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I was Googling the term “Enlightenment” a few days ago, and I came across a number of entries for “Terminal Enlightenment.” It sounded very intriguing, like a type of enlightenment that might end in death. Ooh, danger and intrigue. Imagine sitting on a hill, in the shade of a tree, meditating peacefully. BAM all of a sudden you reach enlightenment and your physical body dies while your spirit body moves on to its enlightened state.
It turns out in this case that terminal enlightenment isn’t nearly that cool. It’s actually a terminal interface for computer systems like Linux. Huh, just some piece of software. I think my idea was way cooler, and finding the truth didn’t stop my mind from traveling.
I continued to think about terminal enlightenment. It occurred to me that we will all reach terminal enlightenment, being that when we die all will become known. I assume that before we enter our physical world, we are spiritual entities, and at that time, we are enlightened. You could say that we know what God knows. I also assume that we return to that state after the death of our physical body. If that’s the case, then we will all experience terminal enlightenment.
That led me to think back to a subject that I ponder from time to time. Why do we spend so much of our time in our physical world thinking about the nature of the universe, religion, belief, the origin of life, and other such topics? Is there any point in trying to figure that out while we are inhabiting our physical shells? Couldn’t we just wait until we die, at which time we’ll regain the knowledge of all things? Couldn’t we just wait for our terminal enlightenment?
I supposed that maybe we could, or maybe I’m wrong about the whole terminal enlightenment. It’s possible that when we die we don’t get to know everything. Maybe that’s why we’re here in the first place, to figure everything out. Personally I don’t think that’s the case, but nobody really knows for sure.
Whatever the case, I enjoy thinking about these things, and I’ll be right here blogging about them. I’d like to hear from you. Why do you think we spend time thinking about things may be completely outside our realm of comprehension? Why don’t we just wait for terminal enlightenment? Let me hear what you think in the comments section.
Photo credit: h.koppdelaney
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Eric,
“Terminal Enlightenment” It really sounds pretty cool
“Why do you think we spend time thinking about things may be completely outside our realm of comprehension? Why don’t we just wait for terminal enlightenment?”
Is the other side of the fence, and we are humans
If we dedicate physical life to physical issues only we would be too materialistic people that soon loose their feelings. Love is a non physical thing, just like the “questioning” and we want and search for love because without it our lives would be so flat, so boring, so…material. To be human we need to question, we need to wonder, to imagine.
Me think
Raul
Alien Ghost´s last [type] ..Master of Your Own Universe
Great thoughts Raul. A huge part of our physical life is non-physical. When looking at it like that, it seems only natural to want to explore both facets of our life, the physical and non-physical.
I also like the “other side of the fence idea.” It makes me think of a huge wall around a city. Our innate curiosity would always cause us to wonder what is on the other side of that wall.
Terminal Enlightenment does sound pretty deep….and COOL!
I’m on the same line as you as far as spirit beings, initially, inhabiting a physical form, just to return to our original essence. But, I do feel that there are people that have accessed that part of their DNA and do know “all things”. Research akashic records if you haven’t already.
I feel we spend time on earth trying to figure “everything” out because we innately know that something else exists outside of this physical realm. More and more people are inner/over/understanding the power of psychic ability, ESP, intuition and so on.
S. Ali Myers – Soulful Body & Mind´s last [type] ..Spicy Black Beans and Rice Recipe
Hey Ali,
I am familiar with the akashic records. It would be fun to gain access to the full library.
It’s that curiosity again. We know there is something more and we search to find what else there is to know. It is a very big part of being human. Add to that the cool possibilities of psychic abilities and such, and we become driven to find answers.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Eric,
I did not know such a word or term existed. Thanks for new learning, it is deep! Death and dying is not much talked about in western world. In India, where I am from, death is much more spiritual and normal thing to talk about. Although it is changing so fast there as well.
Why are we afraid of death? I wish I knew but I am sometimes, I want to do so many things before my time comes.
Preeti @ Heart and Mind´s last [type] ..101 Changes- Change 7- Watch Less Television
Hey Preeti,
The term exists, but I definitely put my own twist on it. Americans do have an aversion to death. It doesn’t get talked about much until it happens. I think largely people are afraid of death because we don’t know what comes next. Also, western religion teaches that you either go to heaven or hell, and it’s very scary to think that we could spend eternity in hell.
Hi Eric,
Sorry — I’m late to this post — but wanted to stop by and say hi.
That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard of Terminal Enlightenment before today. I would have never guessed it is a name for a terminal interface (computer related) — I kind of chuckled when I read that.
I see what you mean regarding thinking of things not well understood or defined. For me, I think that’s what initially drove me to become a scientist because that at least gave me some tools to dink around to try to understand some of life’s mysteries. Granted, we haven’t even scratched the surface of possibility, but it helped me, at the time, to be doing something about furthering our knowledge in some capacity.
In regard to your reply to Preeti, well said. It’s always been an interest of mine to work in a hospice capacity or even to own a funeral home. I’ve always been very comfortable with death and it pains me to see people hurting because of the death of loved ones. Just a thought…
Great post, Eric. Keep ‘em coming.
Lori´s last [type] ..Closer to Fine
Lori, looks like I’m a little late to reply so I guess we’re even.
It is funny that the real definition of terminal enlightenment is computer related. It seems like a lame use of such a cool phrase.
I can’t think of any better reason to become a scientist. Furthering our knowledge is pretty darn cool.