--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anonymousff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anonymousff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > What I meant by my remark was that once enlightenment is reached, > > > the spiritual tradition we have followed loses its uniqueness, and > > > in some ways much of its value; an enlightened Buddhist shares the > > > same view as an enlightened Hindu or Sufi or whatever. > > When I was a TM teacher, and for a few years after that, I said the > same thing. Then I asked, "Do I really know what I am talking about > here, or am I just parroting unsubstantiated dogma I have heard?" I > quickly realized it was the latter. With some reading and reaserch, > talking to others, I found there are quite large differences in views > of different traditions and religions -- and representative saint's > reports of states theyhave obtained. But I am not a scholar. Most > scholars I have read or talked to, who devote their lives to the > topic, find differences not sameness. > > Parroting dogma is a mental handicap. It can be overcome.
Gotta agree. There are *vastly* differing descriptions of enlightenment, by the enlightened, depending upon the tradition in which they realized enlightenment. Lesha vidya, and all that. The Self may be realized, but the self still thinks very much in the same terms it's been used to thinking. In Boulder, CO, many many moons ago, one of the spiritual schools there used to sponsor what they called "Holy Man Jams." They'd invite supposedly realized teachers and saints who represented different traditions from all over the world and put them up on the same stage together to speak. In every one of them I ever saw, it descended into arguments within five minutes and never let up after that. For all I know, there could have been five enlightened beings up on that stage, but they were arguing like schoolkids over how to express or explain that enlightenment. Go figure. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Dying to be thin? Anorexia. Narrated by Julianne Moore. http://us.click.yahoo.com/AQDrNC/sbOLAA/d1hLAA/0NYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
