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Message |
| Posted By: |
Reality Dreamer |
| Response to: |
What if...,
Posted by: Yogini |
| Date: |
6-Dec-2000 |
| Subject: |
Re: What if... |
>What if Enlightenment was just another state of mind?
That's a miiighty big IF there, partner.
I doubt that the Big E is "just" another state of mind. Kind of like
saying that infinity is "just" another big number. Now, if your bank
balance rarely gets beyond three or four figures, then $32,714,689
might seem like an infinite amount of money (though have you priced
tropical islands lately?), but it's not. In fact, infinity is just
as far away from 32,714,689 as it is from 1. Much as our experience
with finite numbers, however large, does little to prepare us to
deal with infinity, so too does our experience with limited states
of mind do little to prepare us to deal with enlightment.
By the way, when old Tibetan texts (or most others, for that matter)
mention something like "10,000 states of mind," they don't literally
mean 10,000. It's usually shorthand for either "a very large number,
too many to count," or infinity.
>What if there were nothing but states of mind?
>Then what would be the use to strive for Enlightenment?
Well if enlightment didn't exist, there wouldn't be much point in
striving for it, would there?
But that points up one of the fundamental benefits of exposure to
Rama -- the direct experience and knowledge that enlightment exists
and is possible. Before I had that monumental experience, all the
stories I read were just that -- stories. In these dark times, it
can be very hard to discern that they are anything more than myths
of other cultures, like Noah and the Ark or the Garden of Eden.
I know someone who doesn't think enlightment is really possible.
And though for them, Jesus is an example of how to conduct one's
life, they "know" that such perfection is unobtainable for them.
It somewhat relieves them of the responsibility for even trying.
From my perspective, their spiritual life is severely limited by
this belief. How far up the steep mountain will one travel, if
one is already convinced that the summit is unreachable?
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