Before Enlightenment – Your Version

Written on October 3, 2008 by Tom Stine


Eric left the following as a comment on my last article:

Before enlightenment go to work, pay mortgage; after enlightenment go to work, pay mortgage. (An old Zen saying i just made up.)

I love it! A great re-working of a classic Zen saying. I got to thinking how to apply it specifically to my life right now, with regard to my daily activities. Here is one I thought of just now:

Before enlightenment, fix breakfast, take kid to school; after enlightenment, fix breakfast, take kid to school.

So, what I would like for you all to do is make up your own versions, using things from your life, and leave them in the comments. It would be fun to see how we can apply a wonderful Zen saying to each of our lives.

Looking forward to what you create. Namaste.


Comments are closed at this time.

Comments

Mags | Woo-Woo WisdomNo Gravatar  said
on October 3rd, 2008 at 9:08 am


Cool idea, Tom! Here’s mine:

Before enlightenment, feed cat, strip wallpaper;
After enlightenment, feed cat, strip wallpaper.

CaterpillarWomanNo Gravatar  said
on October 3rd, 2008 at 9:08 am


Before enlightenment, do laundry, cook dinner. After enlightenment, do laundry, cook dinner.

TakuinNo Gravatar  said
on October 3rd, 2008 at 4:27 pm


Before Enlightenment = (∞)

After Enlightenment = {∞}

Beyond Any Idea of Before or After = ∞

Ariel - We Are All OneNo Gravatar  said
on October 3rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm


haha, fun idea Tom!

Before enlightenment, have fun with life.
After enlightenment, have fun with life.

Takuin’s getting all fancy with us. ;)

EvanNo Gravatar  said
on October 4th, 2008 at 7:18 am


Before enlightenment: read feeds, leave comments on worthwhile posts.
After enlightenment: read feeds, leave comments on worthwhile posts.

Andrea Hess|Empowered SoulNo Gravatar  said
on October 4th, 2008 at 8:31 am


Nice one, Takuin. My reaction, too, was that I wasn’t sure about the “before” and “after” bit. How about just:

Enlightenment: drink coffee.

Works for me! :-)

Blessings,
Andrea

DavinaNo Gravatar  said
on October 4th, 2008 at 10:16 am


Before enlightenment had gas.
After enlightenment had gas.

gregorylentNo Gravatar  said
on October 4th, 2008 at 3:52 pm


before enlightenment, hate people … after enlightenment, hate people …

DavidyaNo Gravatar  said
on October 4th, 2008 at 4:29 pm


Before Enlightenment, seek Enlightenment.
After Enlightenment is a meaningless statement. (laughs)
After and Enlightenment are both concepts. Neither has anything to do with being.

The point I think of the original quote, and many of the comments, is that the mundane continues. The function, purpose and karma of the life are not changed by awakening. Even if we know this intellectually, seeing it is can still be a surprise.

DavidyaNo Gravatar  said
on October 4th, 2008 at 4:35 pm


Andrea – they say one can awake even on the smoke of a stinking bus. I guess coffee could qualify then. But then you said “works for me” and gave it away. (laughs)
One could perhaps say:
Before Enlightenment, I drink coffee.
After Enlightenment, coffee is drunk.

Davina – you may want to look at the diet. Ayerveda calls this excess Vata ;-)

Gregory – if that is your role. If it is reactive though, the After will change. ;-)

Jarrod - Warrior DevelopmentNo Gravatar  said
on October 5th, 2008 at 5:27 pm


It seems I had similar idea to Taukin

Before enlightenment (everything)
After enlightenment [everything]

It’s all in the set notation…

FrancisNo Gravatar  said
on October 8th, 2008 at 3:28 am


Hehe, cool, here comes mine:

Before enlightenment, sleep, eat, work, go to toilet;
After enlightenment, sleep, eat, work, go to toilet.

Tom StineNo Gravatar  said
on October 9th, 2008 at 7:05 pm


Hey everyone!!! I’m LOVIN’ the comments. Just what I wanted. Okay, a new one from me based upon recent events in my life:

Before enlightenment: see Adyashanti, fly home, drink beer.
After enlightenment: see myself, fly to Hawaii, drink sake.

I’ll let you know about the Hawaii and sake. I haven’t been in a few years. Maybe Bora Bora instead. I’ve always wanted to see Bora Bora.

Master YodaNo Gravatar  said
on October 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm


Tom, another way of saying that is:

Before enlightenment, I see you.
After enlightenment, I see me.

Slade | Shift Your SpiritsNo Gravatar  said
on October 13th, 2008 at 8:37 am


Before Enlightenment, talk and listen. After Enlightenment listen and talk.

Tom, I will toast you with some saki from Kona next month!

DuffNo Gravatar  said
on October 21st, 2008 at 1:22 pm


Before enlightenment, seeking personal development.
After enlightenment, enjoying leaves fall.

PadmaNo Gravatar  said
on October 25th, 2008 at 2:28 am


Before enlightenment, stress, cry, suffer

After enlightenment, live, laugh, and love

johnNo Gravatar  said
on November 1st, 2008 at 7:17 pm


b4 enlightenment : God = Big daddy in the sky
after : God = me(i.e everything)

BrendanNo Gravatar  said
on November 10th, 2008 at 6:24 am


Before Enlightenment-Quit my job to find Enlightenment
After Enlightenment-Sh*t I still got to pay the bills!

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Guru Quotes

The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it’s just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into brief existence. Enlightenment isn’t in the character, it’s in the underlying truth. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a dream character, of course, unless it’s your goal to wake up, in which case the dream character must be ruthlessly annihilated. If your desire is to experience transcendental bliss or supreme love or altered states of consciousness or awakened kundalini, or to quality for heaven, or to liberate all sentient beings, or simply to become the best dang person you can be, then rejoice!, you’re in the right place: the dream state, the dualistic universe. However, if your interest is to cut the crap and figure out what’s true, then you’re in the wrong place and you’ve got a very messy fight ahead and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

But beauty, real beauty, ends where intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of a face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don’t think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful.

Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not. And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.

Q: Since all is pre-ordained, is our self-realization also pre-ordained? Or are we free there at least?

A: Destiny refers only to name and shape. Since you are neither body nor mind, destiny has no control over you. You are completely free. The cup is conditioned by its shape, material, use and so on. But the space within the cup is free. It happens to be in the cup only when viewed in connection with the cup. Otherwise, it is just space. As long as there is a body, you appear to be embodied. Without the body you are not disembodied — you just are.

So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence.


Buddhism stands unique in the history of human thought in denying the existence of a Soul, Self or Atman. According to the teachings of the Buddha, the idea of self is an imaginary, false belief which has no corresponding reality, and it produces harmful thoughts of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, selfish desire, craving, attachment, hatred, ill-will, conceit, pride, egoism, and other defilements, impurities and problems. It is the source of all troubles in the world from personal conflicts to wars between nations. In short, to this false view can be traced all the evil in the world.


Twittering...

  • Same is true of mind, "I", self, consciousness, etc. :-) || RT @Kalieezchild RT @Jyakunen: you will never find an "ego" -- absurd concept. 2 weeks ago
  • RT @Takuin If someone is hateful to you, or if you have been insulted, you may feel some kind of pain. But who, exactly, is being hurt? 2010-08-05
  • Spirituality: 6.7 billion caterpillars insisting they know what it's like to be a butterfly. Why not just become a butterfly and find out? 2010-07-27
  • If everything you thought was true turns out to be nothing but smoke and mirrors, what then? 2010-07-25
  • RT @Takuin What if you woke up tomorrow and the search was gone? If nothing were left, what would you do? || Eat ice cream. Duh. :-) 2010-07-25
  • RT @AkebonoJishi Objective fact is just a notion -- like "Emptiness." || Beautiful, isn't it? 2010-07-23
  • RT @Takuin packing it in @ 3250 meters. || Very cool! I can't wait to see it next summer. Definitely coming to Japan. No climbing, tho. :-) 2010-07-16
  • Why is everyone so intent on silencing the mind? Just leave the damn thing alone and it shuts up all by itself! Make some tea, sit, and rest 2010-07-16
  • RT @noah8423 Either Truth is awake in you, or not. ... the thinking must stop to make room for that light. || Why MUST thinking stop? 2010-07-16
  • So many people know. Yet how many know that they don't know? ☺ 2010-07-14
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