Spiritual Enlightenment - Why do you want it? What are you going to do with it?

[Ziusudra]

Ok,
Spiritual Enlightenment,
It seems that many quest for its highest of whatever defines as their spiritual enlightenment.

To me, spiritual enlightenment is like discovering Air that we breathe in.
Air has been integral part of our existence and survival.
Air is just there and has been all along.
Purpose of the air is not for us to just marvel at it.
But it is for us to use it and to continue live fully while keep breathing it...

So, whatever your spiritual enlightenment is...

Here are the questions:
1. Why? Why do you try to achieve it?
2. What are you going to do with it once/if you achieve it?
3. Those of you who already achieved your highest spiritual enlightenment, what have you been doing with it?

[Shivani Devi]

Would you like an honest answer?

1. Why?

Because without it, life sucks. I just don't want to exist like a mouse on a treadmill, realising he is running but getting nowhere until he dies of exhaustion. I am a very negative and bitter individual...and so far, behavioural therapy has done nothing...so next stop, spirituality and to try and restore a sense of hope and purpose that is long gone.

2. What am I going to do with it?

I am expecting by that stage, there is no 'me' left to actually 'do' anything...if I could die whilst still living, that would be great...all my worries would be over...it would be great to live on autopilot in a waking coma until I exit the reincarnation system.

3....ask me again when I have achieved enlightenment. ;)

[Ziusudra]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Would you like an honest answer?

1. Why?

Because without it, life sucks. I just don't want to exist like a mouse on a treadmill, realising he is running but getting nowhere until he dies of exhaustion. I am a very negative and bitter individual...and so far, behavioural therapy has done nothing...so next stop, spirituality and to try and restore a sense of hope and purpose that is long gone.

2. What am I going to do with it?

I am expecting by that stage, there is no 'me' left to actually 'do' anything...if I could die whilst still living, that would be great...all my worries would be over...it would be great to live on autopilot in a waking coma until I exit the reincarnation system.

3....ask me again when I have achieved enlightenment. ;)

Thanks you Shiva for your honest answers.
Your reason for the enlightenment quest is very common acutally.

Do you believe that spiritual enlightenment can actually bring you a sense of hope and purpose?
Isn't it like saying ..." The discovery of Air makes us breathe better all of sudden"?
How does enlightenment change anything?
Is it possible to find a sense of hope and purpose through your own actions and intentions now?

[Rain95]

1. Spiritual Enlightenment. Why do you try to achieve it?

We seek freedom from a certain box of self we find ourselves within.
The noise or talking in our heads that creates an experience of conflict or negativity, anxiety or stress or fear.

2. What are you going to do with it once/if you achieve it?

In reality, there is nothing to do and no one to do it. It's a matter of ceasing to do, to stop doing what we are doing habitually and passively. But one pays attention to the sentences in our minds that assert the opposite. So one finds no peace within or without.

3. Those of you who already achieved your highest spiritual enlightenment, what have you been doing with it?

There is no ranking of it. It does not contain high or low. That's all noise from the talking in our heads. It just is as it is. It doesn't need quantification, judgement, or interpretation. Who would do such things anyway? Thought is the only part of us that could go there. Throw out higher and lower, enlightened and unenlightened. Those are just ideas. Concepts, an unnecessary overlay to what is.

"Enlightenment" if one has to use that word, is just being aware of what we are and what we are not, and the change in experience that comes with that awareness or knowing.

[linen53]

Spiritual enlightenment for me means I understand how this world works. I have no more why questions.

What do I do with it? I understand and feel compassion for the world around me.

[God-Like]

Some don't know that other states exist beyond their present awareness .

Only those that are aware that it is possible to be aware of other states entertain the journey towards them ..

For myself I was suffering and I wanted the suffering to end .


x daz x

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by Ziusudra

Ok,
Spiritual Enlightenment,
It seems that many quest for its highest of whatever defines as their spiritual enlightenment.

To me, spiritual enlightenment is like discovering Air that we breathe in.
Air has been integral part of our existence and survival.
Air is just there and has been all along.
Purpose of the air is not for us to just marvel at it.
But it is for us to use it and to continue live fully while keep breathing it...

So, whatever your spiritual enlightenment is...

Here are the questions:
1. Why? Why do you try to achieve it?
2. What are you going to do with it once/if you achieve it?
3. Those of you who already achieved your highest spiritual enlightenment, what have you been doing with it?

i'm going to take an unpopular tack and say I don't want it. It doesn't seem like the people who say they have achieved it actually have anything to contribute? Usually it just seems to be a matter of getting what one's own self wants in terms of some 'happy' state of being, e.g. it is a very selfish endeavor based in the same sorts of base desires everyone else is having. Only much harder to achieve.

At least as far as I can tell.

[Ziusudra]

Thanks everyone for your answers and sharing...

So it seems that self preservation is the main reason for your pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.

However, once you achieve self love, peace, and calmness from your spiritual enlightenment, shouldn't that apply outward to others by practicing compassion and kindness?

I see that spritual enlightement or sprituality by most create preoccupation with self.

[Ziusudra]

Originally Posted by FallingLeaves

i'm going to take an unpopular tack and say I don't want it. It doesn't seem like the people who say they have achieved it actually have anything to contribute? Usually it just seems to be a matter of getting what one's own self wants in terms of some 'happy' state of being, e.g. it is a very selfish endeavor based in the same sorts of base desires everyone else is having. Only much harder to achieve.

At least as far as I can tell.

I agree with your observation.
However, you should not be influenced by others. Why should others' ways hinder your way?

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by Ziusudra

I agree with your observation.
However, you should not be influenced by others. Why should others' ways hinder your way?

it is easy to say not to be influenced by others, much harder to live it. No man is an island? Even those of us on islands, don't really live alone.

One of my earliest observations was, if you try to utilize methods used by others to get somewhere you also end up utilizing all their attitudes about what to do once there. So for example you couldn't rise through the political ranks and become a career politician, if you didn't learn to espouse the same values as the people who are currently there already have? At least it would be beyond most people to even want to try, let alone succeed at such an endeavor because of the loneliness involved.

Same goes for enlightenment. Or really any endeavor. If I followed other peoples ideas on how to get there I'd also pick up their attitudes about what to do once I am there???

If you were going to make a change at the end you would have to build the whole thing for yourself, from scratch. So that you would learn along the way not to think either the ideas of how to get there or the ideas of what to do once there were desirable just because others value them.

Noone wants to be that lonely though.