What is 'Enlightenment'? Options

[Shawn]

It's certain that enlightenment means different things to different people, and so I'm curious what it means to other people, and also to throw out a few questions to provoke thought.

Is Enlightenment an experience, process, realization, way of living, or what?

Is Enlightenment a multi-faceted word that is context-dependent and relative, or are there absolute truths that are invariably associated with any type of Enlightenment?

What are the 'truths', if any, that would invariably be realized/experienced thru Enlightenment?

Is Enlightenment an all-or-none experience (AHA experience) or is it a gradual accumulation of wisdom?

What is the relation of Enlightenment to mystical experience?

Please note that the above constitutes a partial list and is not meant to exhaust the range of questions that could, and should, be asked.

Personally, I believe the statement, "We are the Universe conscious of Itself", is on a par with Buddha's "All that we are, is the result of what we have thought" from the opening of the Dhammapada, and that both constitute part of a collection of truths that are invariably experienced during what I think many would call Enlightenment.   The task at hand, though, is to clarify this notion of Enlightenment to the best of our abilities thru mere verbal communication.  Is anyone up to this challenge?

[Timothy_417]

I think 12% is an extreme figure and has certainly not been recieved without serious contention.  The number was derived, I believe, by using certain literary techniques on the synoptic texts and discounting various discrepencies.  Whether or not the method or its derivative are accurate or to what degree they are accurate was not my motive for introducing the position, but rather to cast doubt upon 1) the authoritivity of scripture and 2) upon any given interpretation of scripture.  If you are familiar with deconstructive literary criticism, you know that meaning is not an inherent within a text, but is producted (constructed) through the act of interpretation.  Moreover, texts in this sense are not simply limited to systems of inscription and demarkation, but exists as any context involving symbolic representation.  In other words awareness is inveteratelly contextualized and cannot exist otherwise.  Of course not everyone subscribes to these theories, but it is beneficial to be aware of them.

Let me know you all think, and please continue to help me understand what you believe.

Also, I would like to know why many people here use language that is shrouded in terms of mysticism.  It seems to me that what you are stating could be described scientifically, and that as such it would be less conducive to hostilities.  To wit, I am very uncomfortable with language that describes individuals as divine or as God.  It is not that I offended by blasphemy, as it were, but that I have a materialistic conception of reality.

-Timothy