No, Merle.
Awakening dawns in a lightning flash. There is no time taken.
Experience this, and be happy. It may last for days, or months. It depends on
one's preparations (overall practice).
It is not a one-shot deal: awakenings are possible continuously.
Awakenings are mostly a physical state: if anyone tells you that awakening has
anything to do with thinking, or takes time to dawn, then they have never been
so blessed, themselves. Awakening is a grace, but it takes all one's efforts
to make oneself *susceptible* to the lightning striking. It strikes gently.
And changes everything. But you cannot measure the length of time it takes to
dawn. It is, well, "Sudden". And called-so, for millennia, for good reason.
Else, it's all fantasy, projection, and a posturing parroting of reading.
This is serious. This is a matter of Life and Death.
It concerns the body. In fact, it's the ONLY significant matter of life and
death, independent of health, or length of years lived.
Awaken once, awaken several times, or never awaken. We have THIS life in which
to practice. We know nothing about other lives... .
Again, this is ...SERIOUS. It's called, "The Great Matter".
No, not the Grey Matter. Nope!
Ancients said: "Awaken in the Morning, and happily die in the Evening!"
Mayor Ed Koch of New York City said, in 1972, "Heroin: it's so good, don't even
try it ONCE." (and then it was plastered all over the Subway in
Public-Service-Announcement signs).
Storms take time to manifest. Awakening does not. Zen is the "Sudden" school.
Even in Soto Zen, awakening is sudden. Progress in Zazen and overall practice
is steady (or not...), but awakening is Sudden, and something that the Teacher
will recognize, at about the same time that you do. There's no hiding it.
And, there's no faking it.
...no matter which of the three surviving Zen schools you practice in, or in
any hybrid of them.
Quiet, gentle Lightning; not storms, Merle.
One flash will do you. And it may last a while. Depending on you. And on
causes and conditions. And that is the *START* of Zen practice. Then you may
begin.
--Joe / in Lightning-Country, Sonoran Desert, USA / Summer 2013
> <merlewiitpom@...> wrote:
>
> joe...yes indeed... the music comes from the heart..the zen awakening comes
> as swiftly as a spring rain storm..merle
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