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In the early 1980's Father Thomas Keating, a Catholic
priest, sponsored a meeting of contemplatives from many
different religions.

The group represented a few Christian
denominations as well as Zen, Tibetan, Islam, Judaism,
Native American & Nonaligned.

The purpose of the meetings was to
establish what common understandings they-had achieved
as a result of their diverse practices.

When scholars from different religious traditions meet,
they argue endlessly about their different beliefs. When
contemplatives from different religious traditions meet, they
celebrate their common understandings. Because of their
direct personal understanding, they were able to
comprehend experiences which in words are described in
many different ways. The Snowmass Contemplative Group
has established seven Points of Agreement that they have
been refining over the years:

1) The potential for enlightenment is in every person.
2) The human mind cannot comprehend ultimate reality,
but ultimate reality can be experienced.
3) The ultimate reality is the source of all existence.
4) Faith is opening, accepting & responding to ultimate
reality.
5) Confidence in oneself as rooted in the ultimate reality is
the necessary corollary to faith in the ultimate reality.
6) As long as the human experience is experienced as
separate from the ultimate realty it is subject to ignorance,
illusion, weakness and suffering.
7) Disciplined practice is essential to the spiritual journey,
yet spiritual attainment is not the result of one's effort but.
the experience of oneness with ultimate reality.

Contemplatives and enlightenment
Contemplatives from different traditions generally agree
that there is a transforming experience they agree to call
enlightenment They agree that enlightenment is attained
as a result of controlling the mind with various forms of
practice.
Usually these forms of practice are done in a
simplified protected environment where practitioners are
freed from worldly concerns to direct their attention
inward. The practices may involve body motions or body
sensations, sight or focusing the vision on particular objects,
an awareness of certain outer or inner sounds, focusing on
the sense of taste or smell, observing the processes of the
mind or controlling the processes of the mind with prayer,
mantra, reflection or meditation. The common denominator
of these practices is that they focus consciousness on a
sense door (Buddhists include the mind as a sense), and the
result is a profound examination of the present moment.

It is generally agreed that enlightenment is a progressive
series of experiences or understandings with sudden
dramatic breakthroughs or peak experiences. The methods
used to induce enlightenment have a great effect on the
type of objective experiences contemplatives have. Even
within particular traditions using identical techniques, the
objective experience individuals have vary greatly.

Despite the wide variety of objective experiences that
people report, teachers with extensive experience can
identify the essential common denominators. Regardless of
the tradition, method and individual experience, the result
of enlightenment, in terms of wisdom and relief from
personal suffering, are identical.

The wisdom and reduced suffering are the result of a change in
perceptual thresholds which allow access to previously unconscious
mental processes.

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Originally posted by Will Power

Beautiful, thanks!

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