To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/09/01 18:43
Subject: [K-list] Enlightenment
From: Ckress
On 1999/09/01 18:43, Ckress posted thus to the K-list:
Recent posts (mine, Angelique's and indirectly, Jay's) have brought attention
to the All That Is, God/Goddess One Self level, which, when directly
experienced, is described in spiritual literature as "enlightenment." When I
first had direct experience of this state some 30 years ago, I, as El Collie,
ceased to exist as a separate individual. The literature speaks of this as
dissolution of the ego -- the loss of one's sense of being an isolate self
amidst others. There was only the totality of universal/divine
consciousness. Three days later, when I "came down" into my personal
identity again, I could have said that I had an enlightening experience, but
NOT that I was enlightened. I had just been permitted, by grace or fate, to
know some of the sacred mysteries, just as now, by grace or fate, I'm
experiencing risen K. Aside from an innate passion to uncover the truth of
everything (not that I always succeed), I did nothing consciously to seek or
earn these experiences.
IMNSHO (newly coined acronym: "In my not-so-humble opinion," LOL), most who
claim to be enlightened were, at best, given a visitor's pass to the deepest
level, then returned to their human-ego state. (One sign that someone isn't
really highly evolved is their egotistical boasting about how much they are!)
A very, very few have remained centered in the One Self state: Buddha, Jesus
and Neem Karoli Baba seemed to have achieved this. There are others. The
Buddhist monk who deliberately set himself on fire to protest the suffering
on all sides in the Vietnam war seemed to personify enlightenment. Media
film coverage (broadcast worldwide) showed him sitting unflinching as the
flames consumed his body. After he had burnt to death, only one part of his
body remained uncharred -- his heart. His fellow monks later tried
repeatedly to cremate his heart to complete the death ritual, but the heart
proved indestructible. In the PBS documentary that told the full story, I
think they said that the monk's imperishable heart remains enshrined in a
Buddhist temple.
Until we have reached that kind of self-detachment and unconditional love, I
don't think we can honestly claim to be enlightened. Yet not being
enlightened doesn't mean we don't have any valid insights, it just means
we're still learning.
El
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