On 11/14/2014 2:50 AM, TurquoiseBee wrote:
>
*/Prove to me that there is or ever has been such a thing as an
"enlightened being." I'll wait.
/*
/*>
*/
/Perception is reality- there are no other experiences except those that
are subjective. Almost everything we know is based on verbal testimony
what someone TOLD US.
There is no knowing outside of conscious experience - knowledge is
structured in consciousness.
Everyone is special by virtue of being human with a self-conscious mind.
The proof that everyone is enlightened is consciousness itself.
The only reason you don't have the experience of being enlightened is
because you are not Self-realized - you are ignorant. You didn't listen
to your teachers and you apparently have not even read any wisdom books.
Go figure.
>
/
*/
/*
*/The thing is, John, you can't do it. You believe in "enlightenment"
for the same reason you believe that these works of fiction are
"wisdom books," because someone you chose to believe TOLD YOU. That
does *NOT* constitute proof.
/*
*/
/*
*/Me, I believe that the subjective experience that some call
enlightenment exists. I believe this because I've experienced it for
weeks and months at a time. But *having experienced it*, I can say
that it was JUST ANOTHER EXPERIENCE. It did *not* make me "special,"
and it doesn 't make anyone *else* "special," either. It doesn't make
anything they say any more accurate or cosmic or correct or valuable,
any more than a profound drug-induced or psychosis-induced subjective
experience does./*
*/
/*
*/You don't want to believe this because you have invested decades of
your life pursuing practices that you believe will make you "special."
And after all these decades you are really *desperate* to be
"special." My advice is to relax, because it is never going to happen.
Even if you have experiences that convince you that you're
"enlightened," no one (except the gullible idiots on the Batgap Forum)
will treat you any differently, no one will think you're "wise," and
no one will be any more impressed by you than they ever have been.
/*
*/And if you write a book based on your experiences, it definitely
won't be a "wisdom book." :-)/*
