The Writers Of The Enlightenment Published Many

If there is no “I” after enlightenment, why do enlightened writers still speak in terms of “I”?

The “I” continues to exist post-enlightenment. However, the perspective shifts such that a so-called enlightened being no longer identifies with the “I” perspective of the mind-body and identifies instead with a larger interconnected awareness or Self. The “I” is mind-generated and, in a sense, a virtual perspective of reality based upon sensory inputs and composite mental interpretations of one’s environment. It never actually existed except within the confines of an individual’s abstractions of events perceived and conceptualized by the mind-body complex.While enlightenment is described somewhat differently within various doctrines, it is essentially a deeply more subtle perspective of a more universal and direct awareness. It exists outside the confines of (though includes) thought, language and a perspective of a self.In Buddhism, this is referred to as anatta (Pali) or anatman (Sanskrit) or “no self”. Thus, confusion arises because if there is no self how can there be an “I”? This gets explained very cleverly by pointing out that the “I” was only an illusion of duality and therefore never existed in the first place. However, that cleverness doesn’t help if one is shopping for groceries, teaching children or running a company. Unless we choose to live out our existence isolated in a cave somewhere, we do live in duality - a consensual delusion.While we may realize that there is no objective physical reality beyond the interpretations of individual minds, the mind-body experience is the common human experience. Thus, we humans live in a synthetic reality whereby a discrete mind-body has learned to interact with other mind-bodies by agreement of defined concepts. One of those concepts is “I” and it is useful in navigating our co-created reality.In effect, the enlightened being recognizes and has access to both a provisional truth and an ultimate truth (two truths doctrine) and, with practice, can navigate freely within and between them. “I” is ultimately a useful instrument of language rather than an independent entity./////

How did the Enlightenment influence the American Revolution?

The period of enlightenment was a period when people started to reason and question the order of things. everything was questioned even down right to religion. one of the most important Philosophes whose writing influenced the American revolution was John Locke. one of the ideas of John Locke- the idea of Natural rights (life, liberty and property) was fundamental to the American declaration of independence, which stated that “…all men… are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;…”. Hence when king George III started imposing taxes on them and punishing those who went against the various Acts , they saw it as an attack on their human rights.Also Locke and Rousseau’s ideas on social contract helped shape the minds of the leaders of the American revolution thereby affecting the revolution itself. in Rousseau’s social contract he argued that the only good government was the one freely formed by the people and guided by the “general will” of the society. John Locke in the Two treatises of government also argued that government should rule based on the consent of the governed. These ideas of John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau formed the basis for the American revolutionary movement of popular sovereignty.Locke furthermore said in the two treatises of government that the citizens had a right to revolt against whatever government failed to protect their rights. It could be said that Thomas Paine an American who wrote the pamphlet titled “Common Sense” in 1776 drew his idea from Locke. He attacked the monarchy in his pamphlet and insisted that common Americans had the ability to be their own kings and were far more deserving of leadership posts than those who had worn English crowns. this idea was also reflected in the declaration of independence document wrote by Thomas Jefferson “…that whenever any form of government becomes destructive … it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it…” Hence the Americans felt the need for a revolution to “abolish” the government that had become “destructive”.