Enlightenment

What is enlightenment? What does it mean to be enlightened? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines enlightenment as "the state of having knowledge or understanding." In Plato's allegory of the cave, he plays with the idea of enlightenment. Of course, the person being enlightened is the person going outside of the cave. This implies that Plato believes that to be enlightened a person must work for it themselves. It doesn't just happen on its own. The person on the outside of the cave must have realized at some point that the shadows on the wall aren't reality and there is more out there in the real world. From Plato's point of view, this "leaving the cave" or "enlightenment" represents pure knowledge. Knowledge like mathematics, sciences, arts, language, etc. Personally, I am convinced that true enlightenment comes not with plain knowledge, but from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.

Enlightenment is all about "knowing" rather than "learning." For this reason, I disagree with Plato about what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is not about the pursuit of information, it is about the obtainment of knowledge. Plato, in the rest of The Republic text, seems to believe that pursuing knowledge is a choice; however, the person being let out of the cave is using help to come into the light. They are drawn to it, they want to see what lies beyond it, but it is painful. In the same way, we are drawn into the knowledge of our Savior. We cant come to Him on our own; we need help from Him. He leads us to himself. Other believers help us in our journey to know the Lord. And once we finally know him, we want others to know what they are missing out on, just like the man who escaped from the cave. While I very much agree with Plato's allegory, I understand it in a different way, a way that I think makes a lot more sense.

From Plato's point of view, enlightenment is the training of the mind. However, just as the man in the cave needed to do, people must train their body in addition to the mind. In the Timaeus, Plato writes about the problems that come with training the mind without training the body, and vice versa. "From these conditions there is one way to preserve oneself, and that is not to exercise the soul without exercising the body, nor the body without the soul, so that each may be balanced by each other and be sound" (Plato 84). In the allegory of the cave, the man who escaped must have had to train both his body and his mind extensively to be able to live outside of the cave.

This idea also has spiritual implications. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” Wisdom is also mentioned in the bible many times, and it is portrayed as a very positive thing to have. Many people in the bible are working towards wisdom. So you must train your body and your soul. However, Plato is missing one key aspect of the human being: the spirit. The three parts that we all are made of are: body, soul, and spirit. It is obvious what the body represents. The soul represents the essence of who a person is, how they think. And the spirit represents a person's conscience, for lack of a better word. The spirit is where true enlightenment comes from. As Christians, our sinful spirit has been taken over by the Holy Spirit. While we still make bad decisions due to our sinful body and soul, the Holy Spirit helps us make better ones because we know and are aware of God. We want to please the one that loves us so much that he sent his only son to die so that we can have life.

The spirit is the most important part of the human being, over both body and soul. We must train our spirit in the Word. True enlightenment comes not from learning about the world, but from knowing the Lord. And once we know the Lord, It is much easier to pursue knowledge of the world. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). So to conclude, I will again say that I think Plato was right about the cave allegory, but wrong about enlightenment. Pursuit of knowledge can only get a person so far in life, but pursuit of the Lord gets one to an eternal life in literal heaven.