Yesterday during a conversation with a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka I asked him;
“Is it possible for a person to experience complete enlightenment, in the Buddhist sense, without ever having heard a single word of Buddhist teachings?”
His answer was, “YES”.
I asked him how this would be possible, and he said;
“Because it is the truth“.
It struck me how simple, and yet powerful this attitude is.
From his answer, it seems that his assumption is that “enlightenment” is a fairly static, or predictable, definable event. That is, that it can be held apart from any particular mindset, or set of teachings. It is a result of understanding, in a complete and total manner, ”the truth”.
Frankly, as I have stated before, it is my present position that Buddhist enlightenment is a result of Buddhist world view and teachings. (I am open to revision of this opinion if a more compelling argument or experience presents itself to me.)
It is ONE form of enlightenment, perhaps among many.
It seems to me that experiencing Buddhist enlightenment is a result of thoroughly steeping your mind and thoughts in the Buddhist world view, which include the concept and experience of enlightenment.
For example, one of the elements of enlightenment in Buddhism is the loss of the sense of “self”. One’s sense of having a separate, distinct self, disappears in the full realization that the self does not exist… it is an illusion, a fantasy constructed by your mind.
Once the idea that the sense of self is a false illusion is postulated, the concept that you can drop that sense of self in enlightenment becomes possible. Once it becomes possible, it can be achieved.
So, is this aspect of enlightenment a universal element of realization that happens every time?
In my view the realization of the loss of self may be a purely psychological realization. It is a change in perspective that involves instantly deconstructing an accumulation of false constructs.
Buddhism raises this point of the “no-self”, and its relationship to enlightenment, to a fairly high status of importance. What I am wondering is - is it inevitable that one would discover this idea of “no-self” as being an essential aspect of enlightenment? And further, would one inevitably experience this without ever having even heard of such a concept?
So again, I am back to this question;
Exactly what IS Buddhist enlightenment?
My next point is this -
If you don’t have to be Buddhist to experience complete enlightenment,
there may be ANOTHER way…
One of the things I am pursuing here in the Unity Project is whether there are practices, or modes of understanding, that can lead to “enlightenment”… that do not require years of practice, meditation, and study.
I am not looking for a “quick fix”, or magical pill to take… but the idea that the only path to enlightenment is a Buddhist one, or one that inevitably takes years of dedication and sacrifice etc. – somehow that idea has never seemed completely right to me.
I know much of the theory of why this is so, why Buddhism works so well, and why it is necessary to go through persistent and focused effort, but I still think that it is possible that this view (the “long, hard road view”) is perhaps only an ASSUMPTION in itself.
It is a belief.
The idea that the experience of enlightenment can be achieved without reference to Buddhism, or Buddhist thoughts and concepts, is a powerful one.
If this is true, then I wonder what else might exist that can come up with the same result… how does one achieve enlightenment without the Buddha’s teachings?
I realize the response of some people may be; “Well, if Buddhism will lead you to enlightenment, why do you need to worry about another way to get there?”
There are two reasons.
One, from a purely hypothetical stand point, it is a fascinating topic.
It calls into question exactly what enlightenment is.
Is enlightenment a more-or-less “static” event that follows predictable and patterned outcomes, or is it fluid and different for each person?
How similar is the experience of enlightenment for each individual, since each individual is uniquely different?
The second reason for asking this question is more practical, and that is that, other methods and ideas can come out of this investigation that may lead to quicker results.
If there is more than one way to enlightenment, perhaps the other way, or other ways, might be more efficient… might require less effort, and might increase the value of your life experience with less “wasted time” to get to the same result.
If you have a moment, feel free to leave your comments here or contact me directly via my contact page. I would be happy to hear your thoughts and input into this conversation.
In Unity,
AJ
I thought this article was most appropriate for my comments, even though it’s not your most recent entry.
You stated that you’re not looking for a quick fix or magic pill, and I understand what you mean, but there’s still the overtone of, “I can’t believe it will really take me as long as they say” to achieve enlightenment and get discouraged. I can say this from personal experience, as when I started meditating I *knew* that I could achieve results more quickly than they predicted. Now, even though I haven’t meditated for anywhere near as long as they prescribe, I know that they’re right.
I too would like a better way, something that provides more consistent results, perhaps in less time and doesn’t seem to be so challenging. I tend to see the reasons why this is not what we experience slightly differently and I’ll give you a few examples by way of analogy. Let’s say I spend 30 years of my life eating whatever I want. As it turns out, I have easy access to high fat, high calorie, processed food and coupled with my lack of regular exercise, my body stores and maintains a high fat content by percentage. The day that I choose to reverse this situation is met with the stark realization that I have a lot of work to undo (if I understand how the body works). This is a perfect analogy for where you’re going and that is, yes, there are different and effective ways to lose weight, but none of them will be instant or without serious work and changes in behavior. That last one is key. Even if I find some pill that “fixes it,” if I don’t change my behavior than I’ll need the pill for life. Or the effectiveness of the pill will wear off and I’ll be back to square one.
The reason I love this analogy is because I firmly believe that we spend a lifetime, or more importantly the majority of our schooling and early working years, progressing in the opposite direction of enlightenment. Our education, as you noted, is highly left-brained and I love that there are even statistics on how we so EFFECTIVELY KILL creativity in the process. Then there’s the constant advertizing and marketing that impresses upon you how happiness lies in possession of this or that. Financial rewards are typically tied to your personal achievements and worth, not how well you envision yourself as one with all that’s around you.
These things are not bad in-and-of themselves, they’re just all the ways we’ve been constantly consuming a non-enlightenment-enhancing diet for most of our lives. Moving in the other direction is a challenge I believe because we’ve strayed so far off that path, whether we’re conscious of it or not. My point in all this is, the easiest solution may not be one of correction but prevention. While we can’t change the problem we have at the moment, I believe that we could reduce the problem with a shift in environmental factors. Essentially, try to maintain and encourage an enlightenment-focused lifestyle both as a part of education but also as a way of life. That may seem like a more daunting task than the Buddhist path… and it probably is… but it’s meant more to shine a light on why it is so challenging to change our way of thinking.
I too am focusing on increasing my right-brained nature, so I hope we can talk more about that in the future. Thanks for sharing your blog thoughts!
Excellent post Brian. I especially liked your comments about how we “spend a lifetime” – “progressing in the opposite direction of enlightenment”, that is an excellent point.
A point about your analogy of the weight loss scenario. To show you my way of thinking about this issue of the “quick way” to enlightenment … I would use the analogy of talking hallucinogenic drugs, or getting hit in the head with a baseball. Ram Dass took LSD and found many things that pointed to enlightenment, and other cultures use peyote and other drugs for raising their consciousness and seeking union. (I am NOT advocating using drugs to find enlightenment…)
What I am pointing out is that experiences can be triggered in the brain that are much more dramatic and quick.
As for the baseball hitting the head, I am referring to a savant, who was hit in the head with a baseball at a young age, and since that day he can recall, in detail, every event of his life. Of course, this is not enlightenment, but it is a pretty dramatic change in the brain and recall as the result of an injury.
I remember seeing some information that thoughts can cause neurons to form tendencies towards established connections and linkage, laying down a sort of “groove” in your brain somehow. Perhaps this sort of mechanism might be the closest analogy we could find for your example, as opposed to the much larger processes of metabolism in the entire organism.
Thanks for the input… it has already given me another idea for my next posting.
In Unity,
AJ