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"Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."
- Wu Li
Much can be written on the topic of enlightenment, and much has. Many different
religions, cultures and people have different beliefs about what enlightenment
really is and what it means when a person "achieves" enlightenment. All over the
world and from as long as man has existed there have been extroardinary human
beings who have played an important part in the progression of the human race
and as a result many religions have been started from the ideals and beliefs of
those enlightened masters.
Enlightened beings are recognized by their compassion, forgiveness and
self-sacrifice which leaves an important message for the world along with their
words and most importantly their actions - which is always a divine expression
of Unselfish Love.
The Lost Teachings of Atlantis describes how there have been many of
these teachers around the world from the order of the Children of the Law of One
who have started many of the now major world religions and the "smaller" world
religions.
Enlightenment In Religion
BUDDHISM
The term Nirvana is associated with both Hinduism and Buddhism. In both Hinduism and Buddhism,
the word refers to a higher state of being, but the two religions view this
state very differently. As it turns out, examining the distinction between the
concepts of nirvana is an excellent way of understanding some of the major
differences between the two religions.
Consequently, there are very few qualities or beliefs you can attribute to
Hinduism or Buddhism as a whole. But there are a number of ideas that broadly
characterize the religions. When we talk about Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, we're
referring to these general tenets that are common to most major sects.
Nirvana is mainly associated with Buddhism, which was born out of Hinduism back
in the 5th century B.C. It began as a movement within Hinduism, based on the
philosophy and life of a man named Siddhartha Gautama, and eventually diverged
to form its own path.
Siddhartha Gautama, who later became the Buddha ("the awakened one"), was born
to a rich, ruling family around 563 B.C. in what is now modern Nepal. According
to Buddhist legend, he led a sheltered, pampered life for all of his childhood
and well into his twenties.
As a young man, he began to question the spiritual worth of this luxurious life
and decided to give up all his possessions and emotional attachments, including
his wife and young son. He wanted to understand the true nature of life and saw
all his attachments as distractions, in keeping with Hindu thought.
He became a shramana, a wandering, homeless ascetic dedicated to meditation. He
hoped to find enlightenment by completely detaching himself from the world,
swinging to the polar opposite of his earlier life. Over time, he removed
himself farther and farther from the earthly world, to the point that he was
close to starvation. But he still hadn't achieved enlightenment.
He decided that if he continued on that path, he would die without reaching any
understanding, so he gave up the ascetic life and accepted a meal from a
stranger. He decided to take the middle road, the life between the luxury he had
known and the poverty he had known.
According to legend, soon after Siddhartha took this path, he finally achieved
enlightenment. As he meditated under a tree, he saw all of his past lives, and
then the past lives of others. Eventually he gained a perfect, omniscient
knowledge of this world and the world beyond it.
In Buddhism, this state, which the Buddha couldn't relate in language, is called
nirvana. The word is Sanskrit for "to extinguish." In this case, it means to
extinguish ignorance, hatred and earthly suffering. The term is most closely
associated with Buddhism, though it's applied to a similar concept in Hinduism
(as we'll see later on).
By achieving nirvana, you can escape samsara, the cycle of reincarnation that
characterizes both Hinduism and Buddhism. In each life, a soul is punished or
rewarded based on its past actions, or karma, from the current life as well as
earlier lives (which also include lives as animals). It's important to note that
the law of karma isn't due to a god's judgment over a person's behavior; it's
closer to Newtons law of motion -- every action has an equal and opposite
reaction. It happens automatically, of its own accord.
When you achieve nirvana, you stop accumulating bad karma because you've
transcended it.
The Buddha couldn't fully relate his new understanding of the universe, but he
could spread the essential message of his enlightenment and guide people toward
achieving the same understanding. He traveled from place to place teaching the
four noble truths:
1. Life is suffering.
2. This suffering is caused by ignorance of the true nature of the universe.
3. You can only end this suffering by overcoming ignorance and attachment to
earthly things.
4. You can overcome ignorance and attachment by following the Noble Eightfold
Path.
The Noble Eightfold Path is a list of eight ideals that guide a person toward
greater understanding of the universe. The eight ideals are:
- Right views
- Right Intention
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- Right Livelihood
- Right Effort
- Right Mindedness
- Right Contemplation
On the surface, the eight ideals are incredibly vague -- they're open to almost
any interpretation. Buddhist sects do view them differently, but generally
speaking, Buddhists follow the path by approaching the world with compassion,
patience and joy, and contemplating the universe through meditation. The
fundamental goals are to cultivate morality (shila), meditation (dhyana) and
wisdom (prajna).
Buddhists who achieve nirvana on their own become buddhas, awakened ones (this
is different from "the Buddha," the specific buddha who was incarnated as
Siddhartha). Like the Buddha, other buddhas gain omniscience when they are
enlightened. Buddhists who achieve nirvana with the help of a buddha guide
become arhats, people who are enlightened but not omniscient.
While nirvana is possible for any person, in most Buddhist sects only monks
attempt to achieve it. Lay Buddhists -- Buddhists outside the monastic community
-- strive instead for a higher existence in their next life. They follow the
Noble Eightfold Path and help others, trying to accumulate good Karma. In this
sense, they're working toward nirvana because they're setting up a future life
in which they might achieve nirvana.
HINDUISM
In Hindu tradition, nirvana (more commonly called moksha) is the reuniting with
Brahman, the universal God or universal soul. In traditional Hinduism, a soul
reaches this state after living many lives in which it climbs up through the
varna, or caste system.
Humans accumulate good karma by performing the duties of the caste they were
born in. If a person is born in a lower caste, his only hope is to behave
properly in that caste so he will move up to a higher caste in the next life.
When a soul has reached the upper castes, it may escape the cycle of
reincarnation by eliminating bad karma. This includes setting the scales right
through good deeds (possibly over several lifetimes) and also removing oneself
from all earthly distractions. When a soul finally escapes the karmic cycle, it
becomes one with Brahman when the last bodily incarnation dies. This is a higher
plane of existence that transcends the suffering of earthly life. Essentially,
the soul rejoins the intangible energy that created the universe.
Buddhism arose out of Siddhartha's alternate understanding of samsara and
transcendence of earthly life. In the Buddhist philosophy, the best path to
enlightenment is somewhere in between the luxury of many in the upper castes and
the poverty of the most devout Hindu holy men.
Siddhartha was also a social reformer of sorts. He taught that anybody might
achieve higher enlightenment and escape from samsara if he followed the right
path, completely rejecting the caste structure that defined traditional Hinduism.
This is arguably the most important difference between the two religions, at
least when Buddhism was born.
The worlds of Hinduism and Buddhism, and the concept of nirvana, are rich and
multi-faceted. As in most religions, you can summarize the fundamental ideas
quickly, but you could easily spend your whole life studying the details.
WWJD?
Ever heard of the saying "What Would Jesus Do", or the shortcut "WWJD" that you
can see on lapel pins? Well, that is actually a very good, spiritual
question, since it asks of us to take the viewpoint an unselfishly loving being
might have which involves getting a more open minded, loving, fearless and
objective viewpoint since that is so characteristic of all enlightened teachers.
So whenever you find yourself in a difficult situation or ehtical dilemma ask
yourself "What Would Jesus (or Buddha, Gandhi etc.) Do?" and then act
accordingly by feeling that same Love and fearlessness that you imagine this
enlightened person would have.
An Enlightened Laugh!
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