Hypomanic Poet
So one must be constantly learning to achieve enlightenment?
The issue of "enlightenment" isn't so much an achievement as it is getting back something you've lost.
The way we live our life is A vs. B, Black vs. White, This vs. That, etc. We live a very dualistic life and are forced to differentiate between things more than you notice.
What enlightenment "is", isn't an achievement. You don't get anything for being enlightened, and it's not the end of anything. The mindset of enlightenment never went away, it's just clouded by this dualistic mind and this foreground thought process that distracts us.
I'm certain everyone here has seen the Matrix. The opening scene where Morpheus explains "reality" to Neo, is very much true to Buddhism. All we can observe, experience, or relate to, is a product of our senses and thoughts.
Our experiences pile up into a mound, and affect how we think, and how we react to external stimuli. Our ego is this, nothing more than conditioned response, which, essentially, is all we are. Very high functioning Pavlov's dogs.
Your reality is different than my reality, and different than Zoutout's reality. Which is the true reality? We all see things as different entities because of these ideas we have in our heads, and the experiences we have had. The truth is, there is no "reality" in the sense that things aren't as we label them.
Do things exist? Yes and No. Things don't "exist" because that would be labelling them, and forcing them into the dichotomy of "existance vs. non-existance".
