[FairfieldLife] Enlightenment and its relationship to buttons
Still tripping on HBO's Enlightened (you can tell I like it), I'm thinkin' in this cafe about the things it's gotten me thinkin' about since viewing its first episode. The nature of the trains of thoughts it's spun off for me are as interesting to me as the series itself. For example, it's gotten me thinkin' about what my definition of an enlightened being might be, were I to run into one. I have been able to come up with only a couple of things I would look for. The first is sense of humor, and an accompanying sense of delight in life. Call me crazy, but I cannot conceive of enlightenment as lacking that quality. The second is having the ability to resist having their emotional buttons pushed easily, and reacting to that button-pushing by dropping into reactive or samskaric mindstates. This criterion is merely a belief on my part. I can't even cite you a scriptural source for it, other than Maharishi's line on stone rap. But I intuitively feel it to be true. Or as close to true or truth as I am able to believe in. This is the area in which I think that many of the famous and the far less famous Supposedly Enlightened I've run into in this life fall a little short of walking their talk. Like Amy on HBO, many of these folks talk the talk just fine, as long as everything is going their way and no one is making any waves. But the moment the waves get a little choppy, almost all of them I've met personally or over the Internet tend to be just as prey to having their emotional buttons pushed as anyone else. And when they do get their buttons pushed, they seem to be just as prone to becoming a tad reactive, and feeling the need to get samskaric on the button-pusher's ass as anyone else. I'm gonna hold out for an image of enlightenment that doesn't include having such a thin skin that you can still get your buttons pushed. It may be an unrealistic definition, but hey! we're talking about enlightenment, and what could be more unrealistic than the definitions we've been given of that?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Enlightenment and its relationship to buttons
On Oct 12, 2011, at 9:22 AM, turquoiseb wrote: For example, it's gotten me thinkin' about what my definition of an enlightened being might be, were I to run into one. I have been able to come up with only a couple of things I would look for. The first is sense of humor, and an accompanying sense of delight in life. Call me crazy, but I cannot conceive of enlightenment as lacking that quality. I've told this story before, but a friend who was an advanced chi- kung practitioner was to make a journey to some remote region of China to attempt to receive teachings from a very widely respected master and to receive specific teachings. It was not known whether or not the teacher would even grant audience with him after the difficult journey, but after much difficulty he finally arrived and was told the teacher would see him in a couple of days. At last the day arrived, but the teacher said we would need to see if the student was ready. So with some intrepidation my friend entered the interview room. The teacher said he only had one question for him: Do you know how to laugh at yourself? It just happened our teacher had placed great emphasis on this and how to let the positive influence of laughter and smiling and openness circulate through the body as a preliminary to all practices. So without hesitation the master answered yes. The teacher accepted him as his student and he received all the teachings he sought. Laughter is so important an element of basic openness as to be considered indispensable. The second is having the ability to resist having their emotional buttons pushed easily, and reacting to that button-pushing by dropping into reactive or samskaric mindstates. We now know what's happening is many people when they become reactive they actually drop into the primitive reptilian part of the brain. Blood supply is shunted to the arms and legs and leaves the higher brain without the blood to think clearly. I see that happen a lot here. The common place this happens is when there's great emotional stakes which a person perceives being high, and one is attached to a certain outcome or opinon. They'll drop right into that ole brainstem. All the awakeners I know, will not and do not fall into this pattern. Even elements of surprise leave them undisturbed as if they were a calm unperturbable center. I've met several Dzogchen masters who would use this is an element of play with which to point out the Natural State.
