Hey, I don't pretend to know any better than you or anybody. Wiser men have been telling us it takes a life time and even many life times to attain a state of enlightenment - moksha, nirvana, makrifat, atman. Fine. But if there is another proposal which says it can also be achieved in an instant or a day, fine, too. I think I'll subscribe to this view.
Enlightenment. Long word. Not sure what it means. Let us try. It means the absence or cessation of wrong assumptions. The mind is free from delusions. It sees reality as it is rather than as we want it to be or as we are told or led to believe. An enlightened person holds no false hopes or ideas.
It also means the absence of bad intention and action. At the minimum, the enlightened person has the ability to control the shadow side of his human nature and express only the good side.
He knows and understands what ambition, greed, selfishness, envy, jealousy, anger, revenge are but is able to control or subliminate these negative feelings into a neutral or positive state.
The purpose of life is to survive, to achieve a reasonable standard of living, to stay healthy, to mantain needs and to gain enlightenment.
Life is both a means and an end in itself. The ultimate purpose is to transform it into pure awareness which is our ultimate form. It goes by many names - spirit, soul, consciousness.
The body and the mind are the tools.
The world is the workshop.
Running parallel to this purpose continuum is the virtue continuum. While the purpose continuum states that the purpose of life is to gain ennlightenment, the virtue continuum states that the purpose of life is to live it virtuously.
Enlightenment and virtue go together and are the same thing, or two sides of the same coin of existence.
Evil, negativiity is the raw material for us to fashion or hammer out a useful or virtuous effect.
It is part of the developmental process of life's work, transforming itself into a work of art and virtue.
Life is both an art class and a utility workshop as much as it is a philosophy lesson.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Life is indeed an art class of its own. I have been enjoying this art class all my lives and am still learn new things every moments I am there. Never a dull moment. That is one reason that I always describe my life as been colorful. So go and attend that art class and experiment whatever you thinks possible. Making life colorful and enjoy it to the fullest. If you do not do that you are wasting your time on this blue planet of ours.
Enjoy the present for tomorrow, the future is yet to come. Today is yesterday future. The present is a gift and we all love gift. So go on and enjoy the present for in the next seconds it would became the past, gone forever.
Take care.
Post a Comment