We all know the Buddha claimed to be enlightened. And most claim in that same regard, Jesus was too. Buddha described it as an end to suffering, Jesus saw it as salvation.
I know it's an apples to oranges comparison, but many who claim to be enlightened say that everyone is capable of this. Along with the process comes compassion, forgiveness, lasting happiness, gratitude for all life, and really every positive emotion without any of the negatives.
So how do you guys feel about the concept?
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[–] libby 2 points 1 point 3 points (+3|-2) ago
We're just squishy meatheads. We come up with nomenclature to categorize subjective experiences in order to facilitate useful communication.
It's a fact that there are things associated with enlightenment like suffering, compassion, understanding, acceptance, etc. and it's a fact that these are experienced on a spectrum of intensities with varying frequency by different individuals throughout their lives.
Is there something that can be done that causes a state change in a person's mind where those enlightenment qualities start occurring significantly more frequently and intensely all at once, such that a clear distinction between enlightened and unenlightened can be made? Probably not. People tend to exist far more on a continuum than that. Is it possible to achieve that kind of mental state at all? Probably so; it should be possible to reach almost any arbitrary combination of those experiences.
Because it can be used to describe a mental state, I think enlightenment can be a useful concept. But like the pieces composing it, it's probably best described as a continuum. The specific combination is also probably not particularly special, and substantially similar states that lack some features of enlightenment and/or include additional features are probably just as likely.