...and it got me no closer to the truth. All it did was reinforce ideas about "me" getting enlightened in the future. The stories made me wonder what had happened to those people and what I needed to do to have the same kinds of experiences.
Later, after I had an enlightenment experience, I wrote to a Zen Master to share my wonderful experience and ask what happens next. Ha ha. One of his followers responded with a letter. Rather than acknowledging the experience or explaining anything, she told me to focus more strongly on a particular breath awareness exercise I had been doing. I concluded that she had never had such a wonderful experience and began waiting for the next big experience that was sure to put me in a permanently enlightened state. There were no forums like this, so there was no one to tell me that I would never find what I was looking for, or why. I spent the next ten years looking to the future and overlooking what is always here and now.
Forget enlightenment, and attend what you can see, hear, and feel in this moment. Attend without expectation, reflection, or fantasy. Attend without thinking about yourself or your progress. Attend without knowing. Attend for no reason at all. Attend until attending continues without "you."
Later, after I had an enlightenment experience, I wrote to a Zen Master to share my wonderful experience and ask what happens next. Ha ha. One of his followers responded with a letter. Rather than acknowledging the experience or explaining anything, she told me to focus more strongly on a particular breath awareness exercise I had been doing. I concluded that she had never had such a wonderful experience and began waiting for the next big experience that was sure to put me in a permanently enlightened state. There were no forums like this, so there was no one to tell me that I would never find what I was looking for, or why. I spent the next ten years looking to the future and overlooking what is always here and now.
Forget enlightenment, and attend what you can see, hear, and feel in this moment. Attend without expectation, reflection, or fantasy. Attend without thinking about yourself or your progress. Attend without knowing. Attend for no reason at all. Attend until attending continues without "you."
