Would you like to know a secret?

Enlightenment is in your grasp. Here. Now. Thin slicing: what is it? Why do you want it? At what price? It is being awake to reality; most buddhists I know don't even know what 'buddha' literally means. You probably don't want it all the time, similarly, try to find someone who can talk about Shakyamuni's opinion on the Atman; but the world really will be a better place if you could endure it sometimes. The price is everything and nothing, and that isn't a conundrum.

Jesus was a buddha. I don't think it was full-time because he probably did say some of the misogynistic and homophobic things that have been attributed to him but I find a lot that's right on. You can to, please be picky if you indulge it. 'My father's kingdom is at hand' is a good one. 'Our' would have been a better possessive pronoun, I'll accept Jesus's divinity if you'll accept yours, and 'parent's' is more PC of course, but if he was talking about the rights and responsibilities that accompany being with god here and now he was saying something important. That most Christians ignore, as best as I can tell. Can you read LaHaye and Jenkins? I cannot, so I can't criticize. But I have heard second hand that the message isn't love and tolerance. No big deal, it's fiction let it be? I'm afraid it is a symptom of the crock's rot. Worse, it is not interpreted as fiction by some. From some of what I read, from some of what I see. But, you see, it isn't such a stretch. If people are trained to believe that every word of internally inconsistent works like the Torah, the Bible and the Q'ran are true than the critical thinking required to evaluate a willing suspension of disbelief is impaired. 'Let's pretend' is fine and fun, we just need to know we're playing it.  But enlightenment is more that knowing the difference, I'm afraid.  It's the inability to play, AFAICT.  The Three Imposters takes a rather dim view of the game.  Personally, I try not to put up to ill-will that which can be explained by incompetence.  That prophets harbor a little ill-will seems certain; I maintain they are human beings after all.  Incompetence follows without saying.

Given this we can assume that the Gharaniq incident is most likely true.  And we can criticize denials of it, ranging from anger to violence, as exhibiting a most unenlightened strain of Islam.  But most of us shouldn't try for enlightenment all the time.  It is nearly impossible to maintain outside of the monastery or hermitage.  If one engages with society one is ensnared in lies and illusion.  I can criticize Siddhata, Ananda, Dorje Trolo, Ho Tai, Boddhidamma et al as well.  But best of all can I criticize myself... I actually see my 'mind'.  We humans cling to many things that are not demonstrably real.  Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness... in the interest of being relieved of the former in as grisly a fashion as possible allow me to recap: Mohammed did not speak to Gabriel outside of his head, he did not move a mountain and he did not ride a rock to heaven.  He was already there part-time.

But the price of full-time enlightenment is fatal.  Not to the individual of course, one may live a long and healthy life in cloisters or the wilderness.  But if one doesn't breed it is lethal to that selfish gene.  Shakyamuni's 'end of suffering' can be taken quite literally.  Anyone who follows multiple dribbles of my hopelessly entangled drivel may be happy to hear I have been reunited with my copy of Trungpa's Crazy Wisdom.  Well, as it turns out he was never really lost, just hiding with Chicken's comic books.  Tangent finis, he is perfectly germaine to this here last part of our thesis when he introduces us to the kingdom of Sahor.  It's a fun narrative, full of wild miracles and stuff but it is most enlightening to me, literally, when he recounts: 'The result, according to the story, is that the kingdom was completely emptied out in seven year's time.  The whole civilization disappeared as people became great yogis and found that there was no point in sticking to domestic work.'  Well of course it's pointless, unless you happen to be a fan of civilization.  I'm finding it nearly impossible to be an enlightened Dad.  The future, scarcity theory, relativism, so many concepts I know possess no intrinsic truth appear to have value.  Enlightenment is good for life.  It can be a wee bit detrimental to your genotype and cohort.

Still, unless you are a cabbage you will endure brief flashes of it.  And it's good if it helps you to be a little less intolerant, violent or genocidal.  Maybe you want to balance it with a little gene-stream selfishness, I can kind of relate.  Since I know the ego is learned I value the immortality conferred by teaching just as much.  But that's part of parenting too.  The trick, IMHO, is not to fall into the trap of narcissism.  Your kids are precious.  So is every living thing.  Extinction is no big deal.  The end of Tibet will teach China something, hopefully something that makes them easier to live with.  Nor is immortality worth getting all worked up about.  You teach something every day.  Try to make it something nice.