Excerpt from the Interview with Jeff Foster, Science and Nonduality Anthology DVD

www.scienceandnonduality.com/dvd.shtml
"Is there such a thing as enlightenment?
Excerpt from the Interview with Jeff Foster, Science and Nonduality Anthology Vol 1, 3 DVDs set

Category:

Education

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• advaita
• non-duality
• spiritual
• awakening
• enlightenment
• Jeff Foster
• oneness
• nondual
• liberation
• Foster
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• Tolle
• Adyashanti
• Gangaji
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• buddhism

[CraigVillarrubia]

In Reality you can't label that which enlightenment points to with any word. Words serve only as a symbol, but not the "thing" itself (and it's not a thing.) "Enlightenment" is a symbol to reflect the True identity of Oneness. Thank you for sharing Jeff!

[adriandecleir]

So going by his argument, he shouldnt even be allowed use the words "I am a male", or "I have brown hair", because once again he is identifying with the self. Enlightenment can be used in any subject, like if a friend knows the answer to a puzzle you can say "Enlighten me" to find out the answer. Thats how I take the meaning of the word , and in this subject, basically its used for someone who KNOWS and SEES, and not just conceptually acknowledges no self.

[adriandecleir]

to me when you are enlightened , you see the truth, i.e. the self is an illusion. His argument is that if you tell people that you are at this point then you couldnt be enlightened, because you are still identifying with the self. I dont like his argument because at the end of the day if you are truly experiencing no self then there is no problem telling people this, hence the words "I am enlightened", where the word "I" simply represents "the body that is saying these words"

[EdenConsciousness]

@litttlebittt Cool.

[EdenConsciousness]

@litttlebittt And you didn't answer my question about why you've accepted Smothermon's definition. Why accept anyone else's definition at all? Why not find out what it is on your own and use that?

[EdenConsciousness]

@litttlebittt I'm not even slightly satisfied with your answers. The only person whose experience you could possibly know is your own. Your expectations of how an enlightened person should look and act say nothing about anything other than your own expectations, your own conditioning. But even your expectations are inconsistent: the only thing a guy like Nisargadatta has over a guy like Foster is public opinion: more people know his name and agree he's enlightened. But that's a dumb way to tell.

[EdenConsciousness]

@litttlebittt I intended to put more emphasis on "does not". How could you possibly determine who DOES NOT fit that definition? For all you know Foster and countless others do.

And maybe you don't put him on a pedestal, but could you maybe give one concrete reason why you're accepting his definition of enlightenment as true and real?

[EdenConsciousness]

@litttlebittt Two questions: (1) How could you possibly determine who does and does not fit such a definition? And (2) who the fuck is Ron Smothermon and why should anyone take his word over their own personal experience?

[EdenConsciousness]

@litttlebittt Yeah, I've seen that one. Good shit. And I agree on all counts.

[EdenConsciousness]

@litttlebittt Foster actually quoted UG in one of his Youtube videos. It stands out in my memory cuz he hardly ever quotes anybody. They're similar in many ways, really. They're both ferociously uncompromising in their pointing, neither of them giving the mind anything to cling to. Foster's almost like a friendly, more westernized version of UG, only it seems like Jeff actually enjoys teaching, where it seems like UG often avoided it like the plague.