CrankyBuddhist   the learning never ends …

As I was outside doing the every 2 hour car moving thing I saw a Question Authority bumper sticker on a Toyota Prius. When I owned it, my old 68 Vdub bus had a Question Authority bumbersticker on it that I got way back in the 70s, when questioning authority would still get me in a lot of trouble.

Earlier even, during my years of catechism, questioning authority got me into a lot of hot water with our pastor. What do you mean Jesus sits on the right hand of God? Does God actually have a hand, and if so wouldn’t it be uncomfortable for Jesus to sit on it? Can I see it? If you believe that it’s ok to take an ‘eye for an eye’ doesn’t that just make you spiteful and vengeful? If we are so full of love for all of the people on the earth, why are there no black people in our church? and on and on …

Today, that particular phrase on a bumper sticker has taken on new life. There is a lot of authority that needs to be questioned, everything from why I can’t get a parking sticker for this Berkeley neighborhood even though I’ve lived here for a year to questioning the war in Iraq, the one that is coming up in Iran, and, if you’re a Christian, questioning God himself for letting it all go to hell. (That last one is a juicy post for another day).

The one thing that I love about Buddhism is the fact that questioning authority is encouraged. There is much about Buddhism that is set in stone, like The Five Precepts and The Four Noble Truths, but there is much about it that is debatable, changeable, and in a constant state of flux. The debatable stuff, and the questionable stuff, is what forms our personal beliefs about the universe that we live in, and our place in it. Questioning the authority of the Buddhist philosophy gives me a sense of owning knowledge, even if it is only relevant to myself, while questioning the authority of the politics of our current government only make me sick.

But in both cases, it needs to be done.

The word enlightenment is casually bandied about in both Buddhist and non-Buddhist circles alike. But what does it really mean?

Oh, he is so enlightened. I am so enlightened. She is so enlightened, because … why? Really what we probably mean when we say that someone is enlightened is that they are very aware, they are farther along the path than I am or we are, they are consciously studying the dharma and it shows, or they have enough confidence in what they believe to teach their beliefs to others.

Enlightenment is a state of mind that cannot be defined. Because once we get to the point where we are clued in enough to be able to define it, we are no longer here. When your mind becomes enlightened, because you are your mind, not your body, it can exist on its own.

If someone is truly enlightened, they are not in this 3D world. I don’t know exactly where they are, but it isn’t here. Life as we know it is a school to become enlightened, but if you are enlightened, you can’t exist here, it’s physically impossible. You become too much for a physical body to hold. And I think if I became enlightened, to be honest, I wouldn’t want to be here anyway. Kind of like coming to the realization that I’m in a bad relationship and it’s time to move on.

If someone tells you they are enlightened or so-and-so is enlightened, they are just full of crap and you should call them on it.