Is enlightenment truly an escape from disease and death, from pain and suffering? Yes and no. First of all, it is not an escape, but rather the single enduring fact of our existence, the only constant in this ephemeral cosmos we call reality. Whether we heed it or not, it abides just as atmosphere exists whether the day is sunny or stormy. As time it is eternal, as space it is infinite, as awareness it is pure consciousness empty and unstained by the body-mind we misidentify as self. So in that sense, yes, enlightenment is liberation from birth, death, pain and suffering.
Of course that doesn't hold much water with the cancer patient just now vomiting from chemotherapy, who in this moment, in this body, suffers intolerably. Reassuring any tortured soul with the claim that he is eternal and body-less would seem a cruel joke. But suppose that the diseased body and agonized mind are in truth the stuff of dreams, very real, very sad and painful as we dream it, only to evaporate upon our awakening?
Of course that doesn't hold much water with the cancer patient just now vomiting from chemotherapy, who in this moment, in this body, suffers intolerably. Reassuring any tortured soul with the claim that he is eternal and body-less would seem a cruel joke. But suppose that the diseased body and agonized mind are in truth the stuff of dreams, very real, very sad and painful as we dream it, only to evaporate upon our awakening?
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