Sudden awakening,
Gradual cultivation.
-- Chinul
I heard this on a podcast I was listening to on the way home from class today. It's a description of a particular school of Buddhist thought I believe. I didn't really research it anymore than it took to attribute it to the correct teacher. But as soon as I heard the words, I just kept repeating them over and over in my mind. I was driving on the freeway with no way to make a note. I wanted to remember them.
This is how it has always been for me. There are moments where you feel like you really "get" something. It's so easy to feel like that's all it takes...a sudden jolt of the intellect...and that's enough. But it never is, is it? We find ourselves slogging through the poppy fields like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, getting drowsy. It would be so easy to just go back to sleep.
1 comment:
We have been listening to the same podcasts again. But now I can't remember who referred to this. Phillip Moffit maybe.
I love this, too. It reminds me of something I heard on a recent retreat. I'll paraphrase...Sometimes enlightenment happens all at once, like falling into a pond. Sometimes waking up happens gradually over time, like walking through mist. It doesn't matter whether you fall into the pond or walk through the mist. Either way you end up drenched.
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