Oneness

Imagine you are a wave in the ocean. You're rolling along thinking, "I am a wave called Olivia." But maybe you don't like your shape. You'd like to be a little taller, a little thinner. The other waves are getting too close to you. You don't like your place in the ocean. None of these things are really your fault. This is a thing we call karma. The moon is pulling, the wind is blowing, the other waves are pushing up against you, and that's giving you the shape you don't like. That's what we call suffering. Furthermore, you can see the shore where the waves all crash and end and you're afraid. As you get closer to the shore, you loosen your grip and peter out. Now the whole thing is ocean, no wave.

Through practice, a simple but profound thing happens. You realize that you are the ocean and not just the wave. The wave was always nothing more than ocean. There is no wave that is not ocean. If you are a wave you are also the ocean. The Japanese call this experience of glimpsing the simple truth kensho.

Enlightenment is when you catch a glimpse of kensho and see it deeply, and then it stays with you so that you walk around, unable to forget that you're the ocean as well as the wave. Enlightenment can become more and more lucid. It never ends. What might begin to end is the feeling that you are missing something.



Then comes embodiment, the second part of the practice. A person who has realized that she is the ocean begins to behave like the ocean. How does the ocean behave differently than a wave? When you're a wave and don't know that you're also the ocean, the other waves irritate you and you elbow them out of the way. When you are the ocean, you realize that all waves are you. The urge to get more and the lack of appreciation for what is and who we are loses its potency. We gradually accept this new reality we've dropped into.

Enlightenment ends the strong karma. Enlightenmet ends the illusion that you know who you are. Enlightenment ends the suffering caused by thinking that you are an alienated being living in a strange place, dying and becoming dust. You're emancipated. You're free.