And, under that, a thick layer of metaphysics, informed by pre-Enlightenment theories of self-determination.
The faith of the Enlightenment – if one may call it that – is that the process of enlightenment, of becoming progressively self-directed in thought and action through the awakening of one's intellectual powers, leads ultimately to a better, more fulfilled human existence.
It derives in large part from a tendency, common among smart people, to presume that everyone in the world either does or should think as he does — to take for granted that people can (or want to) strike his patented balance of enlightenment and self-interest.
The Buddha's enlightenment is described not as a rapturous blaze of ecstasy, but the placid dissolution of self into the harmonious weft of the universe.
In the new enlightenment, the point is no longer merely the liberation of the individual; it's the evolution of self, culture and cosmos through the individual.
In the winter 2000-1 issue of SoHo Style, Deepak Chopra, the celebrity promoter of self-enlightenment, contributes an essay, "In Praise of Indulgence".
The conversation veered toward the Learning Annex style of self-enlightenment: How to be wonderful and powerful (and erotic) in three hours or less.
The "Today" show led into the ceremony with a conversation between Matt Lauer and Richard Hatch, who maneuvered his way to win the "Survivor" series and was promoting a book-length ode to his type of self-enlightenment.
But this is characterized in its two aspects: A) "the self-oriented embodiment" (jijuyûshin) describing the hosshin as enjoying its own state of samadhic bliss; and B) "the other-oriented embodiment" (tajuyûshin) describing the hosshin in the form of various celestial buddhas directing the blissful fruits of self-enlightenment for the benefit of others.
It is an amazing thing to finally reach that moment of self-enlightenment and realize that I am enough!
6th to 9th states: Mahâyâna stages: "vehicles" of the bodhisattvas, those who seek enlightenment both for self and for others, by overcoming self-other duality and recognizing the interdependency between self-enlightenment and other-enlightenment and between wisdom and compassion.
