Awakened vs Enlightened... Let's discuss the difference

[Drifting_Through_Infinity]

Enlightenment or Spiritual awakening, both the terms mean the same Self Realization. May be we can say that there are different stages in spiritual awakening, but enlightenment means the ultimate state of Self Realization. When somebody turns from mundane worldly pursuits to spiritual pursuit, there is an awakening in the personality towards the truth and Realities of life. While in the spiritual path, as we progress, we are into different stages of spiritual awakening. Like, when we pursue Self Realization, the Self which was mere witness before we turned to spirituality, now helps us in our pursuit as a friend. This is one stage of awakening. As we grow up more in the spiritual pursuit, the Self becomes an enjoyer from a friend in the previous stage. This is another stage of awakening. Then, as we achieve total awakening, the individual himself becomes the Self known as Maheshwara who has perfect control over himself and his world. This is the last stage of awakening. Perfect control over the world doesn't mean authoritarian or dictatorship, but means minimal dependency on the world or absolute self sufficiency and self reliance.

I agree.

[thelerner]

I have a theory-

when I sleep

I am enlightened.

When I wake up,

I am not.     

 

 

 

Course keeping one's mouth closed,

body in deep peace is half the battle.

[cold]

When I sleep I prefer no light.

And when I awake I prefer light.

[silent thunder]

I love to sit very still and as silent as I am able, in pitch dark.

 

something opens up and there is light within

[awaken]

I found the discriptions of the three options are very strange.

 

I don't think people who are enlighten are Buddha.

 

Enlightment is just a basic understanding about how to practice in original face.

 

Enlightment is not a Buddha.

 

Too far away.

 

 

About 'awakening',

 

we can see from 圓覺經，

 

 

http://abtemple.org/download/1452135387.pdf

 

知幻即離，離幻即覺

 

Knowing the illusions is leaving,

 

Leaving the illusions is awakening.

 

So awakening from the illusions is the real awakening.

 

Awaring the existing of illusions is awakening.

 

There are a lot of illusions.

 

Can you aware them all?

 

Do you know what is illusions?

Edited March 30, 2017 by awaken

[Jetsun]

I like the definitions that awakening is used to describe the Initial identity shift....waking up from being a Person to the source of all.

this awakening can be abiding or non abiding.

If it is abiding and there is openness than further shifts happen and deep Clearing/de-conditioning and transformations happen. first within consciouness (pure being) and then beyond it.

Enlightenment would be (for me) a very far away Point where one has gone through several indentiy shifts and deep embodiment of them.

This is pretty much the way I see it. I have been to many meetings and teachings of various people who are described as "awake" who have written books on the subject and lead retreats etc and there is a similarity between them all which is different to the average person I meet or work with on a daily basis, in that they have this kind of non striving kind of background peace or stillness which is conveyed from their being and energy. Its like they don't have a centre with which to compare or compete with others, by awakening to the totality comparing and competing no longer makes sense.

 

Even though they have this shared presence each varies in their abidance in it and in the breadth and depth to which this stillness runs their operating system. So all of them have varying degrees of conditioning left in their system which sometimes takes over, therefore i wouldn't describe any of them as enlightened even though they have awoken to the fundamental space of what enlightenment is, their entire being is yet to be colonised by this space. Which is why you can get teachers who are awake and have real depth in their realisation but still have scandals because not all of them are awake, even if their fundamental centre of separate "I" is gone there are still pockets of "I" not yet liberated.

 

The only person I have found who appears to operate from this space all the time 24/7 is Ammachi , although she might be in her own category, but she is about the only person I have met or seen who i could satisfactorily say is enlightened. Everyone else is a work in progress.

[words]

i think why the definition of enlightenment is such a tricky thing is because it's paradoxical. 

 

enlightenment is a never ending process because it's like gradually turning on the city lights into the infinite. which is infinite, so...never ending.

 

at the same time, turning on the lights into the infinite only reveals the mystery. there's nothing to know there, really. nothing to chase, nothing to look for, nothing to achieve.

 

so in a way, one may be enlightened once they realize the mystery and yet, at the same time, the enlightenment 'deepens' with the continuous unfolding of the mystery.

 

 

 

how to convey it? it's like unwrapping a gift of a box in a box in a box in a box and so on for infinity. one is realized when they know with no trace of a doubt that it's just going to be a box in a box in a box for infinity and no matter how much unwrapping they'll do, they'll always find just the next box. once one realize is just boxes, they are enlightened. and yet, at the same time, the more they unwrap, the more they discover. it's just that they are free of the 'looking for something in there'.

 

 

going with the gift boxes metaphor,awakening is the moment when one opens the first box. and there's no going back from it, once the unwrapping starts. an awakened one knows there's more to it, but they are still unwrapping with a purpose, they are still looking for something at the end of it.

[Bindi]

How many thousands of Western spiritual seeker types refer to themselves as awakened, all it takes often is realising that there is more to life than material pursuits and an interest in tarot or crystals or conspiracy theory to declare onself awakened.

 

A more institutionalised Western category are the neo-advaitan awakened/enlightened types, these claim an actual realisation of non-duality, which though possibly real, most often seems to be a head space dissociation from the suffering of the heart/mind, effective to an extent but limited because the heart and its pain have necessarily been rejected along with the mind.

 

Then there are the Western kundalini awakened/enlightened sort, again something has definitely taken place, and they are different to how they used to be, but somehow it's not enough, they never seem to be actually enlightened, or wise, or compassionate, or capable of extraordinary feats, it's always a work in progress.

 

An example to me of someone who seems to have attained something like enlightenment recently (last century) is St Seraphim of Sarov - a 'miracle' worker able to heal all manner of serious physical conditions in a moment with a single word, and most certainly psychic, helping people to find what had been lost or stolen, being able to see into people's hearts and knowing their thoughts and problems before they spoke, and many times saying what was going to happen in the future - and when I compare what he did for people freely with the current crop of self-proclaimed awakened/enlightened individuals who usually only have platitudes to share, they fall far short to me. I haven't heard of anyone alive at the moment whom I perceive as truly awakened/enlightened, though there might be someone who is of course who is living in anonymity.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Bindi

[allinone]

How many thousands of Western spiritual seeker types refer to themselves as awakened, all it takes often is realising that there is more to life than material pursuits and an interest in tarot or crystals or conspiracy theory to declare onself awakened.

 

A more institutionalised Western category are the neo-advaitan awakened/enlightened types, these claim an actual realisation of non-duality, which though possibly real, most often seems to be a head space dissociation from the suffering of the heart/mind, effective to an extent but limited because the heart and its pain have necessarily been rejected along with the mind.

 

Then there are the Western kundalini awakened/enlightened sort, again something has definitely taken place, and they are different to how they used to be, but somehow it's not enough, they never seem to be actually enlightened, or wise, or compassionate, or capable of extraordinary feats, it's always a work in progress.

 

An example to me of someone who seems to have attained something like enlightenment recently (last century) is St Seraphim of Sarov - a 'miracle' worker able to heal all manner of serious physical conditions in a moment with a single word, and most certainly psychic, helping people to find what had been lost or stolen, being able to see into people's hearts and knowing their thoughts and problems before they spoke, and many times saying what was going to happen in the future - and when I compare what he did for people freely with the current crop of self-proclaimed awakened/enlightened individuals who usually only have platitudes to share, they fall far short to me. I haven't heard of anyone alive at the moment whom I perceive as truly awakened/enlightened, though there might be someone who is of course who is living in anonymity.

 

Spiritual experience can produce mania. And delusions, like thinking of being enlightened or saint. Its typical or rather unavoidable misunderstanding. So not really a persons fault, ignorance can't be blamed but has to be worked away.