Philosophy of Religion Mind Mapping Project


Enlightenment Experience


Advaita Vedantins, Jains and Theravada Buddhists each appeal to religious experience to support the claims of their respective religious traditions. The experiences they appeal to seem psychologically similar to some extent (and they share a subject/content structure). Nevertheless each tradition holds that such experiences support radically different religious claims. Each tradition also names the experiences differently: Advaita Vedantins refer to moksha experiences; Jains refer to Kevala experiences; while Theravada Buddhists refer to nirvana experiences. Moksha experiences purportedly support the propositions that “We are identical to qualityless Brahman”. Kevala experiences purportedly support the proposition: “We have existential independence or ontological security and are omniscient”. Nirvana experiences purportedly support the proposition “We are composed at a time of momentary elements and over time of bundles of such elements”. See Keith Yandell, Philosophy of Religion (1999), Chapter 13.

Attachments:
Enlightenment Experience Discussion Forum
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Enlightenment in Wikipedia

1: There is an experience which grounds the truth of the tradition

2: Advaita Vedanta

2.1: Experience: Moksha

Attachments:
Wikipedia on Moksha

2.2: Claim: we are identical to qualityless Brahman

3: Jainism

3.1: Experience: Kevala

3.2: Claim: we are immortal and omniscient

Attachments:
Omniscience in Wikipedia
Immortality in Wikipedia

4: Theravada Buddhism

4.1: Experience: Nirvana

Attachments:
Nirvana in Wikipedia

4.2: Claim: we are radically impermanent

5: Experience as Ground for Belief

Attachments:
Book by Keith Yandell (amazon link)
Epistemology in Wikiepedia

5.1: Experience as proof

5.1.1: Must be self-authenticating

Attachments:
Infallibility regarding our mental states

5.1.1.1: Example: Descartes' Cogito, "I am in pain"

Attachments:
Cogito Ergo Sum

5.1.1.2: Enlightenment experiences are not self-authenticating, so cannot prove doctrine.

Adherents of the various traditions often claim that the religious experiences devotees of their tradition have are self-authenticating. If any of these claims were true it would entail the truth of the proposition which it aims to support. To see this consider what it involves for an experience to be self-authenticating. If an experience is self-authenticating it means that the person who has the experiences cannot be mistaken in accepting the proposition that the experience confirms. In other words, if the person cannot be mistaken, then the proposition must be true. It is logically impossible for the person to have the experience and the proposition be false.

5.2: Experience as evidence

The issue is different from that of whether religious experience can provide evidence that God exists. This is because religious experience within monotheistic traditions typically has a subject/consciousness/object structure. If experience has such a tripartite structure it is possible to stipulate conditions which the experience has to meet if it is to be regarded as veridical. However, the kind of experiences appealed to by Advaita Vedantins, Jains, and Theravada Buddhists are subject/consciousness in structure–specifically, the subject of the experience is conscious of being in a particular state (the state expressed by the relevant one of the core religious propositions).

5.2.1: Enlightenment experiences cannot be evidence because it is not possible to observe being...

See Yandell, Philosophy of Religion (1999), p. 280.

5.2.1.1: Qualityless

5.2.1.2: Indestructible or Omnisicent

5.2.1.3: Impermanent

5.3: Religious Experience in a Theistic Context

Attachments:
To Religious Experience Map


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