Enlightenment is a confusing term. What does it mean to you?

Enlightenment is not something you gain. It is rather getting rid of all your attachments and illusions. You purify your mind.You simply let go. I was reading one of the articles from Ajahn Sumedho yesterday and he made the important point the you don't have to die to understand that you are enlightened. He also said our practice is not to become enlightened,but to be in the knowing, now. Understanding things as what they are really are. Here is the link to that article http://www.buddhanet.net/nowknow2.htm (Article mainly concentrates on meditation).

I think it's funny that people throw the word enlightenment around like it's not the weighty issue that it really is. I saw on other posts appropriate references to the Buddha, and in general I would echo those sentiments. I think to be enlightened is to have a perfect understanding of ourselves and where we fit into the great chain of being in the world. And can we ever reach that perfect understanding? I'm not sure.

Enlightenment to me means to know oneself and one's place in the overall scheme of things. To be at unity with each and every thing. Acceptance and tolerance of not just everything and everyone but also your self. A deep, holistic understanding of life, the universe and everything. Knowing that you are far more potential than you are actuality and being at peace internally and externally.

I always thought as my enlightenments as the cure for my brain freeze. LOL Sometimes, I am struggling to learn or do something. All of a sudden a little en(LIGHT)enment goes off in my brain. My struggle is over and my task is a breeze. Am I even close to the actual meaning? LOL

That's a good question. I thought I knew what it meant, but now that you asking, I am scrambling. Maybe an example would work better than a definition at the moment. I had one year where I felt especially enlightened... that was 2004. In that year, I understood the purposes of my life experiences to make me spiritually stronger, and I spent every day journalling to keep track of the things to be thankful for.

enlightenment is the phenomenon of realizing that you are not enlightened yet

Enlightenment is a state of conciousness where all of the borders of your normal body, ego, and perception are lost and and you perceive a merger into a much larger conciousness. Borders and perceptions are perceived as infinite here and some label this as god, some just call All That Is, or God Conciousness. By analogy we tune a radio to pick up a single frequency which we can then listen to. But if you had a thousand radios each one tuned to a different frequency and a thousand sets of ears capable of hearing and enjoying all the frequencies simultaneously the flow of information and please from enjoying all of those seperate streams of music would be perceived as ecstasy. Now in enlightment we are not just hearing sounds but experiencing every thought and sensation flowing through this larger conciousness that we have become one with. So much information and sensations are flowing through you that there is no time to analyze or judge any one stream. You are an observer locked into an ecstasy that knows no bounds. The most common emotional interpretation for this experience is love. A profound sense of well being and joy and reassurance fills you and you know that what you are experiencing at that moment is more real than anything you have ever experience before. It is not uncommon for tears of joy to freely flow during this part of the experience. Profound spiritual truths flow into your mind according to how much truth you are ready for. If you are able to remember and emerge the experience with any of these memories of truth intact then this is Gnosis. But many of the highest truths given to you will be lost as a dream is lost because we lack the concepts in our current minds to tie these truths in to. The return to normal conciousness takes place gradually over an hour or two. The pain of leaving this experience is coupled with the joy of having experienced it at all. As you come down from it you try to hand desperately to what ever truths you can that your mind can encompass.

No Enlightenment is not confusing! It is very clear and well defined too! It is a term used in estern yoga and spiritual process and it is well know as a very high level of spirituality: When a person reached at a level where he just become his real self, means meeets soul and after that self realization he entered in the realm of enlightenment through automoted further yogic process! This is called enlightenment! It means AANAND, supreme happyness, ocean of permant joyousness!

Enlightenment is the education that results in understanding and the spread of knowledge.For further understanding of this visit:http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=enlightenment I kinda got the meaning for it from this link.Hope this helped.

One thing it isn't is something you can control or force. Enlightment is an event that you go through to look into yourself and try to understand yourself and how you got to where you are.

I belive Enlightenment is us dying but our memory and genitic stucture living in other people. So if i dye i will be happy if my son is the gentic part and everyone i know is my family and friends! Because i made a religous aspect of life a sinitifical reason i must get best resonse!

sometimes during while making love we have moments of thoughtlessness,egolessness or timelessness...those are the glimpse of enlightenment and than some gems like Jesus or Buddha attains this stage permanently and thats enlightenment

enlightenment can't have any meaning, cause it is there when the mind is not. like in dreamless deep sleep, only, it is a mindless awakened state where feeling & willing r also absent. the body-brain perceives & acts spontaneously , in total harmony with all creation. the enlightened state is 'all-one', where the fiction of duality has been erased. all conflicts, needs wither away in that peaceful state. bye all.