Awakening

Are we dreaming, or awakened? Most of us only 'awakened' within the dream. The dream is so long that it's hard in the true sense of the word to see how long the dreaming continues. Buddha, the one who has awakened knows that most of us are yet to awaken ourselves. To most of people the dream is real, and the awakening is a myth. Meditation (Pali: bhavana), or mental elevation gives us higher dimensions of momentous awakening from the dream into the real. It's of no point trying to earn the ultimate awakening (Buddhahood) all at once, since it is none other than that which we earn within a moment. Each moment of awakening into the very being of ourselves and the world is another experiential breakthrough along the path of Buddhahood. Awakening, both momentous and ultimate, is a living experience achieved as living beings, and is not an otherworldly experience. As we close our eyes, as we enter bhavana, we would see our dream world that we live in, and see as real. After each successful session of meditation, we open our eyes, and come back where we started, but with a different perspective (Pali: dassana), so that we say: 'Yeah, now I know.' And how is that possible? Because we know there is the real as opposed to dream.

By Upananda Thero Dedunupitiye

(Picture: Children in meditation, Ehipassiko Buddhist Centre, Calgary, Canada)

[Picture: By Somananda Thero Werapitiye]