Right. Though the question related to Buddha was in terms of the number of souls that he was able to bring up the ladder of evolution, to their liberation, their enlightenment.
In realistic terms, it is accurate enough to say everything is enlightened, Oneness, but in terms of practical value, it only helps the overall mission, here on earth, if a soul becomes awakened to itself. To see some value of enlightenment in others, is a natural enough thing, but we also are responsible, for acting, within the bounds of time and space, to make that a fully expressed reality, now. Perhaps Eckhart is smiling these days.:-) ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote : Re "All beings were simultaneously enlightened with his awakening": All beings - everything, the whole shebang - are nothing but manifestations of Buddha Mind so are exactly and precisely what they *should* be, despite the fact that they might offend our relative and limited sensibilities. Meister Eckhart (14th century) made a similar point when he said: "Even he who blasphemes against God praises God." [He got his arsed kicked by the Vatican for saying it!] Further, as there is only the One Self - that Buddha Mind again - the perception that there are lots of separate selves is illusory. If there are in reality no "others", how can there be any unenlightened beings? Duh! ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <anartaxius@...> wrote : One of the things mentioned about Buddha's enlightenment is that at that moment he said that 'all beings were simultaneously enlightened with his awakening'. The phrase is translated in different ways but they all basically say the same thing, that with awakening all beings were perceived as enlightened. I presume Jim can clarify what this means.
