How do You Know if Someone is Enlightened? 18 May 2006
Posted by integralscience in Philosophy, Spiritual Practice.add a comment
There are some spiritual teachers who claim to be Enlightened, and yet their actions may not seem very Enlightened. This creates doubt about whether or not they are really Enlightened or not. Is there a way to know? What are the signs of Enlightenment? How can you know for sure if someone else is Enlightened? While these questions have relative value, it is important to recognize some hidden assumptions and misconceptions that often lurk behind them.
First of all, any judgment as to someone else’s state of being, be it spiritual or psychological or physiological, is relative to some assumptions and definitions. In particular, it is impossible to judge whether or not someone else is Enlightened without some assumption about what it means to be Enlightened, or how you draw the line between Enlightenment and non-Enlightenment. Different traditions and people have their different ways of drawing this line. So, judging whether or not someone else is Enlightened is a relative judgment about which there can be no absolute certainty.
There is also a second, more profound, reason why we can not know for sure whether someone else is Enlightened. Because of the nondual nature of Enlightenment, the only person whose Enlightenment you can be absolutely certain about is your own. And even in that case, it is not even “your” Enlightenment that “you” are certain about. There is no “you”. There is no “thing” to be certain about. There is just Enlightenment. That is the only Truth that absolute certainty applies to. The moment we start talking about ourselves and other people, about delusion and enlightenment, we are entering a relative world of duality in which there is no absolute certainty. Enlightenment is nondual and inconceivable. Thus, it has no definite mark or sign to distinguish it from something else. The moment we define Enlightenment as being this or that, we have not described it. We’ve only described some idea of it.
Universals and Particulars 17 May 2006
Posted by integralscience in Philosophy.add a comment
A Universal is a general class or category, as contrasted with particular instances of it. For example, my cat is a particular instance of the general idea of a cat. Often we take it for granted that particulars are real, while universals are mere ideas. Yet, some philosphers (such as Plato) teach the opposite view that universals are, in fact, more real than particulars. How can we make sense of such a counter-intuitive view?
First, a closer examination of universals shows that there are degrees of universals, with some universals being more general than others. For example, the universal cat is itself an instance of a larger universal animal, which is an instance of an even more general universal life. Conversely, in the other direction, the class ragdoll cat is an instance of cat, and my cat is a particular instance of ragdoll cat. But even my cat is a general idea. Just as the idea cat encompasses all variety of cats, the idea my cat encompasses all variety of attributes and properties that are manifestations or instances of my cat. I never actually find the general idea of my cat. All I find are instances of this idea. Particulars are really just very specific universals, and not some different type of thing.
So, the question now becomes: How can we make sense of the view that general universals are more real than specific universals? One way of understanding this view is to see it as serving to orient us toward the general, and weaning us from our attachment to particulars. For example, our love is often conditional: we reserve it for only particular objects, like our friends and family. The cultivation of universal love and compassion helps us to let go of these conditions that limit love to specific objects. Similarly, our hatred has more limitation and restriction than conditional love, so love is more universal than hatred.
Viewing universals as more real and more valuable than particulars thus serves to free us from limits and conditions. In this freedom, we come closer to direct experience of the ultimate universal, nondual Consciousness Itself. (If you enjoyed this post, you may also like my article Plato’s Parmenides)
