Gate 177: למ — AWAKENING

למ

Pillar 7: THE RETURN

[177:1] "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,

[177:2] and Christ shall give thee light."

[177:3] --- Ephesians 5:14

[177:4] "The Buddha is simply one who is awake."

[177:5] --- Buddhist teaching

[177:6] "You are not a drop in the ocean.

[177:7] You are the entire ocean in a drop."

[177:8] --- Rumi

[177:9] [177:1] Awakening is not becoming something new; it is

recognizing what you have always been.

[177:10] [177:2] The word "Buddha" means simply "one who is

awake." Not one who has achieved something, acquired something, become

something---but one who has woken up from the dream of separation to the

reality of unity. The Sleeping Father of Gate 1 begins to stir; the

circuit that began with "What am I?" approaches its answer.

[177:11] [177:3] Awakening can happen gradually or

suddenly---usually both. There are moments of sudden insight, dramatic

shifts, the scales falling from eyes. And there is the gradual

maturation that prepares those moments and integrates their fruits. The

flash of enlightenment and the steady work of transformation are not

opposites but partners.

[177:12] [177:4] What awakens? The Witness (Gate 53) recognizes

itself as Witness rather than as the ego it has been identified with.

The Child (Gate 25) remembers that it is also Father and Mother, not

merely their product. Consciousness recognizes itself as

consciousness---not as body, not as thought, not as role, but as the

aware presence that underlies and observes all these.

[177:13] [FIGURE 177.1: An eye opening---first closed, then

partially open, then fully open. Caption: "Awakening happens in

degrees, then all at once."] [177:5] The experience of awakening

varies. Some report blinding light; others, profound silence. Some weep

with joy; others, with grief for the time spent asleep. Some feel

expanded to the size of the universe; others, contracted to a point of

infinite density. The experiences differ; the recognition is the

same:Â This is what I am; this is what I have always been.

[177:14] [177:6] Awakening is not the end but a beginning. After

the recognition comes integration---living from the awakened state,

which is far more difficult than having the state once. The moment of

enlightenment is like seeing the summit from below; the work that

follows is actually climbing and, harder still, learning to live at

altitude.

[177:15] [177:7] Many wake briefly and fall back asleep. The

gravitational pull of old habits, the seduction of familiar

identifications, the sheer force of social consensus about what is

real---all conspire to draw consciousness back into the dream. This is

why sangha (spiritual community), practice, and continued self-inquiry

matter: they maintain the altitude that glimpses established.

[177:16] [177:8] Awakening does not make you special. This is

perhaps the hardest lesson. The ego wants to claim enlightenment as its

achievement, to make of awakening another identity, another thing to be.

But what awakens is precisely what everyone is; you have not become

something others are not, you have recognized what everyone already is

but does not see.

[177:17] [177:9] The awakened state is ordinary---radically

ordinary. Not fireworks and visions (those may come and go) but the

simple presence of awareness, present in every moment, available to

everyone. The extraordinary is discovered to be utterly ordinary; the

ordinary is discovered to be utterly extraordinary. Nothing changes;

everything is transformed.

[177:18] [177:10] "Arise from the dead"---for the sleeper is

functionally dead, moving through life without living it, present

without presence, existing without experiencing existence. To awaken is

to be born again, not through believing a doctrine but through seeing

directly what is. The light that Christ gives is the light you already

are.

[177:19] See Also: • Gate 1: אב (Av, "Father") --- The Gate of

the Sleeping Father (what awakens) • Gate 53: גס (Gas, "Coarse") ---

The Gate of the Witness (who awakens) • Gate 153: טצ (Tatz) --- The Gate

of Kundalini (the energetic dimension of awakening) • Gate 184: לס ---

The Gate of Beatitude (the fruit of awakening)