We’ve Got it All Figured Out

I’ve got it all figured out.

Sort of. That’s not really the best way to put the point as your figuring it out. Once you have figured it out, you realize that there is nothing to figure out. That phrase suggests that you thought about the problem enough to understand it. Thinking isn’t wrong, but it is not the path to awakening. Or it can get in the way.

Again, the key move in awakening is the realization. We’ve likely all heard the phrase, “It suddenly occurred to me….” This can happen multiple times on the path to awakening. You may have a lot of little awakenings before you get to the really big awakening.

This can be mildly terrifying. On awakening, you will see the world as it is, the good and the bad. The bad can be really bad. But at the most macto level, it’s all beautiful and beyond good and bad. Ajahn Sumedho says consistently that ultimate consciousness does not judge. He also talks about witness consciousness, which only observes. It does not evaluate.

One of my problems in this lifetime is that I tend to see through, especially people. I find it very hard to take most people at face value. I usually pretend to just to be polite, but I often wonder how people can present themselves the way they do. Of course, such silent criticism is not consistent with the compassion and lovingkindness that anyone on the Budddhist path should strive to practice. I am aware of the problem and do my best to work on it, even though Ajahn Sumedho also says we are already perfect. That’s the…