The Best Buddhist Writing 2010 - Melvin McLeod [38]
The Buddha’s powerful yet gentle presence inspired many similar questions among those he met: “What are you? Are you a supernatural being? Is there a way for us to become more at peace with life, more grounded and open—the way you are? What should we call you?” Smiling, he answered: “I am awake, so you should call me, ‘Awakened One’—and here is a noble path to your own awakening.”
This name, “Awakened One,” is an answer—but also a question: Awakened from what? Awake to what? Clearly the famous “awakened state of being” involves more than just rising with a yawn and a few stretches from an ordinary night of restful sleep to face the challenges of another day. We are concerned here with deeper senses of “asleep” and “awake.” We are beginning the journey to complete realization by contemplating the meaning of enlightened wakefulness and spiritual sleep.
The first step of true awakening involves realizing our habitual, everyday, walk-around state of being “asleep.” Our distracted, daydream-filled life has been compared to sleepwalking. As we know, sleepwalkers often dream on in relative comfort—until they suddenly bump into a wall or step off a staircase. The resulting “ouch!” experience corresponds to the discovery of what the Awakened One called “the noble truth of suffering.”
Certainly the Buddha’s own spiritual path involved first waking up to his sleepwalking state. Suddenly—with a penetrating glimpse of the painful realities of human life outside the cozy comfort of his parents’ palace—he saw that he had been living in a pleasant dream. The bubble of indulgent life at court was a seductive trap, lulling him into a false sense of security, keeping him from seeing the bright truth of real life. For Prince Siddhartha, recognizing confusion was the crucial first step on the way to enlightenment, a milestone in his journey to complete freedom from confused suffering.
This is the victory cry of the unbroken lineage of awakened ones: there is a path that leads to liberation. We can free ourselves from the automatic, habitual thoughts and emotions that so often bind us into familiar psychological prisons. The good news is that liberation is possible. Our first major challenge is facing the trap of self-imprisonment, for the path to true freedom begins with insight into our routines of self-deception. Our initial awakening is to the sleep state, our lack of self-awareness.
CHECKING IN WITH OUR EXPERIENCE
If we are at all unsure about the truth of distraction in our ordinary state of being, our everyday life, then let’s pause for a moment to check, to see for ourselves how it actually is right now. It’s crucially important that we test these teachings on wakefulness against the truth of our own experience. So, please put the book down for a moment, sit comfortably, and then just take notice of what is happening physically and mentally for you at this very moment. Take two or three minutes to notice and inquire in a curious and friendly way: What is happening with the body—notice the play of physical sensations, perceptions, feelings. What is happening in the mind? Any thoughts? Are these mostly thoughts about the future? Thoughts about the past? Any hopes or anxieties? A mixture of the two? Feelings of happiness? Sadness? Boredom? Excitement? Just notice your own state of being—body, mind, and heart, as you are right now. Are there just a few thoughts—like a tiny trickle from a faucet? Or is it more like a gushing waterfall, thoughts upon thoughts upon thoughts, one after another, rushing forward in a continuous stream? Look. Take note of what is happening, inquiring with loving-kindness. If you find your mind repeatedly drifting to last night’s dinner conversation or next week’s planning meeting, notice that—and instead of jumping