Maddie

about to start soon

When I was younger I had been raised by a pretty religious mom and then later ended up in a Christian cult. Obviously I left the cult and later when I became interested in Buddhism I thought all was well. But after a while I started to be kind of miserable with the type of Buddhism I was doing. It was in the somewhat recent past that I realized that I had unconsciously brought some of my cult/fundamentalist mindset into Buddhism and it was not serving me well at all. I am still interested in Buddhism but my interest now without the cult mindset makes it much more pleasant.

What confuses me is that I hear it used in a Buddhist context often yet I have never read a Sutta where the Buddha mentioned it.

I hear this duality word thrown around a lot here, but what does it mean in the way that you are using it?

I'm just stating what it is, I think I had already shown enough healthy skepticism. I'm not even sure if there even is such a thing as enlightenment.

I guess that depends on who's definition of enlightenment you are using. The Buddhist one has a pretty high bar ie. no delusion, no unskillful desire, ect.

The only person that I have heard speak that I thought might be potentially enlightened is Eckhart Tolle.

That is a good question and I am not sure as I have never personally seen anyone that I think fits this description.

When I was younger I used to be in a Christian cult.

on right now

Enlightenment or obtaining Nirvana is a technical term in Buddhism. It is when one has seen through all delusion and let go of all unskillful attachments and obtained perfect peace.

That's putting the proof before the evidence.

Have you seen a mental health professional?

while interesting for sure, this is not the definition of "proof" at least in the scientific usage of the word.

Same but that was a long time ago when I was new to all of this and didn't know any better. For what its worth, even that I'm not a Chia fan the book about the sounds is pretty solid.