- That once you have realized enlightenment, your body dies. You do not eat, because there is no desire to eat. To get food would be a goal, and if you have no goals, then there is no desire to eat. So, literally, you sit there and die. He also said that they do not believe they die. This logic is very cold and analytical, but beforehand the Proff. stated that we do not understand their point of view, because we are viewing it all through selfishness. We like desire, we have no problem with desire. With such a standpoint, how could we understand someone who is beyond desire, beyond goal? So I will ask him: How could he possibly understand that which is beyond differentiation, unity, if he himself is also viewing from a narrow subjective viewpoint? His thinking implies chopping up reality into logistics. He analyzes, he separates, he forms conclusions "therefore...". While this helps understanding to a degree, to grasp that which is beyond thought with thought is a contradiction. Perhaps one who realizes unity does not need a goal in the sense we do. Perhaps they simply move, beyond desire, in true freedom. A consciousness that has self-actualized, self-realized its part of the whole doesn't necessarily imply it will stop functioning. It is still here, but now it understands. Now it experiences, now it sees. The illusion has dissolved. Perhaps beyond this illusion, this discovery, is true action.
I agree with the last sentiment. Buddhist enlightenment is unlike other forms of enlightenment in that Buddhism is at the end of the day about being happy (remember the 4 noble truths here). When one becomes enlightened, you don't stop eating, you just stop depending on food for you happiness. It's interesting how scolars and actual practitioners approach things differently. My aunt is an ordained Bhikkhu and if I suggest to her that "- That once you have realized enlightenment, your body dies. You do not eat, because there is no desire to eat. To get food would be a goal, and if you have no goals, then there is no desire to eat. So, literally, you sit there and die." I know what she would reply: "RUBBISH! That's not enlightenment, that's anorexia." Blessings Sebbi
All the Enlightened Ones would like a no-word with your Professor. The only person that I think may somewhat fit that discription is Ramakirshna who told his wife that the only reason why he was staying on this shore was because he loved her cooking. She scoffed the idea. Suposedly he told her that the day he turned his back on her food would signify that he was soon to die. The day came and she knew that he would soon die.
does farting disrupt your meditation ever? if so i suggest not eating even before you achieve enlightenment...that gas is a buzz-kill man
Something similar was on my mind last night. It seemed to me that enlightment would leave one jobless, homeless, and hungry, yet happy. I'm glad I found this thread because it's provided me the clarity I needed, and I'm not sure I knew how to phrase the question myself.
A lovely quote I read in a Zen book : Nirvana is not the end of all desires of the mind, it is regarding desires of the mind as none of your concern. Total disidentification with the 5 skandhas and abidance in the Buddha nature is enlightenment.
Buddhism is not about ending all desire, it is about ending attachment to desire. The Buddha was fully enlightened, and continued eating and physically living for many years.
The Buddha was free from desire. He did not eat out of desire to eat, it was mere maintenance. The enlightened act not from desire, but from compassion. He stayed alive in the body for our sake, not his.
I herd that earthy enlgihtement is not pure enlightenment, as the Buddha would have to keep eating to not suffer(Then again karma aranges for him to be able to have good acess to food.) When the Buddha dies he enters pure enlightenment. A realm where he does not need anything. Or I may not have herd this. I may have herd somthing like it.
I don't think he'd suffer from not eating after gaining enlightenment would he? Afterall, he'd be aware that the hunger is impermanent. Also pure enlightment sounds an awful lot like the idea of heaven.
