as best I can tell, Jiddu got enlightened as a teenager. He was also warped by his upbringing. The combination seems to have alienated him from ordinary experience, and filled him with contempt for a great number of people. Remember enlightened does not mean nice.
Let's not forget that "enlightenment" is a late western translation of "bodhi", which is also exactly where the term "awakening" comes from. So the distinction is, at best, a little murky. There isn't even a consensus among Buddhists as to what the Buddha "woke up" from (or to).
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Personally I don't like these terms. They only start Buddhist flame wars and confuse people. Seems to me that "enlightenment" is just a placeholder for some vague notion of an "ultimate" attainment. The meaning changes depending on a tradition's language, culture, or metaphysics.
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Trying to get enlightened is a fool's errand, because it's a completely arbitrary goal. If you want insight into impermanence, do the specific practices that bring about that insight. If you want to glimpse emptiness or no-self, do the respective practices for these insights.
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Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that, but it's much more useful than lumping together 2,500 years of spiritual development across a variety of cultures.
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Much as I agree with many of your points, I think you are falling victim to some of the same language games here: the usefulness of wanting to get enlightened is entirely dependent on what is meant by it, and the awareness one has of the ramifications *in context* - which varies.
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It's true & worth entertaining that most of the traditions find "seeking" or wanting to get enlightened problematic, but there are pretty clear reasons why - and not of the "starts Buddhist flame wars" variety, since that's more of an opt-in sort of problem, at least on this end.
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By flame wars I didn't literally mean internet wars (clear evidence that I'm not immune to misusing terminology). I meant just people from varying traditions arguing over what enlightenment is, who's more enlightened than who, etc, as if they're all talking about the same thing.
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Well, indeed, no need to label that as flame wars. Actual wars have been fought over that.
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Blender? I'm unsure as to whether that's complimentary or derogatory.
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as I said, this is how "I use the words"
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