Originally posted by mikkiji
The Buddha came down from the mountain… a wise man asked him, “Are you a God?” “Are you a man?”…the Buddha said only, “I am Awake.”
That’s the best ever totally 100% perfect description of Self-Realization I’ve ever heard. This all comes down to everything being exactly the same, only now you–the big-S Self, the Self of Self-Realization, are awake to everything, in its full Being. At all times. But NOTHING changes from how it is now–THAT is the MOMENT of awakening!! THAT very realization–Everything is exactly the same, only now I can see it clearly because now I am awake to the true nature of myself and therefore, also, of everything else. Every moment becomes a high-voltage ZAP~! of on-going discovery. I worked with a Japanese Zen Master, 45 years ago–I, being 19, had the balls to ask Master Nippo (who was the Real Deal, fully,realized Being), “Sensei, what is it like, in Enlightenment?” He was actually thoughtful for a long moment and then broke into a wide smile. “Exactly the same,” he said, “only it’s hard to keep from laughing all the time”, and then he giggled, broke into a wider guffaw, and thence quickly into gales of laughter until tears rolled down his cheeks! Took me 40 years to get the joke, and I haven’t stopped laughing since!
When do you know if you’re using spirituality to escape? Is that bad? I was very dedicated to my path for a long time. Then I lost my way. I found it again after a really difficult event. During the event, I spontaneously starting using mantra again and felt I was back on the path climbing up instead of around.
But maybe it’s not real and I am just trying tone sale pain? I admit that having a practice and “faith” does help pain easier to bear. Now I’m wondering if I’m being false…avoiding ? How does one know?
When do you know if you’re using spirituality to escape? Is that bad? I was very dedicated to my path for a long time. Then I lost my way. I found it again after a really difficult event. During the event, I spontaneously starting using mantra again and felt I was back on the path climbing up instead of around.
But maybe it’s not real and I am just trying tone sale pain? I admit that having a practice and “faith” does help pain easier to bear. Now I’m wondering if I’m being false…avoiding ? How does one know?
Don't worry. God will let you know. Trust Him. :slight_smile:
Well, Yogani has used the term “flights of fancy” to describe escapist tendencies. I’ve fallen prey to my own indulgences in such choices, both mental and behavioral.
I think the consistent barometer is always how I feel during the regularity of life. At work, with friends and family, sleeping in my own bed. If the purpose of spirituality is to “be here now”, then I guess there’s no need to escape, when the practice and results are true. Yesterday I was sitting in the backyard, playing guitar barefoot, and I saw four kittens crawling along the fenceline because my roommate had put a bowl of milk out for them. Then I went up to them and petted them a little, and re-filled the milk bowl. And that experience of playing music and feeding some tiny creatures was quite sublime, in its own right.
I wish for the big, big fireworks of higher dimensions and beings, etc., but what about the kittens, you know? Have I maximally appreciated and served this realm? Probably not. So I bounce back and forth between the tension of striving and contentment. Cycling through striving and contentment. Striving and contentment. It’s just a linear spiral into realization.
I recently read that realization is the combination of knowledge and experience. And to quote Morpheus from The Matrix: There’s a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path.
And so it is.
