[Buddha-l] What is enlightenment?

[Jim Peavler]

On May 11, 2005, at 5:53 AM, Stanley J. Ziobro II wrote:


>  At least that may qualify as a
> relativist explanation dogmatically articulated within the 
> terminological
> context of "delusion" and "enlightenment."

Or, perhaps, one could call it a conclusion derived from a logically 
necessary polylemma.

Since neither "delusion" nor "enlightenment" can be experientially 
demonstrated to a non-professing observer it is difficult to derive 
from induction. So, we wind up taking somebody's word for it. Some 
folks are eager to take somebody's word for things, and some folks find 
it impossible to take somebody's word for something.

Folks if the first class often call people of the second class 
"dogmatic relativists".  So the replace two undemonstrable concepts 
with two different undemonstrable concepts. This practice, while 
common, and based on plenty of authority (as Milton called them, 
"horseloads of aged fathers"), they don't carry the discussion very 
far.

I much prefer outright and open-handed (or close-fisted) polemic for 
its sheer energy and entertainment value.


Jim Peavler

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755