> > > > Deal with the original question. WHY is enlightenment the > > highest goal in life?
Because one chooses to have it? A goal is always something subjective, there is nothing objective about it. Try to have a discussion of WHAT enlightenment actually means, and you get a hundred different answers. So couldn't 'Enlightenment' just be a placeholder idea for what life actually means to you? Like X, and X can be redefined -or not defined at all- at any moment. So do you object for people to have a certain ideal at all? Or do you think that enlightenment is so much beyond thought and concepts, that having it as an ideal is a contradiction in terms? In both cases you would be holding ideals as well maybe more hidden. The first one would be an assumption that its bad to follow any ideal and that the ideal is a distraction to the actual reality, just like J. Krishnamurty says it. You would have an ideal of not having any ideals. The second would be an assumption that you know what others call enlightenment, 'have been there, have done it', but to you its just a relative achievment, not higher than other things in life.You are actually following a relativistic BELIEF and you want to share it with everyone. Fine. So what? This relativistic belief is just another belief and another IDEA about life. Why do you actually care what people believe? You start out by saying: 'I am fascinated by a certain type of idea'.. Well, thats what they (we) all are: we are fascinated by ideas. Ideas are just ideas, they are not the 'reality' (another idea), but the moment we use words, we speak of ideas. If an idea is very strong, if we place it as Nr. 1, no matter what it is, it can change our life and our perception. And it can erase or diminish other ideas, or rather the power these ideas hold over us. Its like the thorn eliminating the thorn. So, an idea doesn't have to be true to be effective. OTOH, if you take the relativistic approach, I can only ask, Who cares? People have ideas/ideals and they will always have, which makes them going. What does it matter if you have, or you don't?
