What happens if we make this planet uninhabitable and life goes extinct before we all reach enlightenment?
Or for that matter, if by some miraculous means, we survive until the Earth is swallowed by the Sun...
What happens to those who did not reach Enlightenment before Extinction?

What the hell is Enlightenment? I thought the Enlightenment already happened.

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What the hell is Enlightenment? I thought the Enlightenment already happened.

Enlightenment is an individual accomplishment - there wasn't/isn't a universal enlightenment event or some such thing.

Enlightenment, as in the Buddhsit/Hindu sense of attaining perfect wisdom and relinquishing desire for rebirth, thus breaking free of the cycle of Samsara.

Enlightenment is very much the problem, the increased concern, the hope to meddle with matters beyond immediate control and responsibility. The World escapes control because of the very conceit to presume to control it, not because of any surfeit of humility.

What does enlightenment have to do with controlling the world and surroundings?

Following the path of the Buddha, one would certainly not try and control the course of the world.
In fact, even constructing a damn to divert the natural flow of water would be a step away from enlightenment.
Buddha taught that man should be as a ghost in this world, and interfere with nature and the course of events as minimally as possible.

How could that possible lead to a desire to control the world?

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:confused:

The make this planet uninhabitable connection is presumably for the author of the original posting to explain.

It is precicely the interference with the natural processes and course of nature - which pits itself squarely against the goal of enlightenment - that is causing the destruction of natural habitat and the planet's sustainability of life.

I'd like you to explain how seeking enlightenment equates to desire for control over the world and nature, leading to its destruction.

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You are mixing terms and, as a result, the conclusions you are drawing are non-sequitur at best - intentional misrepresentation at worst.

If you'd like to have an honest discussion, please do.
If you'd like to play games of semantics and manipulation, I don't care to participate.

Extinction before enlightenment is most certainly not an oxymoron.
According to the Buddha's teachings, the goal of enlightenment is for the enlightened individual to break free of the cycle of Samsara.

What I was putting forward for discussion is the following question...
If there is a mass extinction of life on this planet before all the people have attained enlightenment, what may happen to those who were not enlightened?

I think the current trend towards increased personal isolation will lead to either one or the other, with the odds heavily in favour of extinction.

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One raven, the wheel of the cycle of Samsara has six spokes, so remember the "Earth hexagon" of the precession mapping scheme, six spokes, and the Hindu yugas of time are multiples of 432, that precession number again, so the breaking of the cycle is to go outside of time, into the eternity which all the ancient people-groups seem to be aware of.

What happens if we make this planet uninhabitable and life goes extinct before we all reach enlightenment?
Or for that matter, if by some miraculous means, we survive until the Earth is swallowed by the Sun...
What happens to those who did not reach Enlightenment before Extinction?

according the vedas, they get re-absorbed into the body of visnu and expelled again into another material cosmos for a lifetime of Lord Brahma - BTW from vedic indications it is quite a common occurance - ever noticed how there is a higher ratio of plants, bugs, fish, worms, reptiles, beasts and birds to humans and how even amongst humans spiritual progress is hardly at the forefront of their lives, even if they outwardly appear religious?

What happens if we make this planet uninhabitable and life goes extinct before we all reach enlightenment?
Or for that matter, if by some miraculous means, we survive until the Earth is swallowed by the Sun...
What happens to those who did not reach Enlightenment before Extinction?

Thats the whole point, it's a race towards extinction! Ask Darwin.

If enlightenment aims to transcend the cycle of birth and death as an act of conscious will, what is possibly more controlled than that, the ultimate extinction?

I'd call that the ultimate control, and if you mean to infer a practical difference between an internal mind and an external reality, I'd think of that as rather a misrepresentation of the Buddhist doctrine which would rather propose them as one and the same.

In short, extinction before enlightenment is an oxymoron, a contradiction of terms, of Buddhist terms at least.

Enlightenment is the next step in our evolution. If we want to survive in space we'd have to be enlightened, otherwise we will have spacewars with aliens.

If we go into extinction it doesnt really matter, the universe is set up in such a way as to always promote and favour systems of ever increasting complexity and awareness. Infact its more than likely we've already been surpassed countless times by any number of lifeforms out in the wide expanse of the universe.

What happens if we make this planet uninhabitable and life goes extinct before we all reach enlightenment?
Or for that matter, if by some miraculous means, we survive until the Earth is swallowed by the Sun...
What happens to those who did not reach Enlightenment before Extinction?

Nothing will really happen...in the Puranas it states that the Earth will eventually burn up, and even the universe will eventually be destroyed...all things are transient (except for the absolute)

As for those who haven't achieved enlightenment when the Earth is destroyed, they will take birth on some other planet or world (lokam)...however when the end of the universe comes then everything will be just as it was in the beginning

short answer - you'll get another oppurtunity.

Enlightenment is in the journey, not something you find at the journey's end like a pot of gold. Souls simply continue the journey. When they reach the summit of one mountain, there is a higher mountain in front of them. The valleys are equally valuable.

What happens if we make this planet uninhabitable and life goes extinct before we all reach enlightenment?
Or for that matter, if by some miraculous means, we survive until the Earth is swallowed by the Sun...
What happens to those who did not reach Enlightenment before Extinction?
Don't worry, you will find enlightenment upon extinction, you will surely find something

short answer - you'll get another oppurtunity.

Yes but not as a human. Hopefully as an alien or animal species somewhere else because this place will be uninhabitable when humans are finished trashing it.

maybe as a human.
my belief, is that of cyclic existence. the universe was born, therefore one day it will die and be reborn again (cyclic model [big bang/big crunch]) and all this will happen again.