Illumination seems to provide the only secure source of knowledge, but illumination is not truth functional. Illumination is conditioned by the object of contemplation, so illumination is usually delimited. Such a state of awareness would yield ultimate ontological insight, and specific knowledge of past, present, and future existences, along with their causal and interdependent nature. This is one definition of the enlightenment of the Buddha. Otherwise illumination is relative and piece by piece.
Illumination is revelation.
The veil is lifted curtain by curtain. To the truth-functional mind, illumination seems mysterious. Certainly, illumination resides outside logical-linguistic formulations of truth. As I wend my through these deliberations, I seek to find words for a way of being with the phenomena of relative knowledge, illumination, and mystery. Mediated knowledge and illumination are coexistent paths to the participatory mystery of existence.