Western Enlightenment Era Idealists

[kieranperez]

Personally I’m trying to grasp how these Western Idealist philosophers are communicating very clearly a deep understanding of enlightenment and the nature of reality in a culture that pretty much had no access to systematic “process” towards enlightenment. 

Thoughts on this?

I mean... does this just go back to the point on talent, personality type, karma and brain type? I never really heard of someone like say Hegel actually part taking in the practice of Christian contemplation (which is actually a really deep practice that requires concentration and centering mind). 

I’m not trying to suggest that one can’t pursue this without any sort of conventional practice. Not at all but when I did background research on these  idealist philosophers, I’m not coming across anything that suggest they were doing deep contemplation that went beyond the mind or anything like that in yet, when I read their work now knowing with tastes from what they’re talking about it’s like “how?!” You don’t read about these guys spending long periods of time isolating themselves training in concentration and other disciplines be able to become directly conscious. You hear about theoretical discussions and debates and what not (I imagine it was probably much different than the bullshit excuse we call debate today when we watch say JP or Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris).

[Lister]

@kieranperez I think you're confusing the enlightenment era of the West (the birth of the orange, rational, science, human rights) with eastern philosophy "enlightenment". These are not the same.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

[kieranperez]

@Lister read Hegel and get back to me.

Plenty of philosophers at that time had a grasp of nonduality. 

I'm using "enlightenment era" to mark a certain time in philosophy in the 17th & 18th centuries because I'm trying to make the distinction between how idealism often came to be understood in say Ancient Greece where they had cults like the Eleusinian Mysteries.