I know I’m contradictory. Somewhere I speak about attaining salvation/enlightenment as something that is easily achievable for anyone willing to actually invest proper effort, and in other places I make it sound as if enlightenment is almost unattainable.
The fact that I talk about Gods is enough to conclude that there are beings who did in fact attain a state of Godhood. I don’t think any single one of them just happened to be created that way; they all created themselves with their choices and actions. Also, most of them give off a feeling that makes me think they were once human; some feel female, some feel male. Some, however, feel like nothing you can possibly imagine, like having a sentient black hole simply be essential consciousness.
So, there’s my definition of salvation and enlightenment: if you end up as a God or a Goddess, you succeeded. I don’t care for definitions that see enlightenment as basically a lasting samadhi-state, or salvation as God not being pissed at you anymore. I’m more pragmatic, I know it when I see it. If I feel you and I think you “taste” like God having taken form, you’re enlightened. I also understand quantity and gradation. Even if you’re a God, there are often greater Gods. Even if you’re Buddha, you can find yourself in a position where someone greater needs to clean up after you. I don’t see it as some simplified single-point destination; it’s much more complex than that. I don’t see evolution as a path and God as a goal; I see God as material from which you evolve, if you evolve at all. I see it as finding new ways in which to be God.
I don’t know is it possible to answer this, but what would you say if somebody asked you what is the approximated number of human individuals throughout human history who attained proper enlightenment by the lowest possible criteria?
Oh, BTW, about that worn out keyboard: looks to me like it’s time for topre keyboard.
http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard/uk-realforce-88ub-45g-key-black-on-black-mini-keyboard.asp
Anyone who would put their effort into typing development to become a typing God would come up with the same enlightened conclusion that this is the best and most comfortable keyboard money can buy. 🙂
Re: keyboard, I’m already waiting for this one with Cherry brown switches to be delivered:
http://www.roccat.org/en-HR/Products/Gaming-Keyboards/Ryos-Series/Ryos-MK-Pro/
🙂 Since I don’t look at the keycaps all that much, it’s neither here nor there, but the armrest on the Roccat is exactly what I want, and good ones are not easy to find. For the last few years I’ve been using the Logitech K800, and I must admit it held on great considering what I’ve been doing to it. 🙂
Re: number of high initiates, I don’t know. “History” is actually a short period compered to what I have in mind; I’m thinking about the entire span of biological evolution on Earth, and all proto-humans and para-humans, meaning non-primate sentient beings, like elephants, mammoths, whales, some birds etc.
I would say the number is significant, and I would also expect most of the old ones, who were here since the beginning, to have left already. So the numbers, on the scale of some 4 million years, could be rather large, and I also expect the percentages to have been better, early on. Today, it’s probably a few dozens per billion, if that.
Was it possible for example for neanderthals to attain enlightenment? And species even before them or was sapiens sapiens first human being to have this possibility?
I am thinking about first humans and their shamanistic approach to spirituality using psychedelic mushrooms to have vision and to cultivate themselves.
Btw, I don’t understand this deal with the keyboard. From the first look, this keyboard pictured in first link looks like a very expensive “brick”. Why does it look so old fashioned and sturdy?
I think your problem is that you equate enlightenment with cognition, and it’s more a matter of clarity. I caught a glimpse of something old once, when I was writing an article about hominids in Croatian – a rather ancient pre-human, sitting under a tree by a river, just the form of his existence. I think I never experienced such clarity and acuity, it’s just incredible. Compared to that, my brain is mostly filled with noise I have to break through, both the astral stuff and intellectual and sensory noise.
Re: keyboard, it’s not supposed to look pretty, it’s supposed to be comfortable and durable. If I wanted pretty I’d get a Mac. 🙂
Yes, I always thought that one must have some rather “physical” prerequisites to be able to have this clarity you speak of.
For example, I was wondering if pre-humans like famous Lucy would be able to attain enlightenment, as she was basically inferior species compared to modern humans (well to some she is even superior haha).
Well, the question really is whether bigger brain is more of an asset than the rest of our existence is a liability. What I mean is, on one side of the scale you have better cognition and abstract thought, and on the other side you have the need to overcome enormous astral noise caused by human society, and huge sensory overload caused by humanity in general. If we assume the soul sizes are equal, the primitive humans might have had a significant advantage.
However, Lucy isn’t really the best example since it’s essentially an upright-walking chimp. Turkana boy is a better example.
So we can assume that in simpler times there was bigger advantage for humans. That makes sense, as we can see that number of enlightened persons really diminishes as we go from ancient times towards now. Maybe also that means in future it will be extremely difficult to individual to become enlightened because of much more astral noise caused by even more zombiefied persons.
Maybe even SK had thought of that when he designed the whole thing, that the longer our race develops (society, technology, etc.) it will be more prone to his system.
His idea of enlightenment isn’t Milarepa, it’s Facebook.
BTW there’s one interesting thing that I noticed, that the Gods don’t seem to be the “famous spiritual people” of history. I think most if not all were historically unknown people who minded their own business and stayed well out of sight.