Kris,
I missed a chance earlier to mention to Jim that I see "enlightenment" as the
ongoing PROCESS of becoming enlightened.
It is the LIFE of becoming enlightened:
Awake for longer and longer periods, and more awake. More one's original human
self, with our full human inheritance.
Jim, that's what the "-ment" signifies, and encompasses.
It's never a done deal.
It's not conferred by Swami-ji Muktananda's feather-stick, or his successor's.
It is a process in Time, or out of Time. And it takes time.
Enlightenment is not a body of something, finished, signed, sealed, and
delivered. It is a walk very far downstairs, during which you shed all your
clothes, including your socks. Further underwater than the mortgage on your
double-wide (or, you own your mobile home outright?).
If you mean that, for you, at any time, enlightenment (or its fruits and
functions) is "the best possible mental state available", well, who can
quibble, because enlightenment is just "being on the way to enlightenment".
But "best" sounds good; it is however entirely relative to something, and I
don't know what that standard is, that series of tried-on-and-rejected states,
for you. So, I can't yet understand, or agree. And of course that's OK.
We're just talking.
--Joe
> Kristopher Grey <kris@...> wrote:
>
> On 10/9/2012 12:54 PM, jfnewell7 wrote:
> > I am defining enlightenment as the best possible mental state
[snip] [snip]
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