For the sake of argument, let’s admit that God exists.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Perhaps.

Or perhaps, much like chopping wood and carrying water, we are already enlightened and we just dont see it that way. The only thing that would change is our perspective on what is already here and the path leads to somewhere else.

Aphorism
reply to post by AfterInfinity

 

I respectfully disagree. Enlightenment is not the destination, but the path to it. It is a process and not a product.

Not the destination but the path to it? Path to what? The path to the path? Either way, that's quite the profound paradox.

I get the feeling you're deliberately not understanding, because it doesn't get simpler than what I just explained.

reply to post by AfterInfinity

I get the feeling you're deliberately not understanding, because it doesn't get simpler than what I just explained.

That's true. But the way you wrote it is paradoxical.

AfterInfinity

Aphorism
reply to post by AfterInfinity

 

I respectfully disagree. Enlightenment is not the destination, but the path to it. It is a process and not a product.

Not the destination but the path to it? Path to what? The path to the path? Either way, that's quite the profound paradox.

I get the feeling you're deliberately not understanding, because it doesn't get simpler than what I just explained.

Try saying it even clearer and maybe not so simply.

AfterInfinity

Serdgiam
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

I always thought it pointed towards the idea that nothing you "do" changes, only the way you look at it. Most also view "enlightenment" as some sort of end-goal, and is even specifically in that way in some sects. Others teach that it is more of a return to baseline. More of a starting point than the endgoal.

Ironically, there is rarely a grey area. I say ironically because of the inclusion of many different non-duality teachings.

I have always thought that the idea of selfish/selfless isnt quite as straightforward either. For someone that defines the "self" as something they are an inherent part of, everything is "self." So, such a person acts, in their perspective, in the most selfish way imaginable and yet it appears to others as purely selfless.

Not the destination, but the path to it.

Yes it is the journey, I always thought too, now that you remind me.

See everyday is a new day, when you are old.

Tomorrow I will forget we had this conversation.

Aphorism
reply to post by AfterInfinity

 

I get the feeling you're deliberately not understanding, because it doesn't get simpler than what I just explained.

That's true. But the way you wrote it is paradoxical.

Well, the path is the sum of all your experiences, I guess you must be mindful on the path, if not then you wont experience nothing.

Aphorism
reply to post by AfterInfinity

 

I get the feeling you're deliberately not understanding, because it doesn't get simpler than what I just explained.

That's true. But the way you wrote it is paradoxical.

No, it really wasn't. Apparently, the paths you are familiar with only lead to other paths. Kinda makes me wonder where you live, that you are so accustomed or even driven to walk in unending circles. Otherwise, you would understand that paths typically lead to destinations. Roads end. That sort of thing. Unless you're deliberately seeking other paths to travel, rather than seeking an end to the one you already walk.

I'm flabbergasted that I even had to clarify this for someone as refreshingly quick-witted as yourself.

Enlightenment is innocence.

It can't be taught or sought.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


I wasn't trying to be rude. I understood completely what you meant. For someone who posts so much you're quite difficult to converse with.

Aphorism
reply to post by AfterInfinity

 

I wasn't trying to be rude. I understood completely what you meant. For someone who posts so much you're quite difficult to converse with.

Digital communication isn't quite as flawless as one would assume it to be. I imagine we both ought to be familiar with that reality by now.

Aphorism
For someone who posts so much you're quite difficult to converse with.

I can agree with that. AI is one of the more condescending members on the board.

He is also one of the most "rewarding" to converse with.

So what conclusions have we reached as a result of this thread?

AfterInfinity
So what conclusions have we reached as a result of this thread?

none of us are enlightened?

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Or all of us are..

And here we are, just chopping wood and carrying water.

Stormdancer777

AfterInfinity
So what conclusions have we reached as a result of this thread?

none of us are enlightened?

But according to most generic definitions of the term, we're certainly working on it.

Serdgiam
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Or all of us are..

And here we are, just chopping wood and carrying water.

edit on 9-1-2014 by Serdgiam because: (no reason given)

lol good one

AfterInfinity

Stormdancer777

AfterInfinity
So what conclusions have we reached as a result of this thread?

none of us are enlightened?

But according to most generic definitions of the term, we're certainly working on it.

I once was.

Let me share this again.

98. From ‘The Ancient Sage’
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

IF thou would’st hear the Nameless, and wilt dive
Into the Temple-cave of thine own self,
There, brooding by the central altar, thou
May’st haply learn the Nameless hath a voice,
By which thou wilt abide, if thou be wise,
As if thou knewest, tho’ thou canst not know;
For Knowledge is the swallow on the lake
That sees and stirs the surface-shadow there
But never yet hath dipt into the abysm,
The Abysm of all Abysms, beneath, within
The blue of sky and sea, the green of earth,
And in the million-millionth of a grain
Which cleft and cleft again for evermore,
And ever vanishing, never vanishes,
To me, my son, more mystic than myself,
Or even than the Nameless is to me.
And when thou sendest thy free soul thro’ heaven,
Nor understandest bound nor boundlessness,
Thou seest the Nameless of the hundred names.
And if the Nameless should withdraw from all
Thy frailty counts most real, all thy world
Might vanish like thy shadow in the dark.

‘And since—from when this earth began—
The Nameless never came
Among us, never spake with man,
And never named the Name’—

Thou canst not prove the Nameless, O my son,
Nor canst thou prove the world thou movest in,
Thou canst not prove that thou art body alone,
Nor canst thou prove that thou art spirit alone,
Nor canst thou prove that thou art both in one:
Thou canst not prove thou art immortal, no
Nor yet that thou art mortal—nay my son,
Thou canst not prove that I, who speak with thee,
Am not thyself in converse with thyself,
For nothing worthy proving can be proven,
Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise,
Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt,
And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith
She reels not in the storm of warring words,
She brightens at the clash of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’,
She sees the Best that glimmers thro’ the Worst,
She feels the Sun is hid but for a night,
She spies the summer thro’ the winter bud,
She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,
She hears the lark within the songless egg,

She finds the fountain where they wail’d ‘Mirage’!

reply to post by Stormdancer777


I don't see how your response was even remotely relevant to mine. But whatever. In terms of relevance, this whole thread got flunked and held back for the rest of its unnatural existence. Pretty much par for the forum, it seems.

...In case it isn't painfully obvious, this is my clumsy attempt at making an unfunny thing something even unfunnier. By trying to make it funny. Is it working?

reply to post by AfterInfinity

So what conclusions have we reached as a result of this thread?

All one has to do is put the word "God" in the title of the thread to bring out the usual dogmatists.

Aphorism
reply to post by AfterInfinity

 

So what conclusions have we reached as a result of this thread?

All one has to do is put the word "God" in the title of the thread to bring out the usual dogmatists.

What were you hoping to find or do when you made on this thread, then?