful for it and I can only live in accordance with it, doing my best to spread its truths as they are revealed to me.

Thank you for listening and may you find what it is that you seek.

I enjoy these ideas, but by their very difference, they do support the evidence that enlightenment is a personal process, as I nonetheless find difficulties when trying to realize how performing bodily contortion, asceticism and meditation can help one arrive to absolute wisdom or understanding. I don't see yogis as enlightened, nor have I heard an enlightened verse spring from their mouths that wasn't said before by someone else. I see nothing more than a man creating a self-image, a philosophy to live by as he artfully creates himself through practice, appearance and rhetoric. I see this in all forms of spirituality. I don't think I need to imagine it is anything more beyond this.

I also don't think they attain anything like an understanding, as it is quite obvious that they have created nothing more than a new perspective through introspection, through a supposed psychotic episode, or by distorting the bodily processes in such a way that something different is felt. I am not convinced that a mystical experience, which I indeed have had, leads one to anything more than a new experience and memory. Rationally it must be agreed: if there was only one absolute truth, one true understanding, one divine truth, everyone who has had access to it would describe it exactly the same as the next, and their insight would be no different. How is it possible that absolute truth can differ from itself? Someone is lying – to us or to themselves.

The idea of Awakening the Kundalini seems strange to me as well – at least as someone with a little practice in asceticism and physical contortion – as it implies that something inside of us is dormant and awaiting to be activated. I cannot accept the idea with little to no physiological indicators of there being such an entity awakening or even existing at all. There's very little to be found outside of the promises of practitioners and advocates that shows there is any benefit nor truth to any of these practices. Because of my own failures in these areas of spiritual searching, I can have no other confident conclusion.

They say there is peace in these practices. But I think peace of mind is not a form of understanding, but conviction, the convincing of oneself that he understands. Conviction to me ends the curiosity of all great minds. I feel claims to enlightenment, if understood as a state of understanding, is the choice to stop searching.

And further – although there are admitted benefits to meditation – I don't see how sitting still for prolonged periods of rest or detachment equates to any sort of profundity and insight. How is a life of sitting, walking the middle path, senses closed off to the world, offer any sort of insight into a nature that does not follow such practices? If meditation is a means to peace and an escape from suffering, in a world of very little peace and much suffering, it is therefore a retirement from life, and not an understanding of it. I find it a from of escapism, but one with practical benefit.

As for the liberation from samsara, I like to think that liberation is attained when the idea of samsara is abandoned, when it is no longer needed as a conviction. All samsara has been is an idea, and not a truth. I feel this sense of liberation is found when any conviction drops from mind once it is not needed anymore, as it allows the stagnant to remove itself to make room for new life. I enjoy my own interpretation in these regards.

reply to post by ccadaver

"What if they're ALL wrong and you're actually right?"

Imagine one man being "right", and the rest completely "wrong". I don't see that as likely. Very interesting experience you've had, but I don't see what wisdom, if any, has been shared with you. Maybe you can share what it is you are right about, while everyone else is hopelessly wrong?

You can sow the seeds and then reap what you sow, if you plant seeds of enlightenment eventually enlightenment grows. At first a small sprout then a leaf then the stalk lengthens and widens branches form then it blossoms it pollinates it curls and wilts looses it's leaves collapses back into the earth becoming nourishment helping others seeds to sprout.

Many spend the entire cycle just pollinating.

The first attachment to the idea of being enlightened or escaping causation, through wisdom is a fetter... a helpful fetter but still a fetter. This is planting the seed.

Then we tend the spot the seed was planted with the water of teaching and fertilizer of books, just so we can get an idea of what the path is and what the path is not. This is the roots bursting forth from the seed.

We start to feel like we have a good grasp of the path, so we sit in the sun and wait eventually there is a sprout. We celebrate thinking enlightenment is here, run around and tell all our friends and family in excitement. This is bliss the first glimpse of enlightenment with our own eyes.

From all the running around in excitement attached to what we think enlightenment is, sometimes we never come back and continue running around telling everyone about it showing them the path you took. The growth of enlightenment stalls because of this attachment to enlightenment. Sometimes during this running around we see that we are still causing ourselves and others to suffer... so we go back and check in on enlightenment. We see weeds growing around the flower mound stealing all the work and nourishment put into it.

So we start pulling weeds determined to not be so reckless, we water with more words, we fertilize with more books, sit in the sun and wait... but bliss doesn't come, we think it's because we have lost our green thumb for enlightenment, so we dedicate our lives to more study on growing enlightenment.

Then on a particularly bright day, we realize enlightenment has already sprouted... it cannot sprout again. We were trying to recreate a sprout the whole time instead of enjoying what is naturally arising in that moment and from that realization the old bliss is let go of and new bliss arises and a leaf sprouts, deeper and wiser we start to not mistake the finger for the moon.

We water with words we read books for fertilizer and can expound a little bit of wisdom for the first time without harm to others on the same chosen path, but if we learned our lesson we watch and we wait, being very introspective on what we have learned up to this point. As we see just more more stalk and circumference. Having exhausted many paths, we start looking at the one that speaks truer to our experience the most, deepening wisdom we can see how the others connect the same information in their own unique way and all paths become one path... the branches form.

We loose attachment to one path and see the many paths, and all the wisdom contained in every religion and the leaves form.

We add specialized mixes of words in our water, we use many different books and faiths for our fertilizer, and the bud forms.

We see all those fighting and struggling, claiming but one path, killing and plague and greed and darkness while all share wanting peace but cannot have it attached to dogma and the attachment of one path, you shed a tear it falls on the bud and it bursts open fed by compassion.

The flower of enlightenment fully blossomed and fed by compassion shines it's beauty upon the world, pollinating by directly pointing to the truth without words of dogma, without being critical of anyone's progress in their tending, but shining on them with beauty encouragement understanding and with the same tenderness as a petal plucked from our own blossom.

There is a choice at this point, to clip the blossom and preserve it in the book of life and return again fully knowing the way so that we may lead others to know the beauty of all paths and faces when we look upon them.

Or we can leave it be, live out the rest of our days knowing and understanding the full cycle of what gives rise to this, what gives rise to that, and if it is harmful we lay it down, if it is harmfulness coming from another we rebuke with kindness from understanding all paths in defending with pointing to truth that fits the person being rebuked... a simple small push ahead on their path. Eventually our cycle completes and we are never again to return.

Originally posted by NiNjABackflip
The idea of Awakening the Kundalini seems strange to me as well – at least as someone with a little practice in asceticism and physical contortion – as it implies that something inside of us is dormant and awaiting to be activated. I cannot accept the idea with little to no physiological indicators of there being such an entity awakening or even existing at all. There's very little to be found outside of the promises of practitioners and advocates that shows there is any benefit nor truth to any of these practices. Because of my own failures in these areas of spiritual searching, I can have no other confident conclusion.

maybe not everyone needs to or even should experience kundalini awakening, but i can tell you, at least IME, the physiological aspect of the kundalini energy is very much a real thing. i had no idea what kundalini was before i had the experience, it was only later that i found out there was a name and established symptoms for it, and that it described precisely what i'd experienced. it feels exactly like a lightening bolt of raw electric energy fracturing upward through the spinal column in a zig zag pattern.

...and then there's the accompanying total ego-loss/visionary aspect that is equally as transforming...

kundalini awakening is not an entity or a practice. it's raw pranic energy coiled up at the base of the spine waiting to be stimulated and released, that destroys the blockages in the chakra centers, dismantles the projections of the ego, and gives one a glimpse into what it's like to dissolve into the All.

Originally posted by NiNjABackflip
They say there is peace in these practices. But I think peace of mind is not a form of understanding, but conviction, the convincing of oneself that he understands. Conviction to me ends the curiosity of all great minds. I feel claims to enlightenment, if understood as a state of understanding, is the choice to stop searching.

And further – although there are admitted benefits to meditation – I don't see how sitting still for prolonged periods of rest or detachment equates to any sort of profundity and insight. How is a life of sitting, walking the middle path, senses closed off to the world, offer any sort of insight into a nature that does not follow such practices? If meditation is a means to peace and an escape from suffering, in a world of very little peace and much suffering, it is therefore a retirement from life, and not an understanding of it. I find it a from of escapism, but one with practical benefit.

you misunderstand the meaning of meditation. it has little to do with sitting postures and nothing to do with the closing off of the senses.

meditation in the broadest sense is a held state of awareness; a peak mindfulness where one dissolves the boundary between their own energy field/vessel and the energy field of the macrocosm/creation, feeling the entire movement of the cosmos as a unified whole process moving through them.

to really feel that unified process moving through you, though, requires conscious effort. melding with the circuit streams requires singular focus, you can't have the regular calculations of the mind going on...it will break the connection. responding to external stimuli in any way will disrupt the connection, because it disrupts the singular focus--the focus on the singular/All.

hmmmmmm

Scientology....same thing...
Mormons.....same thing....

Every other cult you can think of....same thing. They're all cults. And ya they create a system for living using creativity and imagination. Then anyone who joins their cult is promised such a great life, as long as they donate most of there free time and money to the organization. In return they get free brainwashing sessions.

You don't need a cult to find God. If you want to talk to God he's there 24/7/365. If you want to just stop reading this, kneel down and pray to him, and express that you want to find out who he is and where you came from, what your life's purpose is, and where you're going. It's that simple. There's nothing to becoming enlitened. You don't need any guru, or anything. All you got to is start by defeating your pride, by getting your knees and praying. That's it.that's where you start.