> > Also, there is the notion that everyone is > > already 'enlightened' from birth, but many > > are not 'realized'. > > Denise Evans: > The sunglasses analogy does make "logical" sense. > The notion that a person is 'born enlightened' is a Vajrayana Buddhist point of view. It is explained nicely in the Buddha's Lankavatara Sutra.
Vajrarayana is an absolutist philosophy similar to Shankara's Adwaita Vedanta - Brahman or Nirvana is the only reality - samsara is an illusion, maya, avidya, not real, yet not unreal. According to Shakya the Muni, every living being contains, within itself, the Bodhi nature. Adi Shankara and the Ramana Maharshi agees with this. We are all born enlightened, that is, fully awake, according to our karma. Yet, due to samkaras, that is, karmic latencies, and cultural conditioning and indoctrination, we immediately, upon opening our eyes, fall asleep as it were, under the sway of maya, in which we identify with change, and deny our absolute nature, the non-dual bliss. In short, we become materialists, and forget our spiritual nature - instead we identify with the body saying "...this is mine, this is my soul, this is my body", etc. The Chinese philosopher, Chuang Tsu (c. 369-268 B.C.) said: "I once dreamt I was a butterfly. Suddenly I awakened, and there I lay like a man, myself again. Now, which am I? A man dreaming he is a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is man?"
