[The relationship between seeker and guru was and remains, in most cases, an essential point for enlightenment.]



"Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is the incapacity to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. Such tutelage is self-imposed if its cause is not lack of intelligence, but rather a lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. " ~Kant 1784

Kant reasoned that although a man must obey in his civil duties, he must make public his use of reason. His motto for enlightenment is Sapere aude! or "Dare to know."

in other news:

As a person awakens to this level of self-awareness they begin to live their life deliberately and originally as their own art form.

heheheh. well, it can certainly seem that way, can't it. I think you bring up a very good point. Attachments are an inherent aspect of human nature to be sure, which is why Shakyamuni Buddha and so many buddhas and bodhisattvas, saints and sages, have taught and will always teach the renunciation of attachments through varies means, "according to the people's capacity to understand" in any giving place, and age. And of course, this doesn't necessarily require to giving up enjoying life, or going through what we must experience in life. One can even become attached to the idea of giving up attachments by taking any one teaching or path to a dogmatic extreme. I think it might be really more useful to consider the meaninglessness of any attachment we become aware of in our lives. Rather than resist these things, run from them, or deny their existence - which only gives them more of our power over time, making them more and more "real" - perhaps, we can simply consider that it is meaningless and empty that we experience this thing, or that thing. Consider that the object of attachment, whether we possess it, or don't possess it, whether it is tangible or intangible, a thought or a thing, these things too are without meaning. And to pursue any thing at all will always lead to the same destination in emptiness and void. And so coming full circle, in 13th century. the Japanese sage Nichiren taught "enjoy what there is to enjoy, and endure what there is to endure, for both are aspects of the buddha."

With great respect,

Joseph