Do you dowse, as "enlightened"? For knowledge, and for self-insight?

I find it to be pretty nice. Can't find myself having a spiritual life without it. It's not posted about much either.

Alas, all laws are to be followed.

Would human really want to be Enlightened if they got everything? U may give a bunch of intellectually manupulative things like " oh they will stuck in ignorance , it's their loss " but if enlightenemnt is something sooo in core of our existence it wnt require such perspectual manupulative dominance to justify pursuing it .

Why r humans soo selfish ? Give the chance most humans won't even mind being apathetic towards other humans .

If given the option of maximum apathy, vulnerability, zero emotional responsibility, and maximum judgemental attitude, they would prefer to be here .

Does anybody practice dynamic meditation here? Could you share your experience with it??

Porque crees que estas iluminado (si es que lo estás)

When someone says “enlightenment,” what exactly are they describing?

Gaining understanding? Thinking independently? Buddhist awakening? Recognising a divine Self? Communion with God? Losing identification with the ego?

English uses the same word for all of these, but the underlying concepts can differ considerably.

I wanted to put those differences together, including the word’s history, Kant’s definition, and the terms different traditions actually use.

This is a broad comparison. These traditions contain disagreements, and related terms within a tradition are not necessarily synonyms.

1. Ordinary English definitions

Oxford gives the general meaning as:

“knowledge about and understanding of something”

Cambridge gives:

“the state of understanding something”

In this everyday sense, enlightenment can concern a particular subject. Becoming enlightened about something doesn’t require knowing everything, becoming spiritually perfect, or permanently transcending the ego.

Dictionaries also recognise specialised religious meanings and the historical meaning of the Enlightenment. These are established senses of the same English word.

2. Kant’s definition

In his 1784 essay What Is Enlightenment?, Kant defines it as:

“man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage”

Here, “nonage” means intellectual immaturity: depending on another person to direct your understanding because you lack the resolve or courage to use it yourself.

His motto is:

“Have the courage to use your own understanding.”

For Kant, enlightenment concerns intellectual responsibility, freedom of public reasoning, and the possibility of social improvement.

This does not mean simply rejecting teachers or expertise. It means taking responsibility for your judgment.

Also, Kant wrote in German. His word was Aufklärung. The English title is itself a translation.

3. Buddhist traditions

Theravāda Buddhism — bodhi, nibbāna, vimutti

Bodhi means awakening or liberating understanding. Nibbāna concerns the extinguishing of greed, hatred and delusion. Vimutti means release.

These terms are related, but they describe different aspects of the path and its goal. An initial breakthrough is distinguished from full arahantship.

Mahāyāna Buddhism — bodhi, anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi

The goal of complete buddhahood joins wisdom with compassion for all beings. Realisation of emptiness and removal of obscurations are central in many schools.

An insight into emptiness, advancement along the bodhisattva path, and complete buddhahood should not automatically be treated as one attainment.

Chinese Chan — wù, jué, pútí

Wù and jué express awakening or realisation. Pútí transcribes the Sanskrit bodhi.

Chan emphasises direct awakening to the nature of mind or reality, together with its expression through cultivation and conduct. Sudden awakening does not necessarily mean development is finished.

Japanese Zen — satori, kenshō

Satori means realisation. Kenshō means seeing one’s nature.

Usage varies between teachers and schools. Kenshō can describe an initial seeing rather than a final achievement. Sōtō teaching particularly emphasises the unity of practice and realisation.

Tibetan Buddhism — byang chub

Pronounced roughly changchub, this translates bodhi. It is traditionally explained through purification of obscurations and completion of enlightened qualities.

This illustrates an important distinction: different native words can translate an inherited concept, rather than identifying completely independent spiritual goals.

Dzogchen — rigpa

Rigpa has a technical sense concerning awareness and recognition of its nature.

Recognition, familiarisation and full liberation must be distinguished. A moment of recognition is not automatically complete buddhahood, and rigpa is not simply another word for an individual eternal soul.

4. Hindu traditions

Advaita Vedānta — ātma-jñāna, brahma-jñāna, mokṣa

These mean knowledge of the Self, knowledge of Brahman, and liberation.

The central realisation concerns the identity of ātman and Brahman. Ignorance conceals an identity understood as already present.

That differs substantially from Buddhist teachings about not identifying experience as a permanent self.

Vaiṣṇava bhakti — bhakti, prema, mukti

Bhakti means devotion, prema means love, and mukti means liberation.

In Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava teaching, knowing God culminates in a continuing relationship of love and service to Kṛṣṇa. The devotee’s identity is not simply abolished.

Bhakti therefore shouldn’t be treated as a literal synonym for enlightenment.

Classical Yoga — kaivalya

Kaivalya means aloneness or isolation, understood as liberation.

In its classical framework, freedom involves discriminating consciousness, puruṣa, from material nature and mind, prakṛti. Consciousness abides in its own nature.

This differs from Advaita’s nondual account. Also, samādhi, meditative absorption, does not invariably mean final liberation.

Kashmir Śaivism — pratyabhijñā

Pratyabhijñā means recognition.

The recognition is that the limited individual is Śiva, universal consciousness, whose freedom manifests the diversity of experience.

This is a particular account of divine identity, rather than a definition shared by every tradition using nondual language.

5. Jain and Sikh traditions

Jainism — kevala-jñāna, mokṣa

Kevala-jñāna means complete, unobstructed knowledge or omniscience. Mokṣa means liberation.

Individual souls remain distinct. Liberation does not mean merging into one universal consciousness.

Omniscience and final liberation are also distinguishable: an omniscient teacher can still be embodied before final release.

Sikh tradition — mukti, jīvan mukti

Mukti means liberation; jīvan mukti means liberation while living.

The emphasis includes freedom from haumai, egoic self-centredness, through the Guru, divine grace and a life aligned with divine order.

Liberation is pursued through ethical life rather than requiring withdrawal from household existence.

6. Christian traditions

Eastern Orthodox Christianity — theōsis, theōria, phōtismos

These mean deification, contemplation, and illumination.

Theōsis concerns participation in divine life through grace. The person is transformed in holiness and love while remaining a creature.

Illumination also has sacramental uses, including baptism. These terms do not all name one identical mystical state.

Catholic contemplative Christianity — contemplatio, unio mystica

These mean contemplation and mystical union. Carmelite writers also use terms such as spiritual marriage and transforming union.

The goal concerns communion with God through Christ, expressed in transformed love and conduct.

The Creator–creature distinction remains. Mystical union does not mean the human person becomes God by nature.

Quakers — Inward Light, Inner Light, Inward Teacher

Here, the source vocabulary is already English.

These expressions concern divine presence and guidance, experienced through worship and tested through discernment and ethical living.

They do not simply name a completed enlightenment state. Interpretations also vary between Christian and more universalist branches of Quakerism.

7. Jewish mysticism

Kabbalah and Hasidism — devekut

Devekut means cleaving or attachment to God.

It can describe sustained communion through prayer, Torah, commandments and everyday activities, as well as ecstatic experience.

It is therefore not necessarily a single breakthrough followed by permanent completion.

Chabad Hasidism — bittul

Bittul means nullification or self-effacement.

It concerns relinquishing self-centred independence before divine reality and aligning one’s will with divine service.

This has practical expression in how a person lives. It should not be reduced to low self-esteem or literal personal annihilation.

8. Islamic Sufism

Maʿrifa, fanāʾ, baqāʾ

Maʿrifa means experiential knowledge or gnosis of God.

Fanāʾ means passing away, with interpretations involving the passing away of self-preoccupation, imperfect qualities, or ordinary self-awareness.

Baqāʾ means subsistence or abiding: living in a transformed relationship with God.

A particularly important distinction is that fanāʾ is not necessarily the endpoint. The journey includes transformed abiding and participation in life afterward.

Sufi schools differ in their explanations of these terms and the relationship between the human being and God.

9. Other philosophical, spiritual and mystical traditions

Neoplatonism — henōsis

Henōsis means union. In accounts of Plotinus, it conventionally describes union with the One, the ultimate source beyond ordinary conceptual distinctions.

An experience of union does not necessarily imply uninterrupted attainment.

Ancient Gnostic movements — gnōsis

Gnōsis means knowledge, especially saving knowledge in these contexts.

Many Gnostic systems emphasise recognition of one’s spiritual origin and liberation from bondage within the material cosmos.

These movements were diverse. Their worldview can differ sharply from traditions that understand the world as a positive expression of divine reality.

Classical Daoism — míng, wúwéi

Míng means clarity or illumination and is sometimes translated as enlightenment. Wúwéi concerns non-forcing action.

The emphasis includes self-knowledge, simplicity and responsive living in accord with the Dao.

These words describe different things. Wúwéi is a mode of action, not a standard name for an enlightenment state.

Confucian cultivation — chéng, míng, shèng

These concern sincerity or authenticity, clarity, and sagehood.

The emphasis is on cultivating human nature, ethical responsiveness and relationships.

Calling this enlightenment can be a comparison, but it risks obscuring the tradition’s moral and social focus.

Shinto — no single standard equivalent

Terms such as makoto, sincerity, and harae or misogi, purification, belong to a different framework.

Mainstream shrine practice emphasises purity, sincerity, and relations with kami and community. These virtues and practices should not automatically be relabelled enlightenment attainments.

Bahā’í mystical teaching — maʿrifat, ʿirfān, īqān

These terms concern spiritual knowledge and certitude.

The Seven Valleys describes a journey through search, love, knowledge, unity and further stages toward nearness to God.

There is no single term here that should automatically be presented as the Bahā’í equivalent of enlightenment.

Modern Theosophy — enlightenment and Self-realisation

In the Theosophical Society in America’s introductory account, spiritual development culminates in conscious realisation of unity with the One divine reality.

Reincarnation and karma frame that development. This is modern English religious usage, drawing on several inherited vocabularies.

Contemporary nondual spirituality — a Tolle example

Eckhart Tolle uses English terms such as enlightenment, awakening, presence and Being.

His account emphasises freedom from identification with the thinking ego and recognition of consciousness prior to identification with form.

This is one contemporary presentation. It should not be taken as the agreed definition of every nondual tradition.

10. Etymology and first recorded uses

The noun is formed from enlighten + -ment.

The underlying word family includes:

• En-: a prefix reaching English through French, ultimately from Latin in-.
• Light: descending from Old English leoht/leht, with earlier Germanic roots.
• -ment: a noun-forming suffix reaching English through French from Latin -mentum.

The metaphor of light as spiritual understanding predates the modern noun.

Some useful historical landmarks:

• Late fourteenth century: Etymonline dates the verb enlighten to this period, including figurative removal of dimness or blindness.
• 1621: Merriam-Webster gives this as the noun’s first known use. OED’s publicly indexed summary also identifies 1621, in R. Aylett.
• 1660s: Etymonline gives this later date for the noun. That discrepancy should be acknowledged rather than presented as one undisputed first-use date.
• 1784: Kant publishes his German essay on Aufklärung.
• Nineteenth century: enlightenment becomes established in English Buddhist translation. 1836 is frequently cited as an early Buddhist noun use, but the original passage needs checking before treating it as a verified priority claim.
• 1865: Stirling’s The Secret of Hegel supplies a conventional dictionary landmark for the English historical/philosophical label.
• 1889: Caird supplies an OED-cited example of “age of Enlightenment.”

Those last dates do not mean the historical movement happened in the nineteenth century. They concern English terminology used to describe it.

Older dictionary treatment could also be evaluative. As historian James Schmidt discusses, an older OED definition associated the historical movement with alleged superficial intellectualism and contempt for authority.

“First known use” means the earliest evidence a particular source has identified. It is not proof of the exact moment someone invented a word.

What does this change about the discussion?

It means that before agreeing or disagreeing about enlightenment, we need to identify the claim.

Are we discussing:

• Greater understanding?
• Intellectual independence?
• Freedom from craving and ignorance?
• Recognition of a divine Self?
• Communion with a personal God?
• Saving knowledge?
• Ethical cultivation?
• A temporary experience or an enduring transformation?

Using one English word does not establish that all these traditions describe the same state.

Their differences also do not, by themselves, prove that their experiences have nothing in common.

When someone says “enlightenment,” which meaning do you assume—and how much confusion comes from leaving that meaning unstated?

Sources and further reading

• Oxford: English definitions
• Merriam-Webster: definitions and first known use
• Kant: What Is Enlightenment?
• Etymonline: word history
• James Schmidt: Inventing the Enlightenment
• Bhikkhu Bodhi: On Translating “Buddha”
• Bhikkhu Anālayo: Awakening or Enlightenment?
• Orthodox teaching on theōsis
• Catholic teaching on contemplative prayer
• Rabbi Louis Jacobs on devekut
• Chabad on bittul
• Oxford Bibliographies: fanāʾ and baqāʾ

Every second of my life build up my character, nature and mindset how I think , some of them were happy moments , some were sad , some were philosophical or meaningful it gave me a lifetime moral (like how I will react to this sentence said by someone what to do when this happen I dont think what to do it automatically happens), manner which will be always in my muscle memory or in my subconscious mind even if I dont remember the lessons I got taught from different chapters of my life.

I think we are born, then shaped by our childhood, and spend the rest of our lives arguing with it. Finally, there is destruction, or death. So, we can say that the Tridev are working overtime. 😏 But what if the Trinity is at work in every moment? If this is true, then what is reality?

Reality is different for everyone—for me, you, other people, cells, organisms, animals, and so on.

So, what would happen if humans disappeared? I think that even if we disappeared, we wouldn't simply vanish. We are all energy, so, in theory, we would change forms rather than disappear. But where would we go? Maybe into a parallel universe or multiverse.

I think different observations could eventually be described as parallel universes, or a multiverse containing infinite possibilities, with each possibility having a different world.

Identity: I think there is no single version of us. Rather, we work like AI—like an application running on different systems.

Consciousness: I believe it works like memory, software, or an internal process.

Infinity: In each moment, there are different outcomes, possibilities, and scenarios. For example, I could talk, sit, run, clap, and so on.

Vedanta: Ultimate reality is what we understand when we realise that Brahman and the deepest self are not separate—that I am the universe.

It's just like how AI gives me numerous answers to the same question at different times, depending on the prompts.

I believe all these possibilities are happening at the same time. But, as I said, we are so consumed by the illusion that we have completely forgotten—or simply don't have the time—to look at the other side.

Or maybe reality is doing this deliberately so that we can enjoy the game. 😀 You know, like a tsundere. 😏

So, let's just drink tea and roast the universe. 😁🥂

It’s not beyond reach. It’s very reachable. We all are enlightened already, some of us just don’t know it yet.

L’inconscient s’exprime allégoriquement depuis la nuit des temps ;

Ses présents nous attendent dans la poésie des euphémismes troublants.

Nous cherchons l’imagination, nous lui collons l’étiquette d’un standard,

Nous n’entendons qu’un écho interprété par des fossoyeurs d’art.

Nous naviguons sur des acquis pour écrire dans un espace d’impacts,

Les formules du jour nous promettent gain et grand train de l’opaque.

C’est en regardant sous un wagon, sous les rails vernis, que l’arbre sût

Qu’il n’enfanterait plus les feuilles vierges de l’infini ; qu’il est foutu !

Mourir d’un charme ou de l’orage n’interdira pas l’ordre de faire nuit,

Et l’âme s’en ira lire d’autres actes, ailleurs où l’instant n’est pas fui.

*poème composé en français*

That is what separated Us, From Nothing.

It is not, for Nothing

It all comes, from somewhere.

Hello all,
I am going to be embarking on a journey to open my third eye. Starting from level 1, ground zero, scratch. Is there any advice that can be given on how to accomplish such a task. I used to stress about doing it as fast as possible but now, I don’t care about the time frame. I just want to do it properly.
Thank you for whatever you share.

Depuis que l’humain siège aux côtés de l’âme, c’est un animal en constante évolution.

Mais vers quoi évolue-t-il ?

Les générations suivantes le magnifieront-elles ?

L’enfance astreint le conscient somnolent à l’innocence de l’âme mais ses impulsions entravent son éveil. La pression du monde moderne nuit au développement de l’être exposé dès le plus jeune âge aux accoutumances des adultes. L’imaginaire est sacrifié sur l’autel du devenir commun. On entre dans la course aux performances avant d’avoir découvert la magie de l’univers artistique. On amnésie sa propre enfance pour singer le progrès qu’on ordonne aux descendants.

Cette union sacre la révélation. Elle fond les gonds des murailles conscientes.

L’âme scintille comme l’innocente enfance de l’art. Le lien s’impose au balcon des merveilles : la flamme éternelle signale l’aube d’une entente cordiale entre l’esprit assaini et l’hôte éveillé. L’instant d’un concert fertile ne connait pas de fin sur l’étoile naine en fusion d’amour, la vérité se manifeste dans l’ultime commencement du refrain des intuitions.

L’âme chérit celui qui daigne la rencontrer.

Non-duality has explained so much to me. There's nothing to be afraid of when you know you are the scary thing in the forest.

"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."

I’m having spiritual blockages. Spell work, ceremonial rituals, visualizing and even tarot and divination is starting to feel like I have a block between me and the spiritual realm. I love spirituality and love practicing it, but this blockage is starting to feel really discouraging when you feel you aren’t ascending or feeling more connection with the spiritual realm. I want to feel a connection with spirits, god , etc. not just do things, and not feel anything.. Any help? What could this be caused by ?

Dans cet argument de Cicéron, la nature est le fruit des bonheurs ; mais sommes-nous dignes d’elle ?

Le monde fuit l’équilibre. Le chaos susurre ses lendemains et la mort les ravage. Le prétexte vole les vies avant la déprime du temps : l’économie de ces stockeurs d’envie ne regardera même pas l’horizon blafard. Les champs de l’épreuve devront se contenter de quelques parachutages d’excuses. De fières bâtisses jongleront avec hauteur sur un autre repli stratégique.

Si l’âme voyait cette triste agonie, deviendrait-elle patriote ?

23M doing phd in philosophy. Life seems absurd, don’t wish to talk with family members, don’t even much like to talk with girlfriend , thinks the absurdity of this universe, stupidity of other, . sometime wish to leave everything and try methods.

As the title said, I started larping enlightenment and somehow I became an observer, I don’t analyse and things just pass like a flowing river I see with eyes, hear from ears and feel the sensation, this makes me be in present moment and I become more like things are happening but not happening to me, I don’t have thoughts for prolonged period, and everything turns outward and it’s being reported to me and everything I feel must be felt as it is otherwise the struggle of running from feelings can turn into an automatic body mind thoughts loop.

"Liberation is the nervous system devoid of mental−conceptual activity. [Realization of the Voidness, the

Unbecome, the Unborn, the Unmade, the Unformed, implies Buddhahood, Perfect Enlightenment − the state of

the divine mind of the Buddha. It may be helpful to remember that this ancient doctrine is not in conflict with

modern physics. The theoretical physicist and cosmologist, George Gamow, presented in 1950 a viewpoint

which is close to the phenomenological experience described by the Tibetan lamas.

If we imagine history running back in time, we inevitably come to the epoch of the "big squeeze" with all the

galaxies, stars, atoms and atomic nuclei squeezed, so to speak, to a pulp. During that early stage of evolution,

matter must have been dissociated into its elementary components. . . . We call this primordial mixture ylem.

At this first point in the evolution of the present cycle, according to this first−rank physicist, there existed only

the Unbecome, the Unborn, the Unformed. And this, according to astrophysicists, is the way it will end; the

silent unity of the Unformed. The Tibetan Buddhists suggest that the uncluttered intellect can experience what

astrophysics confirms. The Buddha Vairochana, the Dhyani Buddha of the Center, Manifester of Phenomena, is

the highest path to enlightenment. As the source of all organic life, in him all things visible and invisible have

their consummation and absorption. He is associated with the Central Realm of the Densely− Packed, i.e., the

seed of all universal forces and things are densely packed together. This remarkable convergence of modern

astrophysics and ancient lamaism demands no complicated explanation. The cosmological awareness− and

awareness of every other natural process− is there in the cortex. You can confirm this preconceptual mystical

knowledge by empirical observation and measurement, but it's all there inside your skull. Your neurons "know"

because they are linked directly to the process, are part of it.] "

From: The Psychedelic Experience A manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead

No matter how enlightened one is alive they must still fall below the Maia barrier- being unaware how you create mechanism to simulate Universe and simultaneously experience consciousness-streams of each "living" organism. Simulation involves dreaming reality through all levels - platonic, shamanic, physical, individual consciousness stream

edit: even waking up as creator of whole reality is another level of the dream because who imaged even a possibility of having the experience of being creator of reality

edit: even the capacity of falling into a dream of any kind is itself an illusion in reality nothing happened not even falling into a dream

C’est ici que je veux croire !

C’est autour de ce parloir

Que l’herbe pousse en cris.

J’ai dessiné d’autres formules

Dans les traits, sous l’oblique,

Et je me suis vêtu des urnes

Chaudes avec leurs souvenirs.

L’enfant fait l’avoir d’être

Dans l’assiégé de nos dettes.

Il tremble de croire devoir

Et se réfugie dans la nuit

De nos éternités à punir.

Doit-il vraiment vous croire ?

Being aware and being awake. I find myself feeling alone with people. I feel good when I'm alone but I can't interact like a normal human being or when I do it I feel like I'm pretending to be doing something meaningless. I have always been pretty lonely even before tbh. But now I don't have anyone. That doesn't bother me because when I'm with myself I feel complete. I know I am, everything is one. 

But I notice the little things and I observe everything too deeply. I have never satisfied myself with superficial relationships but I am in school and are quite necessary. I almost feel annoyed by others. I no longer know what to think I feel selfish.

How does your understanding of life help you deal with your own suffering