Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Proclaiming ones enlightenment

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 07:41:35 -0700


On Oct 13, 2005, at 9:44 AM, Irmeli Mattsson wrote:

It puzzles me also, why people, when they stop identifying the 'I' 

with an image of one's personal self, say there is no 'I' anymore.


The `I' is the subject, who feels, sees, interprets and evaluates 

situations, makes meaning, uses concepts like enlightenment in 

communication, relates to others, is in dialogue with others. The 

fact that something is being perceived is based on subject/object 

dualism. The perceiver is subject, the perceived is object. 

The `I', the subject, cannot see itself. If it can, there is an error 

in interpreting. The subject can see only something that is object to 

itself. In enlightenment this error vanishes. And another error seems 

to appear, the idea that there is no `I'.


The whole topic is rather interesting. This would certainly not be considered enlightenment IMO--merely a transitory realization that "I" is empty and not "solid". Really from a Buddhist perspective, if one is enlightened one does not claim it for a number of reasons--it causes sentient beings to argue, it creates jealousy, etc. Therefore a Buddha cannot make a declaration which will cause suffering.  From that POV one who claims to be "enlightened" typically is not. I have to wonder if that is one of the reasons the Surangama sutra is mentioned in movement literature (and lectures)--so that people might pick it up and read it. It details all the ways that people are fooled into believing they are enlightened--and I'm sure this is one of them. 

IIRC it also prophecizes that at the end of the Kali yuga, large numbers of people who are not enlightened will surface, claiming to be.



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