--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "mahavid3h" <uz...@...> wrote: > > > > > > 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.
Yes, but why *that* goal? Why consider it the "highest" goal? > 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? Not 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? Not at all. My concern is not with the enlightenment or having it as a goal in life, but with the use of the term and the concept "highest goal." > In both cases you would be holding ideals as well maybe more > hidden. Yes, the straw man you were talking to might. :-) Since I neither believe not promote your two premises, I don't think you can say anything about my ideals one way or another. As it turns out, I have some. I rate none of them "highest." I'm still curious as to why some people do. > 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. Since you are arguing with yourself here, and no one ever said or even thought the things you're arguing against, I declare you the winner of this debate. :-) > 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? I don't, except out of curiosity. > 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? It probably doesn't. Now about that enlightenment is the highest goal in life thing. Why "highest?" You've made a case above for it being *A* goal in life, but why *The* goal in life? Why "the highest?" Maybe it's just being a computer nerd, but I can multitask when it comes to goals. I can have lots of them, all going on at the same time. I rank none of them as "highest," because they "swap out" so often and shift around. Enlightenment is some- where on that list of goals for me; currently I think it's number 17. Why is enlightenment number 1 for you?
