There is a deep misunderstanding, in my view, about what it means to wake up. Sure, we awaken… to our suffering an that of others. But this process in my experience is iterative. We do it again and again. When we wake up…. we forget we were briefly awake and we, or I, will need to awaken again… sometimes over and over to the same small thing…. “oh, yeah, I try to not feel that…” or “oh yeah, I have boundary issues,” or, “oh yeah, we all die.”
We teachers and priests do ourselves and the people who associate with us a disservice by not being real, authentic and so on. At my worst, I might act like I’m better than others, that I’m unperturbed, that I do not get into conflicts with others. Oh, so not true. Really to be awake, in my view, is the ability to connect with another in a memorable way, without getting in their business too much.
Let’s do the math: the ratio of awake to not awake is probably at 20/80 on a good day.
note: Mossbrae falls, on the upper sac (upper sacramento river) is a wondrous sight. it has nothing to do with being awake or not. Some gorgeous trout live in the waters—and I think its catch and release only.
