Enlightenment (concept)

Enlightenment broadly means the realization or the acquisition of new wisdom or understanding. As the word "en-lighten" implies, it connotes to bring one from darkness, ignorance, blindness to light and awakening.. However, the English word covers two concepts which can be quite distinct: religious or spiritual enlightenment (German: Erleuchtung) and secular or intellectual enlightenment (German: Aufklärung).

In religious use, enlightenment is most closely associated with South and East Asian religious experience, being used to translate words such as Bodhi or satori in Buddhism, or moksha in Hinduism and other Indian religious traditions. The concept does also have parallels in the Abrahamic religions, that is, in the Kabbalah tradition in Judaism, in Christian mysticism, and in the Sufi tradition of Islam.

In secular use, the concept refers mainly to the European intellectual movement known as the Age of Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason referring to philosophical developments related to scientific rationality in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Enlightenment in Eastern traditions

Symbol

Nelumbo nucifera, commonly known as the Lotus.

The lotus flower is sometimes used as a symbol of enlightenment.

The lotus has its roots in the mud,
Grows up through the deep water,
And rises to the surface.
It blooms into perfect beauty and purity in the sunlight.
It is like the mind unfolding to perfect joy and wisdom.

Buddhism

Bodhi

Bodhi (बोधि) is the Pāli and Sanskrit word for the "awakened" or "knowing" consciousness of a fully liberated yogi, generally translated into English as "enlightenment." It is an abstract noun formed from the verbal root budh (to awake, become aware, notice, know or understand), corresponding to the verbs bujjhati (Pāli) and bodhati or budhyate (Sanskrit). The term Bodhi is mostly used in Buddhist context.

In Early Buddhism, Bodhi carries a meaning synonimous to Nirvana, using only some different metaphors to describe the experience, which implied the extinction of raga (greed), dosa (hate) and moha (delusion). In the later school of Mahayana Buddhism, the status of nirvana was downgraded, coming to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained Nirvana, and that one needed to attain Bodhi to eradicate delusion. The result is that according to Mahayana Buddhism, the Arahant attains only Nirvana, thus still being subject to delusion, while the Bodhisattva attains Bodhi. In Theravada Buddhism, Bodhi and Nirvana carry the same meaning, that of being freed from craving, hate and delusion.

Satori (Zen)

Satori (悟 Korean oh; Japanese satori (from the verb satoru); Chinese: wù) is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment. The word literally means "understanding." It is sometimes loosely used interchangeably with Kensho, but Kensho refers to the first perception of the Buddha-Nature or True-Nature, sometimes referred to as "awakening." Kensho is not a permanent state of enlightenment, but rather a clear glimpse of the true nature of creation. Satori on the other hand refers to "deep" or lasting enlightenment. According to D. T. Suzuki, "Satori is the raison d'être of Zen, without which Zen is no Zen. Therefore every contrivance, disciplinary and doctrinal, is directed towards satori." Satori can be found in every moment of life, it is wrapped in all daily activities, its goal to unwrap them to see satori.

As an analogy, we may think of a baby when it first walks. After much effort, it stands upright, finds its balance and walks a few steps (kensho), then falls. After continued effort the child will one day find that it is able to walk all the time (satori).

Once the True-Nature has been seen, it is customary to use satori when referring to the enlightenment of the Buddha and the Patriarchs, as their enlightenment was permanent.

The Zen Buddhist experience commonly recognizes enlightenment as a transitory thing in life, almost synonymous with the English term epiphany, and satori is the realization of a state of epiphanic enlightenment. Because all things are transitory according to Zen philosophy, however, the transitory nature of satori is not regarded as limiting in the way that a transitory epiphany would be in Western understandings of enlightenment.

DT Suzuki writes that "Samadhi alone is not enough, you must come out of that state, be awakened from it, and that awakening is Prajna. That movement of coming out of samadhi, and seeing it for what it is, that is satori"

Hinduism and some other Indian religious traditions

In Indian religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism), Moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष, liberation) or Mukti (Sanskrit: मुक्ति, release) refers to liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth and all of the suffering and limitation of worldly existence. In Hindu philosophy, it is seen as a transcendence of phenomenal being, of any sense of material consciousness, time, space, and causation (karma). It is not seen as a soteriological goal in the same sense as in a Christian context, but signifies a dissolution of the material self to uncover the underlying, pure spirit: the undoing of conditioned mentality-materiality or nama-roopa (lit. name-form) to uncover one's eternal identity. Liberation is achieved by (and accompanied with) the complete stilling of all material passions — a state of being known as Nirvana. Buddhist thought differs slightly from the Advaita Vedantist reading of liberation.

Enlightenment in Western secular tradition

In the Western philosophical tradition, enlightenment is seen as a phase in cultural history marked by a faith in reason, generally accompanied by rejection of faith in revealed or institutional religion.

Kant's definition of "enlightenment"

In his famous 1784 essay What Is Enlightenment?, Immanuel Kant described it as follows:

Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is the incapacity to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. Such tutelage is self-imposed if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but rather a lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another.

Kant reasoned that although a man must obey in his civil duties, he must make public his use of reason. His motto for enlightenment is Sapere aude! or "Dare to know."

Adorno's and Horkheimer's definition of "enlightenment"

In their controversial analysis of the contemporary western society, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944, revised 1947), Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer developed a wider, and more pessimistic concept of enlightenment. In their analysis, enlightenment had its dark side: while trying to abolish superstition and myths by 'foundationalist' philosophy, it ignored its own 'mythical' basis. Its strivings towards totality and certainty led to an increasing instrumentalization of reason. In their view, the enlightenment itself should be enlightened and not posed as a 'myth-free' view of the world.

Enlightenment and the understanding of good and evil

In Human, All Too Human, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had this to say about enlightenment and the understanding of good and evil:

The man who wants to gain wisdom profits greatly from having thought for a time that man is basically evil and degenerate: this idea is wrong, like its opposite, but for whole periods of time it was predominant and its roots have sunk deep into us and into our world. To understand ourselves we must understand it; but to climb higher, we must then climb over and beyond it. We recognize that there are no sins in the metaphysical sense; but, in the same sense, neither are there any virtues; we recognize that this entire realm of moral ideas is in a continual state of fluctuation, that there are higher and deeper concepts of good and evil, moral and immoral. A man who desires no more from things than to understand them easily makes peace with his soul and will err (or "sin," as the world calls it) at the most out of ignorance, but hardly out of desire. He will no longer want to condemn and root out his desires; but his single goal, governing him completely, to understand as well as he can at all times, will cool him down and soften all the wildness in his disposition. In addition, he has rid himself of a number of tormenting ideas; he no longer feels anything at the words "pains of hell," "sinfulness," "incapacity for the good": for him they are only the evanescent silhouettes of erroneous thoughts about life and the world.

See also

Awakening Awareness Consciousness Fleur de lys Gnosticism Illuminism Intuition Knowledge Logic Meaning of life Mysticism New Age Nirvana

Oneness Palmette Pearly gates Reason Self-knowledge Self-realization Spirituality Transcendology Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Wisdom Yogic Enlightenment Enlightenment Intensive

Depictions on Film: American Beauty Dark City I ♥ Huckabees The Matrix Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979) The Truman Show Vanilla Sky What the Bleep Do We Know!? The Secret The Celestine Prophecy Conversations With God The Legend of Bagger Vance

references

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