PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION: A contemporary introduction

284 NONMONOTHEISTIC CONCEPTIONS

Thus:

C Enlightenment experiences are not evidence that the person who has
them is in the state she thinks she is in.

Hence appeal to enlightenment experience will not confirm Advaita, Jain,
or Buddhist doctrine.

Conclusion

If the arguments just considered are correct, what has been established is
the following. Consider the crucial steps in the reasoning that must be
correct if enlightenment experience provides evidence for religious belief.
As we noted earlier, they are:

A2 If moksha experiences (in which one at least appears to realize
one’s identity with qualityless Brahman) have occurred, this is
evidence that one is identical to qualityless Brahman.
J2 If kevala experiences (in which one at least appears to realize one’s
existential independence or ontological security and one’s
omniscience) have occurred, then this is evidence that one is
existentially independent or has ontological security and one is
omniscient.
T2* If nirvana experiences (in which one at least appears to realize one’s
nature as composed at a time of momentary elements and over time
of a series of bundles of such elements) have occurred, then this is
evidence that one is composed at a time of momentary elements and
over time of a series of bundles of such elements.

If the arguments just considered are correct, then there is no such thing as
one’s experientially appearing to be qualityless, indestructible, or
momentary. What there is are experiences in which one “has a feeling of
being qualityless or indestructible or momentary” – believes oneself to be
such where one’s belief is associated with certain feelings. This is quite
distinct from a case in which one is aware of having a particular quality or
being in a particular state that is not a belief-state or a feeling-state. That
one is in an enlightenment belief-state or feeling-state is not the same as
being aware of being in the state that the associated religious tradition says
that you are in or having the quality that the associated religious tradition
says that you have. Nor is being in such a belief-state or feeling-state itself
any evidence that one is in the state that the associated religious tradition