--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, new.morning <no_reply@>
wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "sinhlnx" <sinhlnx@> wrote:
> > >
> > > ---Consider an apartment as a type of cage. Could a person
> > > only "think" the apartment is real, but really be living
inside
> > > Mae West's head?
> > >
> > > http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item203
> > >
> > > Or, Jim, you were fortunate in realizing you were in a cage.
So I
> > > guess the people living in the cage but don't know it are
> > > in "ignorant Bliss"?....kind of like the people living in the
> > > Matrix
> > > world while the aliens are sucking out the juices from their
real
> > > bodies.
> >
> > Or perhaps Jim is living locked in the cage of "Enlightenment
World"
> > -- perhaps not knowing he is caged, all the while thinking he is
> > boundlessly free.
>
> Or, having made the mistake of announcing that he is
> realized/enlightened, now he's stuck in the cage of
> pretending that he is. I guess that's the same thing
> you mean by "enlightenment world."
>
> I can't say fersure, of course, but it's certainly a
> possibility. I've seen the same phenomenon before in
> many different spiritual trips. Someone has a neat
> experience of realization -- a *real* experience of
> realization -- and, because they assume that once
> they have such an experience it will be permanent,
> they announce to the world their enlightenment. Some
> of them even set themselves up as spiritual teachers
> or gurus at this point.
>
> And then the experience fades. What's a guru to do?
>
> An honest one would go to his students and say, "Oops,
> I was wrong." One who was a little less honest, espec-
> ially with himself, would pretend that the experience
> of realization was still going on. An even less honest
> one would indulge in self deception, and convince him-
> self that it was still going on.
>
> Once you've had a couple of these realization exper-
> iences, it's pretty easy to "talk the talk" of them.
> Few can tell whether you're talkin' from present exper-
> ience or past experience, because you *are* talkin'
> from experience. So it's actually a fairly common
> phenomenon in the larger community of spiritual trips
> and seekers to see people milking a transitory exper-
> ience of realization for years or decades after it
> has gone away or faded.
>
> Not to say that's what's going on here on FFL, but it
> could be. Because such things *aren't* talked about
> much in the TMO, but are known about and talked about
> openly in other spiritual trips, I just thought I'd
> bring up the possibility.
>
This experience of transitory enlightenment is actually quite a good
one to have, for several reasons. First, while it is occurring, it
feels great; a blissful vacation from ourselves. The experiences we
have during that time move us ahead in terms of being unlike what
we've experienced before. Next, as the experience fades, it leaves
behind a strong impression of that which is very desirable for us,
spurring us forward in our quest for eternal freedom. Finally, the
more we milk it as you say (for years??? I find that hard to
believe, though I used to try to hold on for a couple of days
afterwards...), the more our ego goes through an adjustment
afterwards, realizing its limits, and hopefully helping us to become
more humble in the process (lol). I look at those experiences of
transitory enlightenment in hindsight as advertisements for and by
the Divine-- flashy, desirable, and brief.:-)
