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Question #13
Even with the awareness of unmoving attention from the
Center, there is still the personal interaction of the senses,
and the ups and downs of those responses to them, right?

Reply
Yes.  As long as we are human, these processes inevitably
continue.  They are a natural part of the normally functioning
body/mind.  

As the Buddha and others since have pointed out, nothing
is added or taken away from our experience of being human
in/through the experience of Awakening:
	"I obtained not the least thing from unexcelled,
	complete awakening, and for this very reason it
	is called 'unexcelled, complete awakening.'"
				Siddhartha Gautama,
				in the Vajracchedika

	"To reach truth is not to accumulate knowledge,
	but to awakening to the heart of reality.
	Reality reveals itself complete and whole at the
	moment of awakening. In the light of awakening,
	nothing is added and nothing is lost."  
                                Thich Nhat Hanh
                                Zen Keys, p. 44

What happens is that, as the result of the "awakening" experience/process, at some point we simply begin to see and understand the experience of being human in a very different way. We begin to hold the ups and downs, and pains and pleasures of physical life more gently, and our identification with these changing phenomena begins to loosen and relax.

However, in the midst of all of this it is important to remember that any experience of "awakening" or transcendence never grants us an "immunity" or an "exemption" from being human. Rather, such experiences simply help us begin to see and experience our humanness as just one of many magnificent expressions of the Infinite.

As Douglas Harding has wisely pointed out, it is easy to confuse enlightenment" with the "perfection of the personality." To explore more about the humanness of those who have had experiences of "awakening," see the following links:
Monumentally, Gloriously, Divinely Big Egos by Ken Wilber
Mutuality of Wakefulness by Arjuna Nick Ardagh
On Being Human by Alan Watts


©1999, Metta Zetty
All Rights Reserved.


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