enlightenment

IPA: ɛnɫˈaɪtʌnmʌnt

noun

  • An act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed.
  • A concept in spirituality, philosophy and psychology related to achieving clarity of perception, reason and knowledge.
  • A 17th- and 18th-century philosophical movement in European history; the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason emphasizing rationalism.
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Examples of "enlightenment" in Sentences

  • It will be interesting to see how the next generation of Buddhist teachers and practitioners deal with the cultural history and baggage of the word "enlightenment."
  • I love the way Eckhart Tolle puts it: "The word 'enlightenment' conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment ... it is really just your natural state of felt oneness with Being."
  • D.T. Suzuki used the word "enlightenment" to translate the Japanese term satori¸ and his recounting of the enlightenment stories from the Zen koan literature made quite a splash among intellectual elites at the time.
  • The word "enlightenment" in a Buddhist context has been used so frequently and in so many ways, many people may not realize that this use of the word began fairly recently, and has a complex cultural and literary history.
  • I am, moreover, sceptical _because the very persons to whom to-day we have to look to effect the sexual enlightenment of children, are themselves to a great extent also in need of enlightenment_; and in respect of many of the questions about which the child has to be enlightened, no general harmony of scientific opinion can as yet be said to obtain.
  • Though 19th century translators of Buddhist texts sometimes used the word "enlightenment" to refer to Gautama's moment of spiritual awakening on seeing the morning star, the first time a large number of general English readers saw the word used as a spiritual term was with the publication Essays on Zen Buddhism First Series by D.T. Suzuki in the 1930s.

Related Links

synonyms for enlightenmentdescribing words for enlightenment
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