The Buddha then awakened to Right View (or Right Understanding): His perspective radically shifted such that he was completely liberated from suffering and from the cycle of its perpetuation. Still, the Pali Canon describes Shakyamuni Buddha’s awakening in great detail, as I discuss in Episode 9 – Shakyamuni Buddha’s Enlightenment: What Did He Realize? Although the Buddha had spent many years in full-time, hard-core spiritual striving, he didn’t find the answers he was seeking until he directly perceived how suffering was created and perpetuated based on particular kinds of views we hold about ourselves and the world. Right Understanding itself is beyond words, so any words we choose to describe it are like – as the old saying goes – just fingers pointing at the moon, where the moon is reality itself. Putting words to the fundamental awakening in Buddhism is, not surprisingly, extremely difficult. After that critical shift in perspective, it’s as if we’ve woken up. We may think we do, but those who have awakened say we’re really just wandering around as if in a dream. Before that shift, we don’t really get it. However, it’s clear from the Buddhist teachings, stories of the ancestors, and the experience of modern-day Buddhists, that there’s a pivotal and essential shift in perspective at some point in a person’s practice. The valuable – and truly liberating – things we can learn along the path are infinite. We benefit from insights into the nature of dukkha, or suffering into impermanence, and into our own karmic entanglements. Or, that is, there isn’t only one truth to awaken to. What is this fundamental awakening experienced by the Buddha, and by subsequent generations of practitioners? Of course, there isn’t just one awakening. If you really want to awaken, the whole process of longing and struggling to realize the essential truth for yourself can be filled with frustration, confusion, and anguish – one reason some Buddhists choose to opt out of the effort entirely, postponing it until a future birth or simply cultivating satisfaction with their lives just as they are. When we decide we don’t care one way or another, they implore us not to waste our lives living in a dream. When we conclude we don’t know, they tell us the truth is not separate from us. The Concept of “Awakening” in Buddhism and Zenįor those of us no longer beginners to Buddhist practice, the concept of awakening raises a troubling and dualistic question: Do we know the essential truth yet, or not? When we conclude we know, a good teacher challenges us. In this episode I explore “awakening” in Buddhism: What’s meant by the term, attitudes we take toward awakening, why it’s so elusive, and how we can make the process of seeking less painful. Throughout time, and among different forms of Buddhism, this shift in understanding has been called different things, including awakening, enlightenment, Right View or Right Understanding, realization, satori, or kensho (a Japanese term which means “seeing one’s true nature”). 102 – Nine Fields of Zen Practice 3: Nyoho, Karma Work, and Bodhisattva Activityįrom the beginning, it’s been clear that the highest rewards of Buddhism are experienced through a fundamental and radical shift in the way you understand the world and your place in it.
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