--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote: > > > On Behalf Of j_alexander_stanley > > > > I don't think it's possible on FFL to mention the topic of > > seekers becoming finders without it pushing someone's buttons. > > There's some justification for that, in that many who reported > great experiences or Awakening did so to bolster their egos or > attract followers. > Also, some folks' definition of enlightenment is rather exalted > and would exclude all stages of awakening other than the final > one. Also, there's a tendency to dismiss claims of awakening in > those whose personalities we may not like, or who appear so > ordinary.
I can only speak for myself. I am not at *all* opposed to people's experiences of "finding." I just tend to look at what they DO with that which they believe that they've found. If, for example, they announce with absolute certainty *exactly* what it IS that they've found, or what it "means," I grow wary. I'd like to see the telegram they got from God that makes them so certain. :-) Another thing I see as a "red flag" in some who claim that they have "found" is that they assume that they have nothing more to ever find again, that they're "there," and that there is no more seeking to do. I find that very, very sad. I think that to some extent the "finding" thang is an extension of the "seeking" thang. That is, a lot of people paid their dues for a long, long time in traditions that left them as seekers, without them ever finding what was promised. That can tend to make people a little anxious, and after 20 or 30 years make them almost *desperate* to find something -- anything -- to prove to themselves that all these years and decades spent seeking were not in vain, were not wasted. So they let their standards slip. They have a realization or awakening, and because they've waited so long for something to happen -- for *anything* to happen -- they make more of the experience than perhaps they should. They have a flash of 24/7 witnessing and think they're enlightened. They see rosy auras and think they're in GC. I've seen this happen so many times, and in so many spiritual traditions, that I tend to walk away from anyone who talks about "having found." *Especially* if it becomes apparent that after having found whatever they found they *stopped* there, and assumed that there was nothing more to find. I have only met two or three individuals on this planet whom I suspect of being fully enlightened. Every one of them could not *wait* to wake up each morning and see what new things it had to teach them, what more they could learn that day, and how much they might be changed at the end, of that day. That, to me, is finding something and treating it correctly, as just one more step along a never-ending path. Saying that one has e reached the end of seeking -- to me -- just indi- cates that the person saying it has grown tired or lazy or complacent.
