Is There a Paradox of Both Seeking and Not Seeking Enlightenment Simultaneously?

[Joseph Maynor]

I’ve been contemplating in this way very authentically lately.

I’m also realizing that the Mind does not like paradoxes.  Mine keeps trying to discredit them by calling them having your cake and eating it too, or labeling them as a kind of pseudo-issue or a vacuous, illusory claim.  However, is that really the case?  It seems as though certain paradoxes really do tell us something profound,  contrary to the Mind’s bias against paradoxes.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Dodo]

30 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

I’ve been contemplating in this way very authentically lately.

I’m also realizing that the Mind does not like paradoxes.  Mine keeps trying to discredit them by calling them having your cake and eating it too, or labeling them as a kind of pseudo-issue or a vacuous, illusory claim.  However, is that really the case?  It seems as though certain paradoxes really do tell us something profound,  contrary to the Mind’s bias against paradoxes.

I believe that paradoxes are used in order to make the mind quiet by surrender. Because mind will get overloaded at some point by the mindfuck nature of a paradox.

 

[Truth]

@Joseph Maynor "Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction, for we have made fiction to suit ourselves."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by Truth

[Faceless]

Seeking an enlightened state is the reason it never comes 

[SOUL]

Yesh, the mind prefers a pair of boxes than paradoxes.

[tatsumaru]

4 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

I’ve been contemplating in this way very authentically lately.

I’m also realizing that the Mind does not like paradoxes.  Mine keeps trying to discredit them by calling them having your cake and eating it too, or labeling them as a kind of pseudo-issue or a vacuous, illusory claim.  However, is that really the case?  It seems as though certain paradoxes really do tell us something profound,  contrary to the Mind’s bias against paradoxes.

It's very important to realize why you are really seeking enlightenment. The Buddha didn't seek enlightenment and he didn't know about it. He started his journey looking for the root of suffering. Now that the secret is out, people are seeking enlightenment. However it would appear that enLIGHTenment or uncovering your own light is not what you find, but what's left after all that is false is gone. Thus seeking it is a distraction from finding it. If you surrender with the expectation to become enlightened then you aren't really surrendering, because the desire for things to be different than what they are comes from the ego. In fact the Buddha realized that the root of all suffering is the resistance to what is, and the shortest path to enlightenment is the appreciation of what is.

I don't think that's a real paradox because I think the goal of seeking enlightenment is artificial and is not a proper goal. A better goal is to have the desire for things to be what they are (to align yourself with reality). From intellect's POV there's no enlightenment and since intellect is the sense that seeks, it's pointless to seek enlightenment. In fact it's pointless to seek truth as well for it cannot be found since it cannot be lost. We attach meaning to our beliefs and that is the reason while we feel that truth also lurks somewhere in the same dimension. When we realize that beliefs are meaningless, the search for truth is over. (and that's when you begin to notice it.)
 

Quote

"Listen with joy!
The truth beyond mind cannot be grasped by any faculty of mind;
The meaning of non-action cannot be understood in compulsive activity;
To realise the meaning of non-action and beyond mind,
Cut the mind at its root and rest in naked awareness." - from Tilopa's Mahamudra teaching to Naropa.

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by tatsumaru

[Blissout]

No.

[molosku]

1 hour ago, tatsumaru said:

It's very important to realize why you are really seeking enlightenment. The Buddha didn't seek enlightenment and he didn't know about it. He started his journey looking for the root of suffering. 

 

How do you know he didn't know about it?

[tatsumaru]

2 hours ago, molosku said:

How do you know he didn't know about it?

I don't know if he even existed, but that's how the story goes. Plus the definition of enlightenment is pretty much tied to what the Buddha first achieved. Now, don't ask me if he really was the first one, because I don't know that, but that's also irrelevant. If you feel uncomfortable using Buddha's story to navigate, then simply look at your life - you know you existed before your name and before the concept of enlightenment, but you sought anyway therefore the uncertainty was already there. Later you filled your head with concepts and started defining your life based on these concepts/beliefs. To seek enlightenment because the Buddha achieved it is like to seek God because the Bible says there's such a thing.

[Privet]

There's no paradox.

False seeking is an image of enlightenment and a sense that you need it.

True seeking equals diligent learning and practice to make enlightenment happen.

You become enlightened because you do what your meditation technique says, not because you want to get something, there is no such meditation technique.