Awakening is not something added, but it is a shift of perception or intuition. It isn't just seeing the world without our personal thoughts or impressions, it is a knowing that nothing continues from moment to moment. It is an aha that completely shatters how we assumed things are.
My Dad was an optometrist and had a picture of a camouflaged cow. I described it like seeing the cow. There all the time but now seen. Similar to Al's computer analogy. After years of trying to understand what happened, I began to study Zen. I read the same description in a book by Steve Hagan. I have studied with him for 6 years.
And as powerful as that experience was, it is a bit like realizing the earth is not flat. Nothing gained, just a knowing of how it is. And the practice is to be awake as much as possible, to catch the spinning mind and focus on how it really is.
The trouble I've had with some of the posts, is that it seems practice is to try to be compassionate, present, selfless, unjudgemental, etc, That is the ego trying to be what just is when awake. Or that you have to study Zen in Japan to be awake. There are many ways to wake up, Soto is one. There may be a gradual coming to see how things are, a sort of chipping away with meditation and study. But it is not something to figure out, it isn't just paying attention. It is an all or nothing shift. It is not something special, just how it is. Easy to lose sight of, yet right here always.
The camera analogy gives the impression of just not seeing through personal filters or only seeing part of what is here. It is beyond that. Perhaps I just don't get the analogy.
Pam
Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood
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