Mike laughed and seemed to relax which of course was my insidious intent. Grilling me about my attitudes toward mysticism, he compulsively completed my sentences for me.
I said that when I first heard about enlightenment, my impression was that it changes your entire personality, transforming you into Yes, I continued. But now I suspected that you can have very deep mystical awareness and still be Especially when instructing me on fine points of Hinduism or other mystical doctrines, he spoke with an ironic inflection, mocking his own pretensions.
He tried psychotherapy and Zen, but nothing worked until he started practicing Transcendental Meditation in Introduced to the west by the Indian sage Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Transcendental Meditation involves sitting with eyes closed while repeating a phrase, or mantra. Over the next decade, he became involved in the TM organization. Yes, as William James documented, mystical visions vary, but mystics from many different traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Judaism, have described experiences that are devoid of content.
These are what Mike calls pure consciousness events. Shankara, Meister Eckhart, and the Zen master Dogen described their pure consciousness events in different ways, but they were experiencing the same deep reality. Our conversation then took an unexpected turn. He stared at me, and when he continued he spoke in clipped, precise tones, as if trying to physically embed his words in my brain.
The pure consciousness event is just a stepping-stone, at best, to true enlightenment. But they are shifts in perception, not shifts in the structure of perception. And that's, I think, when things get very interesting, when structural shifts take place. Mike held up his water glass. Normally, he said, when you look at an object like this glass, you sense a distinction between the object and yourself.
He set the glass down, grabbed my pen from my hand, and scribbled on his napkin. He sketched the glass, complete with ice cubes and lemon, and an eyeball staring at the glass. There is a higher state of awareness, however, in which consciousness becomes its own subject and object. And there is a kind of, not solipsism exactly, but a reflexivity to consciousness.
Our Caesar salads arrived. Are there any levels beyond this one? I asked, pointing to the circle. Some people want to say that there are, beyond here, experiences. But I'm not convinced of that. So are you enlightened? I asked. He had been expecting the question. He scrutinized me, looking for a reaction. I just gave you a pretty tricky answer.
Because I define this stuff pretty narrowly. Mike hastened to disabuse me of various myths about enlightenment. Major advances were made in science and philosophy during The Enlightenment period in Europe. After having a moment of enlightenment , Bekah was finally able to solve the riddle. Young adults typically seek enlightenment from older people who have more wisdom and experience. As a young person, you should take advantage of every opportunity to seek enlightenment from adults.
All rights reserved. Filters 0. A concept in spirituality, philosophy and psychology related to achieving clarity of perception, reason and knowledge.
Translations of enlightenment in Chinese Traditional. See more. Need a translator? Translator tool. What is the pronunciation of enlightenment? Browse enlarging. Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Image credits. Word of the Day sweetheart.
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