Enlightenment has become a buzz word. I’m not sure what it means. To some, it seems to refer to a state in which one has arrived, with all the answers, to live on in a state of bliss. If this is possible, and if you have attained this, how wonderful!
But such is not my path. I seek to awaken—followed by moment-to-moment re-awakening. It doesn’t take work, so much as constant attention. (And attention, once you get the hang of it, is joy, not work.) But, of course, habit pulls me back continually. Compassion then saves me from myself!
The Buddha was not one for metaphysics. He refused to speculate. When asked what he had attained, he simply said, “I am awake.” What happens when one is awake and paying attention does seem to be an ever-growing sense of understanding. (I use the word, sense, here because understanding grows far beyond the conceptual.)
But, since I can never know what lies ahead, I can never know what I have yet to understand. So how can I possibly ever know that I have reached any “ultimate” understanding? I’m quite happy to just watch and see.
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