What is Enlightenment?

Drawing on a Bodhi Tree Leaf (18th century)

When I first embraced Buddhism I, like many Westerners, read a bunch of books which were mostly of the Theravada tradition. After years of dipping my toe in that tradition (and finding I really didn’t like mindfulness meditation terribly much) I gradually moved over to Mahayana Buddhism. It was the practices of Mahayana that drew me in (chanting mantras), and then the community which I found myself pulled into. I read Mahayana literature as I transitioned but I did not entirely understand how fundamentally different the Theravada and Mahayana perspective on enlightenment was until relatively recently. Still less so did I understand the differing views amongst the Mahayana schools. I had an idea in my head that Mahayana Buddhists essentially have the same view of nirvana as the Theravada, with the difference being that Mahayana Buddhists seek to delay their own enlightenment so they can bring other beings to enlightenment, ie, to be a Bodhisattva. My understanding was not wrong, but it was shallow and confused.

Bodhisattva literally means “enlightened being”. It is the ninth realm within the context of the ten realms of reality.* It is a state characterised by compassion but I have found that the goal of living compassionately can be a little frustrating. Compassion for compassion’s sake lacks focus, and for an introvert such as myself it does not come easy. I need a loftier goal, or a purpose around which compassion can orient itself. That goal is Buddhahood – the tenth and ultimate state.

Buddhahood is a state in which the true aspect of all phenomena, or the true nature of life, is realised. Reality is perceived, ultimate truth is understood.

“The Mahayana … emphasises the realisation of dharma, and de-emphasises nirvana [the cessation of suffering] … The Mahayana came to regard the essential Buddha not as a human being, but as the omnipresent truth (dharma) manifest in all things. To emphasise this distinction, Mahayana Buddhism refers to the dharmakaya or “truth-body” of the Buddha [Reat at 53] …”

Truth is Enlightenment and the Buddha is Truth

There is an ancient sutra which records the historical Buddha saying “whoever sees dharma sees me”. Mahayana Buddhism drew out this teaching, so that as dharma is equated with truth, so too is the Buddha. The Buddha is thus not merely a historical man but an eternal and omnipresent truth.

“… In early discussions of the true nature of the Buddha, especially regarding the person of the Buddha to whom one goes for refuge … the term dharmakaya seems to have been coined to refer to the corpus … of the auspicious qualities (dharma) of the Buddha, including his wisdom, his compassion, his various powers, etc; it also referred to the entire corpus (kaya) of the Buddha’s teachings (dharma). In the Mahayana, the term evolved into a kind of cosmic principle that was regarded as the true nature of the Buddha and the source from which his various other forms derived [Buswell & Lopez at 246] …”

Gluten Free Restaurants and Cafes in Sydney

I've been tracking gluten free restaurants in Sydney for years and the list on my phone is now so long I thought I may as well publish it online. 

A Rainbow Lorikeet (by Sardaka)

Sydney, Inner City

Wholegreen Bakery Cafe (Australian)

257 Clarence Street, Sydney 
Mon-Sat: 8am-3pm; Sun: closed (totally GF)

The Rocks Cafe (Australian)

99 George St, The Rocks

Mon-Sat: 7.30am-9pm; Sun: 7.30am-5pm

Loftus Lane Cafe (Australian)

Shop 3, 38-42 Bridge St, Circular Quay

Mon-Fri: 6.30am-3pm; Sat-Sun: 8am-3pm

Eastbank Cafe (Australian)

61-69 Macquarie St, Circular Quay

Mon-Sun: 11am until late

Opera Bar (Australian)

Sydney Opera House, Lower Concourse, Sydney

Sun-Thurs: 11am-12am; Fri-Sat: 11am-12.30am

The Orient Hotel (Australian)

89 George St, The Rocks

Mon-Thurs: 11am-11pm; Fri-Sat: 10am-2am, Sun: 10am-10pm

Canvas Restaurant (Australian)

140 George St, The Rocks

Wednes-Sun: 11am-4pm (exy)

Kiln (Australian)

Lvl 18, 53 Wentworth Ave, Sydney

Tues-Wednes: 5.30pm until late; Thurs-Sat: 12pm until late (exy)

Theeca (Australian)

1 Burton St, Darlinghurst

Mon-Sun: 7.30am-2.30pm; Thurs-Sat: 5pm until late 

The Palace Tea Room (British, does Devonshire Tea)

Lvl 1, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney

Mon-Sun: 9am-5pm 

My Christian Larp

A sculpture outside St James' King Street, Sydney

In 2024 I developed an interest in Christianity (which I wrote about here). I read the Gospels three times. I read the rest of the New Testament once. I listened to a bunch of podcasts. I studied a bunch of websites. I read a couple of books. I bought some icons (of St Mary and St Olga) and tried praying in front of them. By 2025, after visiting a bunch of Orthodox churches and finding each of them focused strongly on specific cultural groups (Russian, Greek, Assyrian, etc), I developed the view that I should look into Anglo-Catholicism, which is a movement within the Anglican communion which emphasises a return to catholic practices and theology sans the Pope. The main draw card was ethno-cultural. It seemed to me that most churches revolve around ethnic identity so Anglicanism looked like a good fit. The experiment didn’t go well and perhaps I really should have known better, not least because when my interest in Anglo-Catholicism started I had a highly unusual dream wherein the Virgin Mary spoke to me and she said just one thing: “the Anglican church is a desert”.

Visiting Anglo-Catholic Churches in Sydney

Sydney has half a dozen or so churches that align with Anglo-Catholicism (at least that is my understanding). I visited most of them and my experiences were as follows:

The Logos According to the Gospels

A page from a medieval Bible: Johnbod

Until not long ago I thought I knew Christianity and had thoughtfully rejected it, then my podcast addiction led me to bump into information that suggested I knew nothing but shadows on a wall when it came to this important and complex religion. Because I regard myself as a truth seeker, and truly open-minded, for some months now I have been trying to unlearn my prior suppositions and learn what this religion actually is. An obvious starting point is the Gospels. I have relied on two translations, one is the New King James Version (NKJV) and the other is the Eastern Orthodox Bible (EOB). They are each translated from slightly different original manuscripts – the NKJV mostly derives from Greek manuscripts that were available in north-western Europe in the early 16th century, whereas the EOB is translated from different Greek manuscripts held in libraries in south-eastern Europe. In this post all of the quotes are from the text of the EOB.

The transitory world of men versus eternal life

A prominent theme in the Gospels is the juxtaposition between the everchanging worldly realm of men, of which death is an aspect, and that of God’s (Matt 16:23), which is associated with eternal life. The earthly realm is transitory (Luke 21:33), full of many distractions that are both pleasurable and unpleasurable (Luke 21:34), and it contains much evil (John 7:7). Whereas the realm of God has “many mansions” (John 14:2) but it “is not of this world” (John 18:36), even though it “is within you”, but it cannot be seen (Luke 17:21). Jesus explains (after exorcising a man) that it “is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt 12:28), which suggests the kingdom is a state of being that can be experienced in this life. This experience starts as something small (like a mustard seed) but if the seed grows within the fertile soil of a human heart it (allegorically) “becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and find shelter in its branches” (Matt 13:32).

Note that “kingdom of God” is not a literal translation from the original Greek. According to the EOB a more literal translation is “rule of God”, “ruling power of God” or “reign of God” (at xvi). This connotes an experience of God’s power, whereas “kingdom” is more suggestive of a physical place that is elsewhere.