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by Anon y mouse on February 6th, 2009
Unless you're awake yourself, you really can't distinguish. There are no butterfly experts among the caterpillars as Jed McKenna says. There have however been many thousands of people who have woken up throughout history, right down to today. You will find though that if you meet one, they will not fit any of the preconceptions that many people have about them.
by Patti jo on May 2nd, 2007
You can feel the love from their heart - It is a special feeling you get from that person - it will come from the inside not the outside
by jin jang on May 2nd, 2007
One cannot tell if one is enlightened for sure until they themselves reach that level of consciousness.I believe there is many enlightened people in the world,but there is not yardstick that can estimate enlightenment.In other words ones outward actions do not reflect inward wisdom.
by macdjug-Paxvobiscum on January 21st, 2008
There is no formula to tell. But,truly enlightened people don't make a show of it and are very humble. They don't require recognition. They could be the janitor or the mailman, the vet or the gardener.
by singwell-is off researching a lot on May 2nd, 2007
You have to observe for a period of time the behaviour and consistency (or lack of it) of the person. If they are true to what they preach and if they are centred. A deluded person will lead an inconsistent life.
You need proof that what they say is true. Some supernatural intervention also helps.
by sokuzan on April 26th, 2009
you can't, in fact there is no such thing as what this concept points to since there is no one there. The illusion of separation is what makes everything so seductive or scary..You could say that realizing you are deluded is it. "Don't know mind", it has been called.
by Anon y mouse on February 10th, 2009
In reality, there is ultimately no distinction of enlightened and unenlightened. That distinction is at best a convention to point out that some people have a massive structure of false beliefs - god, the soul, all of that nonsense and some don't (albeit a considerably fewer number than do). The Enlightened don't have any of that. They have less, not more. Enlightenment isn't getting something, or adding something. It's not a feeling or a state of mind.. It's losing all of that unecessary baggage of beliefs, the stories that stand between us and reality. They simply are awake. They don't behave in a particular way that people who are not awake can understand. They're not interested in whether people approve of them or even like them. They don't buy into any role as reality any more. A few quotes from a guy called Jed might be of use:
"The newly awakened person could, I suppose, make a direct,open declaration of their new status, could say, "I am now something new, something you can't understand. I am truth-realized. Awake." One problem is that people don't understand that they don't understand; don't know that they don't know. The other problem is that it basically means playing another role; getting back on stage, acting enlightened. It's foreign and unnatural; as false as any role. The enlightened person role is not the true role of the
enlightened person. There is no true role...
"Enlightenment isn't when you go there, it's when there comes here. It's not a place you visit and then remember wistfully and try to return to. It's not a visit to the truth, it's the awakening of truth within you. It's not a fleeting state of consciousness...
The misconception about enlightenment stems from, or is at least compounded by, the fact that most of the world's recognized experts on the subject of enlightenment are not enlightened. Some are great mystics, some are great scholars, some are both, and most are neither, but very few are awake...
Enlightenment is about truth. It's not about becoming a better or happier person. It's not about personal growth or spiritual evolution. An accurate ad for enlightenment would make the toughest marine blanche. There is no higher stakes game in this world or any other, in this dimension or any other. The price of truth is every-thing, but no one knows what everything means until they're paying it. In the simplest terms, enlightenment is impersonal, whereas what is commonly peddled as enlightenment is personal in the extreme...
There's just enough merit in their notions of enlightenment to make it sell, but at the end of the day you're either a caterpillar or a butterfly, and the only way anyone will ever have even the slightest sense of what it means to be a butterfly is to become one. There are no butterfly experts among the caterpillars, despite innumerable claims to the contrary..."
- Jed McKenna - Spiritual Enlightenment The Damndest Thing and Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment
by Anonymous on January 21st, 2008
Erased by user.
by scotty on November 6th, 2009
life
by sweet dirtbrown on February 3rd, 2009
well iv been deluded and i would have to say the point im at right now im trying hard to just deal with dout and curiosity from every negitive person that just do's not keep trying to beter themselfs i have more activity than sleep and i like that fuck sleep fuck everybody fuck you now i feel releast that help see im enlighted aahhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!! koolaidatest79@yahoo.com
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Comments
You can know enlightened being by using kenisiology test invented and proven by David Hawkin. I want to test it on all so called enlightened masters. These days it's really surprising to see the rapid growing in number of enlightened masters.Because this proves me that enlightened is very much easy as what general people thinks. We got to find ways to know who is enlightened. Otherwise, we will be like one blind man leading other blind man.
by amazingcool on January 6th, 2010