What is Enlightenment ?

It’s dealing with all the shit life can throw at you, and laughing it off and staying positive and upbeat.

An understanding that is incorporated in one’s mind, body, emotions, and spirit, as to one’s place in the cosmos.

It depends on if you are talking about a European change in thinking that took place in the 17th-18th centuries, or if you are talking about what the Buddha is said to have experienced.
Two different things.

more about the Buddha :) @josie

I have no idea.

I would normally mod that answer to a question in General as being “unhelpful”, but in this case it’s right to the point. If you want to know what enlightenment is, don’t ask anybody else. And don’t think about it either. It’s way more simple than that., too simple for ideas.

this question should be moved you are saying?! @thorninmud

by not thinking about it it will come ?kindly explain

thank you!

Artistic talent.

@Inconito101 ”...enlightenment is twofold: one is the pushing forward in the exploration of the world and transformation of the mind, and the other is to retreat into emptiness. The former is to engage the world and interact with things in the course of action, and the latter is to unwind and disengage from things. The realization of emptiness is the emancipation, and the advance in the journey is the illumination.” – Suzuki

What does one do before enlightenment?
Chop wood, carry water.
What does one do after enlightenment?
Chop wood, carry water.

@Inconito101
In that case, it is a perfect understanding of the nature of the self which allows one to live without suffering.

beautifully said, do you have any book suggestion !?

@zenvelo @josie

@Inconito101 “this question should be moved you are saying?”

No, it’s fine in General.

“by not thinking about it it will come ?kindly explain”

It would be better to say that thinking about enlightenment (or imagining what it’s like, or in any other way forming ideas about what it is or isn’t) gets in the way of actually experiencing it. Enlightenment isn’t something that “comes”. Enlightenment is always here. There isn’t anything else. Imagining what it’s like is pointless, since it’s on open display at all times. It isn’t the least bit special. Your ordinary experience, just as it is, is no different than the Buddha’s enlightenment. Only ideas keep you from seeing this.

It means being able to detatch from the egos stories and programming of how good, bad, sad, important, awful something is and realize that in the grand scheme of the universe you are but dust in the wind as are all of your trials and tribulations. All there really is is consciousness, the rest is illusion, but those damn illusions sure feel real. lol
Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

@Inconito101 Try this one:

Poetic Leaps In Zen’s Journey Of Enlightenment by Yong Zhi.

Listening to @thorninmud

Here’s what the Buddha said at the moment of realizing his enlightenment: “Wonder of wonders! Intrinsically all living beings are buddhas, endowed with wisdom and virtue. Only because they cling to their delusive thinking do they fail to realize this”.

It means, the penny has dropped.

Another relevant quote, this one from Bankei, an 18th century Zen master:

“Not a single one of you people at this meeting is unenlightened. Right now, you’re all sitting before me as Buddhas. Each of you received the Buddha-mind from your mothers when you were born, and nothing else. This inherited Buddha-mind is beyond any doubt unborn, with a marvelously bright illuminative wisdom. In the Unborn, all things are perfectly resolved. I can give you proof that they are. While you’re facing me hearing me speaking like this, if a crow cawed or a sparrow chirped, or some other sound occurred somewhere behind you, you would have no difficulty knowing it was a crow or a sparrow, or whatever, even without giving a thought to listening to it, because you were listening by means of the Unborn.”

@Inconito101
Buddha
The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
Both by Karen Armstrong

The Gautama Buddha described enlightenment as sitting before a wall and seeing just a wall.

I think it’s being able to separate the ego from the spirit. It’s being able to realize what is important, and what is not. Love and forgiveness is important. Money is not. (But money sure is nice to have!)

Realizing we are each a part of this puzzle we call life. And I mean from the water to the sky to other living creatures, to the trees. Each with a role to play and in a constant loop, and if we all did our part to care for each other and the planet we live on, we would do away with the majority of things that sicken ourselves and the planet.
I think mankind is way out of harmony with ourselves and with nature and we will continue to suffer till we are all enlightened.
I’m not talking about God, or Budha or what have you. Just common sense really.

Figuring out human nature and the human condition.

I guess it’s also knowing what you don’t know.

For a completely different tack, the Enlightenment refers to a historical period starting in the 17th century. Here enlightenment meant the understanding that the Universe operates according to a uniform set of natural laws and that things do not occur on the whim of gods or spirits. Another characteristic of the Enlightenment was the belief that people have a set of rights irrespective of class and political decisions should be decided by the will of the majority or their elected representatives. How closely related are these two ideas? This talk by James Flynn suggests that the scientific viewpoint and the idea of treating people equally may in fact be very tightly related.

@thorninmud ok I get it, thank you for the explanation it makes sense, all the things seems so complex but the most enlightened people all says it’s really simple I guess I have to work more..

@Coloma Thank you ! how do you see through these illusions, they for sure seem so real. I was listening to a lady on youtube speak about them but most people that are there tell us how easy it is to just let go but they miss on show the littlestep before succeeding (where most are still stuck in) how to step out. :/ One day it will seem so little I guess

@zenvelo Thank you  appreciated!

@josie Thank you, very kind of you :)

@Dutchess_III I’m saying ! loll yes you are very right about what is important and what is not!

@Pandora True I read this one time: ‘It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.’ By John J. Muth

For a completely different tack, the Enlightenment refers to a historical period starting in the 17th century. Here enlightenment meant the understanding that the Universe operates according to a uniform set of natural laws and that things do not occur on the whim of gods or spirits. Another characteristic of the Enlightenment was the belief that people have a set of rights irrespective of class and political decisions should be decided by the will of the majority or their elected representatives. How closely related are these two ideas?
@LostInParadise As above so below, there are many thing we could learn from everything. It just people who get to attached to their religions and words. Like I do believe in God, but this God has no face it’s more consciousness and the Earth and the universe being alive. It is greater than Earth, cosmos and universe the ultimate premium consciousness. I never reject any ideas, I take some here and there and mix them together which make a lot of sense. All these parties have a lot of truths but their constant battles to each other makes us happen to question their credibility when we are all one and every truth is truth to some people. Live and let live 

thank you all for the great exchanges :)