> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jim_flanegin" <snip> "his enlightenment eludes him"
A sign of great writing is you can read it over several times and find great new gems. Jim, I admire your enlightenment tradition, what ever it is, for such unique view of enlightenment, distinct from any other enlightenemnt tradition I have encountered. In fours short words, its almost aphorismic, to both assign posseionship of enlightenment to an individual "his enlightenment" and the implication that it is an individual who is enlightened, "enlightenment eludes him" is in such stark contrast to other traditions, I have to stand up and cheer that you are revealing some new yet uncovered, distinct description of the multi-cultural vast diversity in the use of the term enlightenemnt. It certainly supports the thesis that many different cultures and traditions experience many different things that they paradoxically all call the same thing "enlightenement". While being steeped in your enlightenment tradtion, you may, or may not, be aware of how other traditions use the same term -- but with clearly a vastly different experience attached. For example many eastern traditions hold that possessionship of an enlightened status makes no sense whatso ever. The phrase would never enter their lexicon because (they claim) that is not the experience. In their world, there is no possessor, no experiencer, just the commonality of all existence that pervades ones awareness. And they go on to hold, that an individual never becomes enlightened. Thus enlightenment "eluding an individual" again would be non-sensical to these classical eastern traditions. It is the commonality of all existence that awakens unto itself. It has nothng to do with the individual. Some such traditions even hold that any sense of individuality is an illusion. So keep up the good work in reporting these utterly unique descriptions of the term enlightenemnt, from your enlightenment tradition, and the correspondng implied experiences that are so utterly different and unique compared to classical enlightenment traditions. By the way, what is your enlightenment tradition? 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/
