What happens after you've become enlightened?

Uriah wrote:

The only enlightenment there is, is the realization and acceptance that there is none.

You Sir! Are a Buddha! You are a Socrates! A Philo Sophist!

Aaron wrote:

What about more western models of enlightenment? Do you think they hold any validity?

Perhaps the most succinct phrasing of the western model of enlightenment is Jesus' promise, "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Presumably, based on the context, the "Word" of Jesus is The Truth. And "freedom" seems to refer to escaping the consequences of sin while wandering in the dark.

This kind of enlightenment "cometh by faith" in the "Word of God". In other words, doing what you are told by authoritative dispensers of truth, without asking questions. However, that external approach to truth and enlightenment, stumbles on the implicit quandry: exactly who is the authority, and what version of the "word" should we trust?

I suspect that the potential for cognitive dissonance inherent in Authoritative Enlightenment causes many people to turn to the only source of truth they can trust implicitly: the Self. Thus we can understand the popularity of Eastern meditation methods for discovering Truth within: Self Enlightenment.

And yet, even that unimpeachable repository of truth is subject to error and delusion. So the question remains, who can you trust in your quest for light by which to see? And one alternative is the empirical method of Science, whereby subjective, personal insights are tested by objective, authoritative review. I suppose you could call that path to enlightenment the Scientific model.

Gnomon wrote:

And yet, even that unimpeachable repository of truth is subject to error and delusion. So the question remains, who can you trust in your quest for light by which to see? And one alternative is the empirical method of Science, whereby subjective, personal insights are tested by objective, authoritative review. I suppose you could call that path to enlightenment the Scientific model

And that is precisely why the 18th century was properly the Age of Reason: Enlightenment. In that era, the "original" Anglican epistemology of Empiricism (advanced by Frances Bacon in 16th century at the height of Renaissance, and formulated systematically by Newton and Locke in the 17th) came to bear its fruit through revolutions in politics, religion, science, and philosophy under the tutelage of Hume, Smith, Voltaire, Diderot, and most of all Kant.

I've made a Deist calender for myself, and I wanted it to start somewhere in the 18th century. Fortunately, I found a convenient date: 1775 (the year in which the Continental Congress declared war against the mother country under the constitutional pretext of vouchsafing the chartered rights of settlers that were subject to the Great British Crown) as the year zero; which makes 1776 the year one--unlike the Christian calender where the birth of Christ is the year one, and there is no year zero between 1BC and 1AD.
And while it's tempting to begin the year from July, I prefer January because that was the month (of 1776) in which Common Sense was published and thus began the prophetic career of Thomas Paine.

What happens after you've become enlightened?

Nothing

Quote :

What happens after you've become enlightened?

Then your wife enlightens you.

Enlightenment is being exposed to a source of knowledge which has no end. There is no guarantee that you will understand the knowledge, that depends on your level of experience. The knowledge can thus be overwhelming to those not prepared for it.

Imagine being given a book on Physics in which everything regarding the universe was explained. You may have access to the information, but will you understand it to the point where you can make practical use of it?

It is the same with enlightenment. Having attained access to an unlimited source of information, you now have to gain the experience of using that information in a practical way.

Aaron wrote:

What do you think happens after you've become enlightened? I mean what do you do with yourself, teach, go about your daily business, go sit under a tree and melt in with existence?

Enlightenment is but the icing on the cake; to reach Nirvana may not be possible in even 100 lifetimes As to my conduct along the journey...a combination of the above three has proven the most fulfilling course of action