If you're speaking of 'spiritual enlightenment', which I think you are, it's actually quite a recent arrival in Western thought, due mainly to the influence of Eastern religions and popular spiritual movements, beginning with Theosophy and the like, in the 19th C.

The general attitude of the Christian faith was not to 'seek enlightenment' in that sense, although the term was sometimes used by Christian writers and commentators. But the orientation of Christians was towards the second coming of Jesus, the Eschaton, and so on. There were underground movements, like the Rosicrucians, Hermetics, and some gnostics (like the Cathars) that taught such ideas but generally they were pretty foreign to the mainstream Christian tradition.

The term that most closely translates to the sense you want to convey, was used by the translator W Rhys-Davids, who founded the Pali Text Society in 1881 to translated the Buddhist Pali literature of then Siam (now Thailand) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The word which he translated as 'enlightenment' was the Buddhist term 'bodhi'. And 'bodhi' is one of the many Buddhist terms for which there aren't really any direct English equivalents. The meaning given in Wikipedia is 'the understanding possessed by the Buddha of the true nature of things'.

In any case, one of the reasons Rhys-Davids used the word 'enlightenment' was because it harmonised nicely with the way the term was understood by the 'European Enlightenment'. Rhys-Davids, and other scholars of that time, tended to present Buddhism (or the Theravada form found in SE Asia) as 'a rational religion', largely free from supersition, priest-craft and institutional corruption, and therefore more likely to harmonise with the scientific attitude of the Enlightenment than Christianity, which in its institutional form had become corrupted (as had, in his view, the 'lama-ism' of Tibetan Buddhism.)

Around the same time, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society, Colonel Henry Olcott, arrived in Ceylon, and announced his conversion to Buddhism, on similar grounds - that it was a 'scientific religion'. Then in 1888, at the first Parliament of Religion, held in Chicago, there were two notable Buddhist exponents, one being Soyen Shaku, a Rinzai Zen Master, a Japanese of an aristocratic background (and whose lectures at the Parliament are still in print as the 'Sermons of a Buddhist Abbott') and also Anagarika Dharmaphala, who was sponsored to attend by Olcott.


Soyen Shaku

Also speaking at the Parliament was the charismatic and highly intelligent Swami Vivikenanda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and exponent of Hindu Vedanta. He toured the US for months after the event and developed a large following. His six-volume edition on Schools of Yoga is also still in print.

Swami Vivikenanda

In the early 20th century, these pioneers were followed by others, including Paramahansa Yogananda, who built a large organisation headquarted in Los Angeles, and numerous others, aside from the previously-mentioned Theosophical Society, which hit its straps around the first three decades of the 20th C. Collectively they converted some influential people to their cause, and Yoga/Vedanta/Buddhism became part of the rubric of modern life.

So that's a bit of historical and sociological background to the question - it was these kinds of people that introduced the idea of spiritual enlightenment to the West.

Why are we seeking enlightenment? — Benjamin Dovano

Wait--we are?

Yes, we are. Even by being on this forum you confirm it :)

I wouldn't say I'm seeking enlightenment. What I'm seeking is friendly, philosophically-oriented talk from people who don't just want to argue and who aren't arrogant, snobby, etc., and I'm seeking that primarily for purposes of both entertainment and because I like to keep my expression (specifically writing) "chops" exercised a bit.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to find.friendly, philosophically-oriented talk from people who don't just want to argue and who aren't arrogant, snobby, etc.

Ever consider the possibility that you've come to the wrong place?

LOL.

arrogant, snobby — Terrapin Station

I am a friendly, talkative, philosophically minded, arrogant, enlightened snob.

Ever consider the possibility that you've come to the wrong place? — Metaphysician Undercover

You'd like me to think that, eh? ;-)

Enlightenment is the light at the end of the tunnel, the light that follows the dark, wisdom, the promised land, equality, the absolute. And alas, I can't take you there, because we already are there. All One has to do is be it, be true.

A philosopher is a lover of truth!

The quest for enlightenment is a search for one's place in the universe. How the universe works and how one fits in the whole picture.

That's a specifically rationalist image of the idea of enlightenment; the project of the West. The Oriental project has actually been quite the opposite.

It's moral knowledge - a type of knowledge neither susceptible to being beheld intellectually or to being acquired vicariously (since it is in principle ineffable) but perceivable solely via personal experience - and is the fundamental prerequisite for stability of the mind.

Vicariously acquired moral principles -ex the injunctions of the biblical Commandments - serve merely as a utilitarian guide, but fundamentally cannot communicate the knowledge they refer to. The concomitant of a state of moral knowledge - or, if you will, 'Enlightenment' - is a state of personal moral autonomy which, in turn, equates with a state of individual free will. Conversely, to the extent an individual is deficient in such knowledge he exists in a state where moral behaviour is susceptible to determination by external factors.

No man is an island nor might he become the measure of all things lest he first embrace virtue as its own reward and wonder as the beginning of wisdom. For any of us to be aware we have but to graciously accept our own awareness, to appreciate beauty and humor we must first embrace them in ourselves, to have a friend we must first be a friend, to be human we must first open our hearts, to live we must first choose to truly live, and to actualize our full potential we must first become invulnerable in our vulnerability by surrendering to our higher power or greater truth, thus, slaying the beasts of our nightmares naked and completely unashamed. Our feet shape the path as the way shapes our feet and, when we no longer make distinctions between who we are and what we are doing, the two become far greater than any mere sum of their parts. Whether you wish to call that enlightenment or self-actualization is up the individual as far as I'm concerned.

Are the " insights " into different aspects of life, the building blocks of the so called " enlightenment "?
That is by having many insights in the nature of man will someone "become" enlightened?

Is enlightenment the ultimate thing in life? After which there is no other purpose or action to be taken in one's life?

The self-evident truth only asserts itself within the silent void, thus, justifying itself and providing its own proofs and truths never requiring anyone to defend it when our own silent voice speaks loudest. Thus, the finger pointing at the moon is never to be confused with the moon itself nor is harmony to be confused with our actions and reason.

Trouble is, that kind of thing's so ripe for parody! Ex: Seem to remember David Carradine, in his roll as 'Grasshopper', saying something dreadfully like that to his enlightened Guru! - Can't beat a Hollywood Bhuda for unconscously hilarious hackneyed platitudes!

Trouble is, that kind of thing's so ripe for parody! Ex: Seem to remember David Carradine, in his roll as 'Grasshopper', saying something dreadfully like that to his enlightened Guru! - Can't beat a Hollywood Bhuda for unconscously hilarious hackneyed platitudes! — Robert Lockhart

I often tell people a Jedi feels the force flow through him when he is regular. It is ripe for parody because it implies an underlying systems logic that can be applied to life, the universe, and everything reconciling even quantum mechanics and Relativity. Essentially, what I colorfully describe as Homogenized Heaven and Hell where crap rolling downhill can transform into poetry in motion because the same more cartoonish yin-yang dynamics apply to both.

During the historical era called The Enlightenment, which led to the industrial and scientific revolutions, more people began to rely on the explanatory power of reason than on traditions based on superstition, magical thinking, or other undeserved authorities. But the word Enlightenment is used in many different senses, and seeking all of them makes no sense.

Thanks for the background Wayf

That's alright I glad someone finally noticed!

Happened across this, kinda interesting going with the flow...the dilation of time

'Flow' is related to 'meditative absorption' however the state of absorption may be directed towards enhancing athletic performance. So the content and overall aim is different to meditative absorption in the service of spiritual illumination. Flow is associated with a psychologist called Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (try saying that!)