[Buddha-l] What is enlightenment?

[Vicente Gonzalez]

BS> It seems to me that Buddhism has a clear and definite definition of
BS> what enlightenment that is neither absurd or incoherent and I don't see
BS> why we should abandon it in favor of Richard's definition as "whatever
BS> Buddhists happen to approve of." Even if false, why abandon what's
BS> been consistently asserted throughout the history of Buddhism? Is 
BS> Richard going to redefine the Trinity as "three guys Christians think 
BS> are pretty cool?"

enlightenment and delusion exists while we are following the Buddhist
path. This demonstration is auto evident: if we are Buddhist we are
not enlightened. Also, we have our intellectual knowledge to refine or
distort the life. 

At least we can be sure that Enlightenment is the appreciation of what
is good and beauty. In this point, we the ignorant, Buddhas and
scholars, we all are equal.
For this reason, there is the evidence that we have a Buddha-nature.

We can have many beliefs (in example, the belief in nervous-system
as the source of the Mind, the belief in a better world, etc.. ).
We don't know if all these things can disappoint us, but our
Buddha-nature is a certainty forever. While we can feel the search of
what is good and beauty. Even walking to the next glaciation in this
techno-hell. 

( Btw, the Hope message of our Buddha-nature appears explicitly in the
Prajnaparamita. It is an Indian notion. not Chinese as appeared in
this list time ago.
- p.285,"The gotra, ekayana and Tathagatagarbha theories of the
Prajnaparamita according to Dharmamitra and Abhayakaragupta", Ruegg,
S. in: "Prajanaparamita and related systems", Berkeley Buddhist
Studies. )



br,