Question

Are there any enlightened people in other religious ways?

Answer

Buddhism will say, no. The main thing to understand about the definition of enlightenment is that ignorance of reality has ended. That's the biggest difference between Buddhism and other religions. Compassion is important for a lot of other religions. Lovingkindness, patience, forgiveness and such. The Ten Paramis in general are important for other religions but not so much the wisdom Parami. Not a lot of other religions care about the wisdom, they are based in faith, in blind faith. Blind faith that says there is a god, you must believe in the god. If you don't believe in a god you are going to go to hell, this is blind faith. These are things that we can't prove, they are not a truth that everyone will agree upon. Buddhism is based in truth and things that we can understand. In that way we are letting go of ignorance.

Since other religions are always holding on to a bit of ignorance, then that, as far as Buddhism is concerned, blocks them from getting enlightened. They can still develop. Yesterday I mentioned Mother Teresa, one of the nicest, most gifted people that has walked the planet in our life time, a beautiful woman, helped thousands of people, was very generous, was very patient, had a lot of Paramis developed. But Buddhism will say the wisdom level, no, not enough because she had a blind belief element. Yet, as far as developing, she was way ahead of many Buddhists.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.