Question: What's Enlightenment?
Thanks for asking the questions that can come to your brain, even if they seem "rather peculiar" to you. In Enlightenment all perceived pain has vanished, for what but wrong-mindedness seemed to make the misperception called pain.
Pain was the illusion that Christ could leave a Loving Creator's Mind. "If pain is real there is no God. If God is real there is no pain."(W-190.3) The latter holds true because God doesn't have opposite. Enlightenment entails no pain or displeasure about ANYTHING, for Enlightenment is Pure, Constant Happiness, Peace, Freedom, and Joy. Being Constant, Enlightenment knows not of change. The illusion of vulnerability and fluctuating emotions has gone as well. There is no ego to fall "back into." Spirit Abides in gentle Love. All pain has ended Now and nothing remains but a benefit of Stillness.
The Holy Spirit could be the reminder that Life is Eternal. The Present Moment could be the gateway to Eternity. The entire world of images was an environment of illusion. Images are therefore neutral to the Holy Spirit. They certainly were "neutralized" the instant they seemed to arise.
What does this mean with regards to the second question? You can't kill what's never lived, and in the Holy Spirit's Perspective of forgiveness harm is impossible. Bodies were never born and never die because the planet of images could be the past. It's impossible to find beginnings and endings in a script that is already written and over long ago. There is no life in images. Here is the meaning of "Hold no graven images prior to the Lord Thy God." All images were designed to obscure the Truth from awareness, and they are able to only be forgiven as one illusion. If illusions might be divided up into living and dead, organic and inorganic, animate and inanimate Enlightenment will be impossible. For what's Enlightenment but Pure Oneness, far beyond the possibility of division of any kind? The split mind was the illusion. Seek not to project the split mind to forms and call some forms alive and some forms dead.
God knows not form. The split mind was the "killer" illusion, the Holy Spirit reminds the sleeping mind that what's whole and unified can never BE split. In Heaven Mind is One Spirit, and even with regard to this world forgiveness reflects this Oneness. The forgiven world recognizes the unity of the healed mind and sees that there's nothing "outside" of the single mind which dreams softly a pleased, gentle dream. The goal of ACIM would be to dream softly of a sinless world acim . This goal is more than possible, it is inevitable!
For my seeming diet, "eat what's served" could be the Guidance I was presented with from the Holy Spirit many years ago. Join with your brother and let no concept come involving the Love you share. This Guidance has not changed. "Dinner" is always a backdrop for sharing the Joy of the Living Moment. What the planet calls "breathing" and "eating" and "drinking" and "sleeping" are actually all the same in the Enlightened State.
The Healed Perspective sees the sameness of all things because each of them share the same Purpose: forgiveness. This Perspective is not "personal," for in unified perception nothing is personal. God is no respecter of persons. I literally cannot "take" an animal's "life" because Life is Spirit and can only be extended or Given as God Gives. "Take" doesn't have meaning within my mind and since animals have not "lived" it is impossible that they may "die." The belief expressed in thinking "personally take an animal's life" has many underlying assumptions which can be false. In right-mindedness it is obvious that ideas are strengthened because they are given away or shared, and "taking" a "life" or some thing doesn't have meaning.
All that I give is given to mySelf, and in giving there is no loss, no sacrifice, and nothing is ever removed from wholeness and unity. The teacher of God does not need whatever can not be given away. Such could be the Joy of miracles! Thinking seeds be seemingly flung everywhere, yet there is never a good glance back to see where in fact the seeds land. The seeds are never for an "other," and since giving and receiving are the same your head receives the gifts it gives. This is truly the feast you seek for within the ego's questions.
The only question that require be asked is really a question that is certainly not silly at all: Am I ready to know that God's Will and My Own are the Same? God's Will for Me is for Perfect Happiness. And what but this Will could be the Will of Christ? Happily, nothing can transform Eternal Love. Thank You God!