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Concept
Enlightenment (spiritual)
Summary
Enlightenment is a concept found in several religions, including Buddhist terms and concepts, most notably bodhi, kensho, and satori. It represents kaivalya and moksha (liberation) in Hinduism, Kevala Jnana in Jainism, and ushta in Zoroastrianism.
In Christianity, the word "enlightenment" is rarely used, except to refer to the Age of Enlightenment and its influence on Christianity. Roughly equivalent terms in Christianity may be illumination, kenosis, metanoia, revelation, salvation, theosis, and conversion.
Perennialists and Universalists view enlightenment and mysticism as equivalent terms for religious or spiritual insight.
Enlightenment in Buddhism
The English term enlightenment is the western translation of the abstract noun bodhi, the knowledge, wisdom, or awakened intellect of a Buddha. The verbal root, Budh, derived from Vedic Sanskrit, means "to awaken" or "awakening."
Enlightenment is also used to translate several other Buddhist terms and concepts, which are used to denote insight (prajna, kensho and satori); knowledge (vidhya); the "blowing out" (Nirvana) of disturbing emotions and desires and the subsequent freedom or release (vimutti); and the attainment of Buddhahood, as exemplified by Gautama Buddha. The Buddha’s awakening constituted the knowledge of liberation, attained by mindfulness and dhyāna, and applied to the understanding of the arising and ceasing of craving.
Although it is most commonly used in Buddhist contexts, the term buddhi is also used in other Indian philosophies and traditions.
The term "enlightenment" was popularized in the Western world through the 19th century translations of Max Müller. It has the western connotation of a sudden insight into a transcendental truth or reality. The concept of spiritual enlightenment has become synonymous with self-realization, or the recognition of the true self, regarded as the essence of being, and the seeing through of the false self, the layers of social conditioning which overcover the true self.
Official source
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