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Old 12-29-2003, 08:46 AM   #13
JasonB
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 28
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No, not different things.

I was being a bit facetious and making a comparison between the quest for enlightenment and the quest for Dan rankings. Or the quest for any form of external validation for that matter. I wasn't commenting on the question of achieving enlightenment as much as the goal of achieving it.

It seems to me that discussing "enlightenment" as if it's a kind of "finish line" you can cross is attempting to quantify something that has no defineable quality. After all, how do you know your enlightened? How does someone else know? How can you verify this? Name one enlightened person...now tell me who decided it happened?

My point is not that the idea of attaining an enlightened state is not a valid one. My point is that giving the concept a name and setting it as a goal seems like a sure path towards not attaining it because the label itself is an external thing and enlightenment is supposed to be internal. Are you aiming for a point in which people around you say, "Oh that guy...he's enlightened." If so, you may completely fail to achieve enlightenment while you're so busy spreading the word about your higher state.

I'd like to think that the enlightened one could be the guy baggin' groceries for me down at the local Piggly Wiggly. After all, once you attain this state, you shouldn't care anymore if people know or not.

Or I could be completely wrong.
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