Rick wrote: LOL, maybe we should get my enlightened people and your enlightened people together for a Sharks/Jets- style rumble. But seriously, if they agree with your characterization of true enlightenment, does that mean that they admit to having been neutered, or are you referring to the supposedly neutered people as not truly enlightened. If so, can you give us some examples of some of those? Shankara, Jesus, Buddha, etc. Did they cut deals with the gods? Bronte writes: There, now you're getting astute on me. Okay. I don't mean either one. I think spiritually "neutered" people can be still enlightened (enlightened meaning brahman-conscious, for instance). You can connect wholly with the Ultimate having been neutered of your individuality. That's how the gods like it, because the "geldings" won't mess with their set-up. Spiritually neutered masters have bought the party line and think the way the gods run things is just spiffy and the only way there is. For them, the world works the way it works because it's supposed to work that way because it's always worked that way. They have no belief in the concept of a radically different universe, a super-state quantum-like macroscopic universe, because that would require original thought, and they've declared death to their mind. The other kind of master, the kind that has not self-annihilated, connects wholly with the Ultimate, knows he's wholly Brahman, while retaining his individuality perfectly intact -- rich with original thought, enthusiastic desire, dynamic personal power and even with siddhis. Both kinds of masters are enlightened. But the second kind is having much more fun. And is capable of doing much more dynamic good in the world. The reason is he's interested in doing. He is not detached. He's one with his thoughts and desires. He has passion. Of the historical figures you mention, I think Shankara probably and Buddha for sure was a death-to-the-little-me kind of guy. Jesus didn't seem to talk that way.
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