Enlightenment means different things to different people at different times. Originally it was the name of a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries which led to Renaissance humanism. Even then it was both a movement and a state of mind. During the time when science blossomed and revolutions in the United States and France occurred. But that was also it was also a time when millions of people were enslaved and transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. Now enlightenment more nearly represents a common belief in the possibility of a better world. Enlightenment is associated with the French term lumières and the German Aufklärung. The two have in common the idea of 'light.'" Such an archetype is a character, theme, situation or motif that represents a universal symbolic or shared pattern of human nature. Mythological archetypes can be found in characters such as the hero, the villain, the trickster and the mentor, as well as in thematic concepts such as quests, death and rebirth. Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychological theories. Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge The term is used in various Hellenistic religions and philosophies. It is best known from Gnosticism, where it signifies a knowledge or insight into humanity's real nature as divine, leading to the deliverance of the divine spark within humanity from the constraints of earthly existence. Originally Gnosis was the enlightened knowledge of the divine mysteries, which were reserved for a certain elite. Light and darkness are basic natural phenomena as well as symbolic or metaphorical meanings that are often equated with the pairs of Being and Non-Being, primordial chaos and world order. In mythology the light is in the heavens and is associated with the sun, mood, and stars and is associated with goodness, hope, and faith in the future. While the perceptions of darkness are largely associated with the past and with chaos, evil or descent into the underworld, or madness. In Greek mythology Hercules was greatest hero, a slayer of mosnters and savior of human kind. He was the only greek hero to ascend to goodhood and he became the greek god of strength. The hero as savior in classical literature and mythology. In Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), he posits the existence of a Monomyth, a word he borrows from James Joyce referring to a pattern that is the essence of and universally common to, heroic tales in every culture. He outlines the archetypal episodes that subdivide three stages of the hero's journey (separation, initiation, and return) The savior or hero in myths are more or less universal and usually represent the human soul. This idea spans various cultures (Chinese, Native American, classical European, etc.) and religions (Buddhist, Christian, Tao, etc). Religions deal with the relationship between gods and humans. Since. Buddhism does not have a central god it is a philosophy about how to live. Most people have heard that the Buddha was enlightened and that Buddhists seek enlightenment. D.T. Suzuki and some of the first Zen teachers in the West explained enlightenment as an experience that one can have at moments. However most Zen teachers and Zen texts tell you that enlightenment is not an experience but a permanent state: a stepping through the door permanently. Not even satori is enlightenment itself. Zen is a Japanese sect which was strongly influenced by Taoist philosophy, which advocated a calm way of life. The idea of a serene mind appeals to stressed out to many westerners, and Zen Meditation became popular in the 1960's. This method provides insight into how the mind works, and slows heart rate and respiration while also improving the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. But was heavily steeped in some fairly complex and very traditional routines. More recent meditation techniques such as Transcendental Meditation and progressive relation are nonsecular and simplier. The latest trend is Mindfulness which seems to be simple and easy enough that some large coprorations, health insurance companies, and even the military have held classes or disseminated pamphlets or guidelines for stress reduction. However stress management is only one of our current concerns. Primitive religion is always dualistic in nature, divides the world into “us versus them.” It splits the psyche into a good and a worthless portion, and sees everything in terms of either black or white, either good or bad. There is no middle ground, there is no gray area, and it is always afraid of any kind of ambiguity. Holism is the idea that various systems should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. Most of the spiritual books and teachers will talk about spiritual things like how we are all connected. And this is true at the spiritual level. Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States. A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual. Jung believed that Unitive awareness graces us with momentary glimpses of our participation in the greater whole. It describes a symbolically informed state of mind where we move through experience with a living sense of the unitary reality underlying all things, visible and invisible. Now we are being told that all objects are illusions; that everything is one energy; that consciousness exists outside the brain; that even our bodies are not real in the way we believed. We are also being told that extraterrestrials have come to this planet for a very long time and were thought to be gods by ancient humans. According to Joseph Campbell we are in need of a new myth to unite us. Human consciousness is veiled. But it is not veiled compared to the consciousness of a mineral a plant or an animal. Human consciousness is capable of much more than we am at. When the electrical barriers to the expansion of human consciousness are lifted or attenuated and dispersed, higher light enters the human mechanism. And we achieve what is called enlightenment. Well enlightenment is the type of Consciousness and there are different names for enlightenment such as Satori and Samadhi which relates to a higher form of enlightenment.
Enlightenment is a new relationship of the human consciousness to the factor of light. When we speak of Enlightenment we can say that in that light we shall see light additional light,since the whole universe is light of different grades and different frequencies.
Enlightenment is the apprehension of the next grade of frequency which we have not yet apprehended. Enlightenment is the apprehension of successive degrees of light in their varying frequencies. Enlightenment is a sequential process. Some people think it happens all at once and it may seem so but there is a preparation.
All Enlightenment is prepared through the refinement of the vehicles of consciousness. When sufficient refinement exists new types of light will be apprehended. Enlightenment for some is the basis type of illusion for a higher being. But always there is a progressive apprehension of ever more rapid frequencies of light, and when we reach a certain point apprehending something that has simply been beyond my registration, we call it enlightenment. |
