Sun, 01 Aug 2010
Enlightenment Howto Part Two
I'm resurrecting one of my old projects. It was going to be a short explanation of Buddhism for non-Buddhists or not yet Buddhists called the Enlightenment Howto. It never got beyond the first post. What made me want to revive it is that I've read the most amazing things on the Internet recently about enlightenment and wanted to respond. But responding in another person's forum didn't seem appropriate, so I'm going to put what I wanted to say here. I'm approaching the idea of enlightenment more from the theoretical than the experiential point of view for the obvious reason that I haven't got it, and more than likely, neither do you. But what my teachers and the Buddhist commentaries say is clear enough that I feel the project is worth while. So here goes.
The great religions of the world are divided into faith traditions and wisdom traditions. In the former, our problem is that we are not in the correct relationship with God and we need to bring ourselves into that. In the latter, the problem is ignorance or delusion and its solution is removing that. And the removal of ignorance and delusion is called enlightenment. Some wisdom traditions, such as Hinduism, refer to what is ultimately real as God. Others, such as Buddhism, do not. Even so, all wisdom traditions have a lot in common with each other.
The term enlightenment is obviously a metaphor. Ignorance is like darkness, and wisdom is like the light which removes darkness. So enlightenment is a kind of knowledge. So the first question is what kind of knowledge are we talking about. The answer Buddhism gives is pretty simple. Mind is aware of other phenomena, but can also be aware of itself. The knowledge we are talking about is mind seeing itself as it really is. The nature of the knowledge sought determines the manner in which we seek it. So the techniques we employ to gain this knowledge is inner focused and usually goes by the name of meditation. Meditation is not ust a single technique, it is a range of similar techniques.
So why is understanding the mind important? Because most of our problems are created by our minds. We are frustrated by a wish to control it but a seeming inability to do so. This frustration comes from a lack of understanding and with understanding the problem is solved.
