Awakening
Latter Day Buddhism
Wake Up! Cease TRYING to think.
-- Brian William Drisko, 01-Apr-2008 0000
The Paradox: Once you awaken, you will realize you were always awake.
-- Brian William Drisko, 01-Jun-2008 0000
Our journey must be to awaken here and now, to awaken "to" here and now.
To be fully alive, we must be fully present.
The question is: how do we do it?
First:
You must truly realize that life is fleeting.
Second:
You must understand that you are already complete, worthy, whole.
Third:
You must see that you are your own refuge, your own sanctuary, your own salvation.
-- See: Buddhism Plain and Simple
by Steve Hagen, 1997 Printing, pg 19, paragraphs 5 - 7.
The buddha-dharma points the way to a ... universal and profound, sense of "Aha!" It's not about pondering some vauge, faraway realm. It's about here and now. About waking up to this moment, seeing this for what it is.
This is called enlightenment, or awakening.
This awakening is available to all of us, at every moment, without exception.
-- See: Buddhism Plain and Simple
by Steve Hagen, 1997 Printing, pg 29, paragraphs 3 - 5.
What disturbs, frightens, and confuses us is our thought, our beliefs -- what we form in our minds. In particular, it's those notions that are expressed mainly in terms of our own ego. This is how we unwittingly entangle ourselves in realities and matters of little or no consequence; this is what keeps us mired in ignorance and confusion.
We only need to see that this is so and thus break free immediately.
-- From Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyon Beliefs
by Steve Hagen, 2003 Printing, Ch 36, p 200, paragraphs 2 & 3.
You are already in reality, whether you see it or not. Reality is what's here, now. Thus you're here now, too. You know all this already, from direct experience. You're not separated from Reality. It's not "out there" somewhere, but right here.
This provides us with the chance to wake up. You have this chance to wake up right now, in this moment, and in every moment. Thus enlightenment is already yours.
Most of us tend to think -- and have been taught -- that it's the other way around, that we've got to figure something out. But no. We don't need to figure out our own experience; it's already here, firsthand.
You are already enlightened. All you've got to do is stop blocking yourself and get serious about attending to what's going on. You are not lacking a thing. You only need to stop blocking or interpreting your vision.
-- See: Buddhism Plain and Simple
by Steve Hagen, 1997 Printing, pg 21, paragraphs 3 - 6.
You can wake up right now, on the spot. You are fully equipped to do this now, in this moment. You already have all the power you'll ever need to realize happiness.
To completely end your unease of mind, all you need to do is see there is really nothing "out there" to get because, already, within this moment, everything is whole and complete. In doing so, you can awaken from the perennial confusion, from the existential angst, from the unanswered question of what life is about.
This activity -- this seeing -- is the fourth truth of the buddha-dharma. It is a means by which we can experience freedom of mind.
-- See: Buddhism Plain and Simple
by Steve Hagen, 1997 Printing, pages 22, paragraphs 3 - 6 and page 23, paragraph 1.
On seeing through the illusion of the ego, it is impossible to think of oneself as better than, or superior to, others for having done so. In every direction there is just the one Self playing its myriad games of hide-and-seek. Birds are not better than the eggs from which they have broken. Indeed, it could be said that a bird is one egg's way of becoming other eggs. Egg is ego, and bird is the liberated Self.
-- See: The Book, On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts, Vintage Books Edition, August 1989, Ch 1, page 21, paragraph 2.
It is all part of the illusion that there should seem to be something to be gained in the future, and that there is an urgent necessity to go on and on until we get it. Yet just as there is no time but the present, and no one except the all-and-everything, there is never anything to be gained -- though the zest of the game is to pretend that there is.
Anyone who brags about knowing this doesn't understand it, for he is only using the theory as a trick to maintain his illusion of separateness, a gimmick in a game of spiritual one-upmanship. Moreover, such bragging is deeply offensive to those who do not understand, and who honestly believe themselves to be lonely, individual spirits in a desperate and agonizing struggle for life. For all such there must be a deep and unpatronizing compassion, even a special kind of reverence and respect, because, after all, in them the Self is playing its most far-out and daring game -- the game of having lost Itself completely and of being in danger of some total and irremedial disaster.
-- See: The Book, On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts, Vintage Books Edition, August 1989, Ch 5, page 130, paragraphs 1 and page 131, paragraphs 1.
