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vigilant_mind
unfazed



Registered: 01/19/07
Posts: 1,717
Loc: boco
Last seen: 14 years, 6 months
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Enlightenment = Happiness?
#7870010 - 01/12/08 05:47 PM (16 years, 20 days ago) |
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Does enlightenment bring happiness?
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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First define enlightenment and then prove it exists. Then we can get to your question.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Evolving
Resident Cynic


Registered: 10/01/02
Posts: 5,385
Loc: Apt #6, The Village
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Happiness is a transient state of mind. Enlightenment can bring happiness, then you have to become more enlightened to become happy again. With this in mind, I strive for continued enlightenment.
-------------------- To call humans 'rational beings' does injustice to the term, 'rational.' Humans are capable of rational thought, but it is not their essence. Humans are animals, beasts with complex brains. Humans, more often than not, utilize their cerebrum to rationalize what their primal instincts, their preconceived notions, and their emotional desires have presented as goals - humans are rationalizing beings.
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redgreenvines
irregular verb


Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 37,532
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Re: Enlightenment = Happiness? [Re: Evolving]
#7870456 - 01/12/08 07:20 PM (16 years, 20 days ago) |
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bliss is close to the bright part of the experience of light and lightness. happiness is more elusive, enlightenment is too but not equal
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EllisDSox
King Hella!

Registered: 01/22/07
Posts: 25,730
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I'd say contentment and bliss are more appropriate words, since happiness by its very nature is fleeting. But yeah, essentially being enlightened frees you from suffering and makes you permanently "happy".
-------------------- Disclaimer: If you have any kind of heart condition, my posts are not for you. You could literally die from reading the first couple of words in any one of them. Scroll down the page, live your life and prosper, but don't read my posts because your heart will probably explode. I am not joking.
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Vibrate
with me


Registered: 11/18/06
Posts: 256
Last seen: 15 years, 16 days
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Re: Enlightenment = Happiness? [Re: EllisDSox]
#7870618 - 01/12/08 07:50 PM (16 years, 20 days ago) |
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Quote:
EllisDSox said: I'd say contentment and bliss are more appropriate words, since happiness by its very nature is fleeting. But yeah, essentially being enlightened frees you from suffering and makes you permanently "happy".
I couldn't have said it much better than this.
-------------------- I love you
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Love Cap
Wanderer



Registered: 09/16/07
Posts: 401
Loc: somewhere in the plains
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Re: Enlightenment = Happiness? [Re: Vibrate]
#7871385 - 01/12/08 10:55 PM (16 years, 20 days ago) |
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agreed. when you've reached enlightenment, you're no longer feeling, you're just being.
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jonathanseagull
Cool!


Registered: 10/28/05
Posts: 993
Last seen: 10 years, 11 days
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Re: Enlightenment = Happiness? [Re: Love Cap]
#7871439 - 01/12/08 11:04 PM (16 years, 20 days ago) |
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Quote:
Love Cap said: agreed. when you've reached enlightenment, you're no longer feeling, you're just being.
Before enlightenment, the tea is just tea. During enlightenment, the tea is no longer tea. After enlightenment, the tea is again tea.
Enlightenment is as fleeting as happiness, but it leaves your being purified. You still feel sadness, happiness, etc. But you are no longer fooled by them. You see them for what they are, no longer caught in the "label" effect. Then you are enlightened, but don't maintain enlightenment.
That's one view anyway. Moksha seems to be a little different and longer lasting in description.
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Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.
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Rose
Devil's Advocate



Registered: 09/24/03
Posts: 22,518
Loc: Mod not God
Last seen: 1 year, 6 months
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Quote:
vigilant_mind said: Does enlightenment bring happiness?
No. But it doesn't bring sadness either.
-------------------- Fiddlesticks.
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
Posts: 43,135
Loc: Center of the Universe
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Re: Enlightenment = Happiness? [Re: Rose]
#7871852 - 01/13/08 12:36 AM (16 years, 19 days ago) |
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I feel like everyone alive and conscious goes through their life with an ineffable question, transcending words. The ineffable answer, transcending words, is enlightenment. It is not perfection, superhumanity, or eternal bliss; it is simply total balance and full understanding of one's motives and actions beyond question and doubt. Happiness is a side effect, because spiritual suffering comes from doubt and confusion, which have been dispelled.
An earlier post here illustrated it well: the Buddha was originally against letting women join his crew, but was talked out of it by a disciple. He was not perfect or superhuman; he was just a person who understood himself totally, and was therefore open to other people's ideas as well.
At least, that's my interpretation. I might be wrong.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
Edited by Tchan909 (01/13/08 12:39 AM)
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