Enlightened “Coupling”

Yilun Ong, modified 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 5:13 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 5:05 AM

Enlightened “Coupling”

Posts: 623 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
I have read in a few places and in MCTB: “being around enlightened people helps”. My respected and very pragmatic Life Teacher, Seth Tapper says it is ‘bull shit’ – my words and I tend to agree.
  • Please share your view/experience and why the above is true/BS.
  • Enlightened spouses – who, where are the stories and how did it happen or did they choose enlightened people as spouse?
  • How many enlightened people are alive? (4th path – all traditions including accidental) We have 7.6 billion people so 76,000 = 0.001% or 7,600 which is 1 in a million...
Please do not take this seriously, it is under the Humor section after all.

P.S. Doctor Daniel, is your wife enlightened? :p
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Chris M, modified 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 7:27 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 7:26 AM

RE: Enlightened “Coupling”

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
It's bullshit and it's not bullshit.

Since everyone is already enlightened and yet so very, very few are enlightened... this is like two mosquitos colliding with each other in the Grand Canyon.


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Kuru, modified 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 8:09 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 8:09 AM

RE: Enlightened “Coupling”

Posts: 62 Join Date: 11/2/17 Recent Posts
Of course it helps! What a nonsense question

Why did you post this in the humour section? I don't get the joke

if you want to get good at math, does it help to spend time around people who are better at math than you, who can teach you stuff that you don't know, or are you somehow a non interdependent exception in the cosmos who will be completely not influenced by spending time around such people

If you spent 6 months with the Buddha and 6 months with an ignorant charlatan, do you think perhaps one of them would help you to become more awake by giving you profound and true advice that is relevant to your level of understanding, and one would be a source of chaos and problems and confusion and manipulation?
Yilun Ong, modified 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 8:24 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 8:24 AM

RE: Enlightened “Coupling”

Posts: 623 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
Maybe I should rephrase: just by being around them, all else being equal, i.e. there isn't more information, you do not practice differently, they do not talk about it, etc.; which narrows down to their air/aura/behavior/nothing to do with the how-to-be-enlightened information. 

It's not a joke, though it can be funny and it is here because it fits nowhere else. emoticon
seth tapper, modified 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 10:24 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/22/17 10:24 AM

RE: Enlightened “Coupling”

Posts: 477 Join Date: 8/19/17 Recent Posts
Yilun, 

I think I expressed myself poorly.  In my experience, being around happy loving people brings out happy loving states of mind.  Also, in my experience, being around some one with confidence that a delusion is nonsense makes it easier to overcome that delusion.  What I meant was that there is no supernatural magic.  Enlightened people are just really loving and happy and they know what the fuck is going on.  They are just regular humans who stopped buying into the myth of seperateness and agency.  They deserve no more credit or special position than people who accept that the earth is in fact round. 
Yilun Ong, modified 6 Years ago at 11/23/17 2:29 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/23/17 2:29 AM

RE: Enlightened “Coupling”

Posts: 623 Join Date: 8/7/17 Recent Posts
S.:
I have no idea what it's like to live around enlightened beings all of the time. Considering that probably very few people outside of monasteries have this experience (except for the various friends, partners, and intensive students of the lay enlightened), I expect the monastery lifestyle framework has a huge impact on whether or not that's a good idea and how it actually plays out. What I mean is: if you're living in a monastery, you're probably better of with some enlightened beings there no? Sure. But the contexts in which that advice is applied are also those which would already imply a radically different lifestyle than most of us live... those changes might be even more significant.


I strongly suspect that 2 monks here are enlightened (4th path and beyond, 10-fetters arhat? - man, I am still undecided about this possibility, but to be fair to them. I have never seen even the slightest irritation; I have seen much distressing scenarios where I would surely flip and they do not even bat an eyelid, handling disastrous scenarios more calmly and professionally than I have ever seen. Yep, not even on TV. Astounding metta/karuna and calm imperturbability. 

I think the lifestyle is the key to monastics being conducive for practice/enlightenment. Although being around them is a humbling experience (especially in how much I am lacking in terms of compassion), I do not think being around them helped my progress? I do not get to converse much with them much as my Thai is worse than a 3 year old.

The tantric-sympathizer in me would say that primordial enlightened awareness is a universally available teacher and enlightened presence at all times. The occultist in me would say that there is such a thing as an "energetic current" or subtle initiatory transmission you benefit tremendously from making contact with in various traditions, though it doesn't always need to be shared explicitly (it can just do its own thing). Might still be able to tap into it through books, videos, the internet, artifacts, the whims of the universe, etc. Who knows?

I wouldn't say there is no "magic" but I don't know if I could say anything clear or consistent about that.
Well, I get to walk beside an enlightened monk every morning on alms round. Can't feel any magic nor does he seem to be able to read my mind (we wouldn't have trouble communicating then, would we?), but I suppose it can't hurt to 'accidentally' rub some aura off him whenever it's convenient to do so. emoticon
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alguidar, modified 6 Years ago at 11/23/17 4:24 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/23/17 4:24 AM

RE: Enlightened “Coupling”

Posts: 106 Join Date: 6/4/17 Recent Posts
I would love to hang around 4 path and beyond people.

Also i feel i can benefit a lot from a master/disciple relationship. 

unfortunately i just have 1 friend who´s got SE.

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