What is enlightenment?

So obviously this blog will alternate real world work with wild speculating. As they say, "Keep my feet on the ground / Keep my head in the clouds."

And speaking of wild speculating, how about we go with "what is enlightenment?" because kind of like "happy" and "good", it's sort of a vague term that we all want.

Okay, so an enlightened guy is some monk who is entirely cool with everything. Fine. He's a guy with a sharply tuned mind who is expertly adept at dealing with the world as it is. How does he get that way?

I propose (and this is not by any means an original proposition) that there are 3 parts: concentration, mindfulness, and compassion. I propose this because in reading about "these sorts of topics", these 3 words keep coming up. (you could also include "attention" and "empathy"; I feel like they're pretty close to, although not the same as, "concentration" and "compassion.") Also, I've heard of people meditating for those 3 things, and I haven't heard of people meditating for anything else.

At any rate, it seems as good a place to start as any. If you are awesome at concentration, mindfulness, and compassion, you're probably pretty enlightened, or (not to put a binary distinction on these things unnecessarily) you probably have a good life. And increasing any one of these factors, even, is a big help.

Well, that cuts down the problem by a factor of about three. I'd say my work's done for the day.

Continuing to be that violent force of light / guaranteed to turn it out bad as dolemite,
Dan