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  • Spontaneously Enlightened Article...

    At... http://www.nonduality.com/dazdark.htm

    This is an example of someone who became spontaneously enlightened (without seeking it). In itself this is extremely rare but not unknown. However in this case there are a couple of noteworthy issues:

    i) amusing and ironically, John Wren Lewis had spent his career attacking mysticism and being a spritual cynic in general
    ii) he still retains a logical outlook and doesn't make the (usual) extrapolation to all sorts of ontological conclusions.

    Have a look - a few pages but interesting (not least of which in the context of qigong) if you have the time.

    Mike

    PS was especially interesting to me in the context of my recent musing
    (on http://www.wahnam.com/forum/showthre...t&pagenumber=3 )...

    "In this case it recently occured to me that (cf Oliver Sacks cases) if someone had a stroke that affected their autobiographical consciousness neuroanatomy then this would lead to them being spontaneously enlightened (eg Tolle for the sake of argument)."
    "If you realised how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought." Peace Pilgrim.

  • #2
    About the stroke:
    the french benedectine monk Henri le Saux, who went to india in the '50s and has been a pioneer of interreligious debate, cultivated (yoga, hindu meditation, christian meditation, "normal" christian path & so on) a lot until 1973 , when he was enlighted (and so considered by others Hindus Samnyasin) just after he had a coronary attack. (not during a pre-mortem situation). He died after asome months.


    About experiences of sceptical people:
    The italian poet Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), who was (and kept to be) materialist and atheist and sure that the soul was the brain, but very concerned with suffering , in his poem L'Infinito (The infinite, below in english)
    describes an interesting experience somewhat similar to a spiritual one (i dare not to call it Satori):

    Basically, in the poem he writes that:

    the poet went on a hill, looked a bush covering the panorama, and saw interminable distances and supernatural silences and deep (inner) tranquillity.
    Then he compared the Silence with the sound of wind trough the plants, and suddenly he thought to the eternity, the past and the present time ("season").
    So in that infinite he deowned his tought in the sweetest way.

    However the verb "fingo" states that he is sure that this infinite is a trick of his imagination, created from the finite bush
    (according to Kant's theory on the mind)

    As i've written, i dare not ot call this experience a true spiritual experience.
    Firstable because he might have "copyed" these description from Greek and Medieval mystic/philosophy, of which he was fond of, or even from Sanskrit texts he had studyed in his youth.
    Scondly because at the time a certain interpretation of Buddhism was fashionable (as Schopenauer's).
    Thirdly he might have tried to write the most beautifoul thing, that was, according to his own theory the height of the Undefined and of the Vague.

    However i hope he had a real experience (even if he thought his imagination invented it).
    l' amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.

    Comment


    • #3
      Enlightenment on the NHS?

      Maranatha

      Interesting post - I wasn't aware of the case of le Saux...

      ...raises the interesting possibility that with MRI scans one could detect which area had been damaged. Of course this would then lead to the possibility of an 'enlightenment op'...

      That would raise interesting moral questions wouldn't it? Also good plot for a sci-fi novel (royalties this way please )

      rgds

      Mike
      "If you realised how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought." Peace Pilgrim.

      Comment


      • #4
        Well,
        Sifu Wong teach us that soul (mind) is not the brain.
        So probably without a proper training no complete enlightenment is possible...it doesn't seem John Wren Lewis has become omniscent. However i think is possible that some area of the brain are involved, at least as an obstacle.
        It is also possible that this case of enlightenment worked more or less like the cases of Bai Zhang being awakened after Mu Zu shouted or the hit with the staff by Te Shan. (The Complete Book of Zen, chapter 12).

        By the way i'm not good in writing science fiction.

        Stefano.
        l' amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.

        Comment


        • #5
          I think one needs to be careful to distinguish between enlightenment and omniscience... I have never seen any suggestion that enlightenement leads eg to a complete understaning of say quantum mechanics - & I certainly have never seen that sort of thing in the qigong forum

          Originally posted by Stefano
          By the way i'm not good in writing science fiction.
          Well I am sure someone here must be!

          Have a good weekend.

          Mike
          "If you realised how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought." Peace Pilgrim.

          Comment

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