Enlightenment--Ethan

The word “enlightenment” has been seen throughout the history of the world, in various shapes and forms. During the 18^th century, thinkers and philosophers believed that this word was defined as “reason” which led them to change the course of history forever. Romanticists and transcendentalists believed that it meant finding your “true self” And the meaning of enlightenment in Buddhism probably has the most complex meanings. In some cases it means “pure and unqualified knowledge” or “state of perfect knowledge combined with infinite compassion.” But according to Buddhism, to achieve this type of enlightenment, one must detach themselves from the Earth to relieve themselves from earthly possessions thus ending their own self-suffering and gaining a new and unbiased perspective. Although detachment is essential to achieving “enlightenment” there is a contradiction within the Buddhist definition. To be detached from the earthly possessions means that one does not have feelings for such things, yet one must also be compassionate towards other people. But how? Both are required to be “enlightened” yet both are almost opposites of each other. The overall goal of enlightenment is end suffering and ignorance but in reality, that is not possible. Suffering and ignorance are just natural characteristics of the world and cannot be stopped. The true goal is to relieve the pain as quickly as possible to prevent any further damage and that can be done through sympathy.

            In reality, to alleviate suffering and ignorance one must have infinite sympathy for every living thing, not just infinite knowledge, compassion, and detachment in general. No one in the entire history of the world can attain perfect knowledge so right off the bat, the standard definition has flaws. Even if somehow, someone, obtained all the knowledge in the world, it is completely useless if it cannot be applied, and compassion, even though can be used in concert with knowledge, cannot be achieved if one must also be detached. The current definition of enlightenment, although makes sense on paper, cannot be achieved in reality. If everyone had sympathy and understanding of everyone’s perspective, however, a mutual ground can be created and conflicts could be solved. Everyone would have happiness in their life, and there would be less ignorance and suffering in the world. So how does one achieve this infinite sympathy? It does simply grow on trees and cannot be grabbed from thin air. It must be learned and attained. To achieve infinite sympathy, one must go through essentially infinite suffering themselves or just a significant amount of suffering in general. By going through pain such as a death of a loved one, suffering such as break ups with friends or significant others, one gains experience in life and knowledge of the reality of the world. As the common saying goes “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” so in this case, the damage a person receives makes them more knowledgeable and it gives them more sympathy. The wisdom and experience gained from this journey of unpleasantness is very much applicable to people in real life compared to the Buddhist definition. If a person is going through their own journey, one can use their knowledge to comfort them. Then they can use their experience and so on and so on. This will become and infinite cycle and it will spread thus making the world an infinitely better place. So, the true definition of enlightenment is not infinite knowledge and compassion. It is infinite sympathy gained through self-suffering and pain.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/harris/bl141.html

http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/blog/posts/what-does-buddhism-mean-by-enlightenment