What is the point of enlightenment?

[TyrianQuill]

Thank you so much, all of you. Just knowing that there is a kind of understanding of what this is, is very comforting. Thank you fluffy, I will try that. It sounds very soothing.

SL, you are very kind. My children are my world. They are grown with families of their own now and no longer really need me as the main female in their world. Sad but liberating for us all.

Cliffy, that video pretty much sums it all up doesn't it. I had heard of Greg Braden before and oddly enough yesterday I picked one of his books up at the library. Fate?

After a very long walk and talk with my husband we have both decided it may be time for me to look at going back to school for anything that sounds fun for me. Now I just have to figure out what that will be.

Thank you everyone for caring. I think my time is about to come, today we smile, tomorrow we dance and then I am going to get my behind into a classroom......... Maybe Philosophy? Maybe oceanology? Maybe art? Maybe cooking? Maybe anything is possible when you look through freshly cleaned lenses.............

That is wonderful news! BRAVO !

You most likely will try many things before you happen upon what works for you and like fluffy said you will know it then you feel it,
This does not mean that it will always work or forever work as with each day you are slightly different.

My thinking for me is I am a unique transitory biological entity and process, the process is a very long and complicated chain of the chemical and physics reactions. I agree with grammafreddy- I was born, I am living and I will die.

My understanding is: speaking of my conscious self “I” am my brain, put another way my brain is who I am.

When I use the word “I” I am referring to the conscious me, the me that perceives and has a sense of self. Without consciousness “I” would not be.

Language defines, and, intrinsic to definition are boundaries and initiations.
For understanding, language is of the utmost importance. Each word defines shapes and leads.

Addressing your comment “then, what’s the point?” Your question is subjective. Taking your usage of the word point, to mean purpose meaning or end goal, for me, my answer to that question is “there is not point.” It is like the question what is the point of a rock or snow or oxygen, there is not point, there just is. Each- you me rocks oygen are all products of a process.
I suggest you

• get an (accredited) knowledge base (understanding) of the “fundamental sciences“
• study critical thinking and practice it

With doing those two things you will have equipped yourself well.

Maturity for me, is, the following prioritized:

1. honouring my intellect
2. being honest, independent of how I feel
3. accepting, independent of how I feel
4. staying to my chosen core principles

My answer to “why are we?” is “we, just are” anything further is purely subjective.

Most have a low tolerance for … unknown.

I wish you joy in your travels

[Wally]

A little background.
I am non-religious, Have a personal idea of god being a collective energy actually created by people.
I have read the bible.It didnt help me with anything.
If you feel good praying, believing and going to church, have at er, you have a right to.
Not too long ago I was sadly seeing someone closeto me slowly die after a long battle with cancer.She was religious, went to church and couldnt understand how anyone could deny the existence of god. I told myself that her beliefs would help her through the last bit of her life, knowing without doubt that the pearly gates of heaven awaited her arrival.I took comfort in her belief of that.
The thing that bothers me is this. Right before she passed, the last few days when she was just waiting to die, She looked so scared, I dont know if faith outlasts reality at that point.
Which makes me wonder, if the only time I thought it would be comforting cant comfort her at that time, what good is it really,
Same question, What is? the point of enlightenment?

[cliffy1]

A little background.
I am non-religious, Have a personal idea of god being a collective energy actually created by people.
I have read the bible.It didnt help me with anything.
If you feel good praying, believing and going to church, have at er, you have a right to.
Not too long ago I was sadly seeing someone closeto me slowly die after a long battle with cancer.She was religious, went to church and couldnt understand how anyone could deny the existence of god. I told myself that her beliefs would help her through the last bit of her life, knowing without doubt that the pearly gates of heaven awaited her arrival.I took comfort in her belief of that.
The thing that bothers me is this. Right before she passed, the last few days when she was just waiting to die, She looked so scared, I dont know if faith outlasts reality at that point.
Which makes me wonder, if the only time I thought it would be comforting cant comfort her at that time, what good is it really,
Same question, What is? the point of enlightenment?

A belief system is not enlightenment. Faith is not enlightenment. What this woman experienced in her fear was uncertainty that her faith was enough to keep her out of hell, in other words, was she good enough to pass the tests for acceptance into heaven. First off, that is a bunch of nonsense. Just because people believe something is true, does not make it true. Belief is also, not faith. In fact they are two opposites. Enlightenment is something altogether different. It is more attached to something akin to Zen, where through a spiritual experience you see and feel your connection to everything/god/creator/universe,great spirit. That place cannot be occupied indefinitely. It is fleeting at best but the knowing that accompanies it has a permanent effect on one's view of reality. It has nothing to do with religion or beliefs. It is a knowing of your place in the universe.

[Wally]

Ahh yes, you are correct, as much as one can be on the definition of enlightenment anyway.Why do I suddenly feel like a grasshopper.

I should have posed my question in a different thread.
Thats OK, its kind of a rhetorical question anyway.

Enlightenment seems to just be a sense of pupose and well being, I think they come first, then you feel comfortable with your life, hence enlightened.
But I am not a master of anyone but myself.

[cliffy1]

Ahh yes, you are correct, as much as one can be on the definition of enlightenment anyway.Why do I suddenly feel like a grasshopper.

I should have posed my question in a different thread.
Thats OK, its kind of a rhetorical question anyway.

Enlightenment seems to just be a sense of pupose and well being, I think they come first, then you feel comfortable with your life, hence enlightened.
But I am not a master of anyone but myself.

And that is all you can hope to be. As they say, "before enlightenment, chop wood carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."

[GenesisGT]

Enlightenment

[cliffy1]

Enlightenment

Anybody who thinks they are enlightened is obviously not. It is the ego that thinks.

[Glacier]

The Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe, that sought to mobilize the power of reason, in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted science and intellectual interchange and opposed superstition, intolerance and abuses in church and state. Originating about 1650 to 1700, it was sparked by philosophers Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), John Locke (1632–1704), Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), mathematician Isaac Newton (1643–1727), and historian Voltaire (1694–1778). The wide distribution of the printing press, invented in Europe in 1440, made possible the rapid dispersion of knowledge and ideas which precipitated the Enlightenment.

[cliffy1]

The Enlightenment is not the same thing as being enlightened which is a spiritual concept of reaching a state of consciousness. The intellect and science is stuck and limited to the material aspects of reality. The only science that comes close to closing the gap between spirituality and science is quantum physics and mechanics.

[5VP]

It happened to me a few years back while trying to wrap my head around the fact that a 800lb grizzly bear was charging at me and I realized that there wasn't another soul around for 60 km. and my rifle was jammed.

If a bear kills and eats and craps you out in the woods, does anybody hear??

[cliffy1]

It happened to me a few years back while trying to wrap my head around the fact that a 800lb grizzly bear was charging at me and I realized that there wasn't another soul around for 60 km. and my rifle was jammed.

If a bear kills and eats and craps you out in the woods, does anybody hear??

Would anybody care? Would the event even register in anybody else's reality?

I don't know how you eat, but most people's diets render them not much more than toxic waste. I would feel sorry for any bear who eats a human.

[5VP]

Now that's enlightenment!!