From what I gather from your post, it's more of an acknowledgment and awareness of our connection with existence that extends beyond the experience of self.
I don't care for the word acknowledge, as that suggests a mental cognition, like the acceptance of a propositional truth. Awareness is a good word however. Illumination is good as well. The best metaphors are having the blinders removed and seeing Reality as it is.
One of my favorite metaphors in the Bible is the story of the veil in the temple being ripped from top to bottom as Jesus died. The symbolism of this captures the Enlightenment experience well. The veil separates the external world of form, from the Holy of Holies, or the interior room with the Divine Presence resides. The veil represents the flesh, or the earthly mind that interfaces with visible world of form, which inside the Divine remains concealed. Upon the death, or surrender of the flesh, or the mind, the veil is torn apart and the Presence of the Divine bursts forth into the world.
Quite literally, that is what it is experienced like. What was hidden, is now revealed. The Divine is seen and recognized "Face to Face", and we "Know, even as we are known". We then recognize what we thought we knew and believed to be truth, was "seeing through a glass darkly". The Hindus describe that as maya, or the world of illusion. We mistake what we perceive through the mind as reality, as reality itself.
Are you suggesting an empathetic type of reality where we are able to tap into what those around us are feeling also?
In a sense. We become able to see through the eyes of compassion at deeper levels once we are out of ourselves, so to speak. I wouldn't believe that to include mind-reading however.
I can relate my experience only here, and say that when I was younger I had a spontaneous Awakening experience, where the 'veil' was pulled back and I experienced that profound state of Oneness with all that was arising in the moment in everything.
I describe is as living Light, Love, and Life itself radiating from everything, every blade of grass, every molecule of air, from the earth, from the sky, and then from the most unimaginable, unfathomable depth below, burst forth that self-same wellspring of Life itself up through me out into the world in an exchange of the living, Infinite, energetic Love and Light, from everything, to everything, and through everything, which instantly transformed my entire being.
At that moment, there were three young people walking towards me, and I could see this radiant Light coming from each of them as it was in everything else. I felt absolute Joy, Love, and fearlessness at that moment. But I was struck by seeing their eyes, and how that none of them seemed aware of what and who they were, what I was seeing that they were. I felt this almost sympathetic bewilderment at their unawareness, but also a recognition that that was how I had been living my life, trapped inside of my own isolated "thought world" as I later recognized it.
It was the unreality of my own mind, that world of illusion, that they each like I had been were trapped within. It is the "normal" human condition of the metaphorical "fall", where we experience separation from the Divine, into the world of "sin", but understood as blindness to what is, or unawareness of Reality, or God.
That experience subsided for me, and of course I 'fell' back into the separate self. But it forever changed me and set my path on the path of return Home to that. What was spontaneous in my youth, is a gradual return in my older years. But my point here, that yes, I could relate empathetically to others, and do now to varying degrees, in my continuing growth, but not mind reading.
One thing of curious note to make here though, is that empathetically, I am finding greater connections with animals and they with me. I have been surprised to see how close rabbit in my backyard are willing to be close to me. They literally walk slowly right past me while I am standing there, within a couple feet of me. I could just stick my foot out and tap it. It's like "hello there!" LOL. It's strange and surprising, but not at the same time.
Honestly, I think it's just that animals can pick up on feeling safe energetically from others. And the other was around as well. So in that sense, that living connection does increase the more we are out of our own anxious 'thought world', or separation, and the more we are seeing and listening and participating in the Divine, or Reality. It's all about increasing Awareness and living connection, I am learning.
In it's simplest form, it appears to be about seeing more clearly with our senses on through our subjective and objective experiences and how the energy perceived is processed by us.
I would say so. Aside from the spontaneous experience, for it to become a permanent condition, this is something we need to cultivate and practice and become. This is where the teachings of Wisdom traditions come in, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", help to eliminate obstacles that block that connection with the Divine.
There are of course other things, such as meditation practices, physical practices such as bodily awareness and health, etc. We are after all, in the flesh, and if the flesh itself in unwell, it affects the whole. Spirituality is body, mind, soul and spirit together. Not just transcendence, but grounding. A kite skittering away untethered, is not truly a kite soaring in the heavens above.
That is to me what it means to be Enlightened. Head in the clouds, with the feet firmly planted on the earth. That to me is the meaning of the Incarnation, or the Son of God. A child of God and a child of Earth.
