If enlightenment is an emotionless state, what's the point of living life since you can't feel the emotions?

Wait, back it up – which philosophy are you talking about, as there many…whose version of enlightenment doesn’t include emotion?...while I do believe emotions should never be above logic or enlightenment, experiencing them is still necessary on the way.

I’ve never heard such a definition.
Enlightenment is having great amounts of knowledge. Nothing to do with being emotionless.

Source please?

I think there are some very strong emotions that can go along with being enlightened. But it all depends on from which school of thought you are coming from.

Where did you hear that enlightenment is an emotionless state? That is more like Georgia or Alabama. Or perhaps you are referring to the Vulcans.

@davidbetterman hehe vulcans

I haven’t seen the latest revision of Rules of Enlightenment. Mine says it’s OK to have emotions. Is that out of date?

Vague and humanly impossible. Reword please, to fit reality.

@tragiclikebowie I couldn’t resist…Live Long and Prosper

Enlightenment is only emotionless if you’re a Vulcan. :\

I am a bit confused here what kind of “enlightened” you mean. The only one I can think of is the Vulcan, and they don’t really count…

I agree with the others here. There’s nothing emotionless about enlightenment. Many enlightened people feel an incredible bliss and sadness (all at the same time) when living directly in the symphony of three-dimensional life on Earth.

Many enlightened people feel eternally deep joy over the creativity and love of the human spirit, while feeling sad and tired over the massive amount of suffering. There is a deep nostalgia connected with the fading story of life on Earth. There is also great achievement. And the emotions that come with standing in the calm center of a swirling universe with realtime awareness of the massive bliss and massive pain that surrounds us, are as great as any emotion ever felt. And although enlightenment is not a requirement for these emotions, it is definitely not a hindrance, either.

Did you by any chance have the idea that “detachment” in the Buddhist sense means being emotionless?

Enlightenment simply means an education that results in understanding and the spread of knowledge (nothing to do with an emotionless state). However, as for emotions, mankind can’t be externally dispassionate fore everything a human being does, is procured out of self-pleasure. Neutral (gray areas) is not an emotional drive, therefore, a selfless act would not be feasible.

logically speaking enlightenment is a state in which one is able to control thier emmotional states, the emmotions are there they are supressed to a degree in which they are managable, for example you are driving, someone cuts you off or they stop, your first reaction is to become emmotionaly enflamed, conduct an experiment while driving, can you drive your car without becomming upset at something another moterist does, olnce you begin to control your volital emmotions you will have a greater understanding how emmotional control reduces emmotional distraction when obtaining enlightenment.

There is much more to enlightenment then reducing distraction, emmotional control to reduce emmotional distraction is one of them, entanglement is anoher god place to start, the universe was once a very small thing where everything was the same thing, after the exspansion all things are entangled yet the universe is still the universe even though it has undergone change, it is alive and inellegent, you really don’t belive that do you?

The very fact your intellegence and life came from somewhere within this universe only proves it to be so, you can not disconnect yourself from the universe, you are the universe not as a whole but in part alive, breathing, mindful and intellegent.

once you reconnect to the universe and understand the onefulness of all things, you begin to see life differently and understand that God is all things, everywhere that you too are apart of God that the universe is a part of God.

To be enlightened does not mean you levitate or read peoples minds, it means you have awakened to the oneness of all things and now you are on a spiritaul journey in which you will redefine your path in life and how you react to actions and how you find solutions.

start with meditation and ask who am I? and Who do I want to be?, am I who I want to be or who I thought I thought I would become?

Do I depend on others? Do I help others or do I turn a blind eye?
If that were me instead of them would I still turn a blind eye?

If you say no, then you need to redefine who you are first before you can reach enlightenment.

Is this the person I want to be?, What can I do to live up to my own moral expectations of myself and who I want to be and the moral expectations of others?

how materialistic am I?, would I be willing to live my life with a few clothes and give up living in a fully furnished home with all the trimmings and conveinances?

Could I live without fashion and technology toys?

Am I willing to be proactive and take part in issues to save the planet and the lives of people around the world?

Do I eat to live or do live to eat?

Do I beleive in the oneness of all things?

Do I believe for myself? or do I beleive what I learn from others in how they treat others.?

Yes emmotional control is important to reaching enlightenment, it reduces emmotional distraction and prevents emmotional straying or disruption, disconnection from the enlightenment state.

if you become enflamed emmotionally and never learn to control anger, resentment, rage, envy, jelosey, vindictivness and a few others you can never reach enlightenment.

these are demons out of your control that only you can defeat, this is the first part of the process involving much meditation and and self reflection.

This does not mean you are unemmotional it means yhou can put a cap on negative emmotional states and continue to be blissful, this takes emmotional and spiritual streangth, once you are able to do this you are closer to enlightenment.

when problems arrise do not complain, do not rant, are you part of the solution or are you part of the problem?

pick one and work with it.

and one more thing, you are going to have to love those you hate including your enemies, and love them more then your self.

start seeing people as beautiful works of art, your brothers and sisters and treat them like family even if they take advantage of you, you are to be totally selfless and charitable to al strangers as if they were your family, this is also enlightenment.