Ran across the following quote by Ezra Bayda in his article, So How Do We Begin to Live Genuinely? in the July 2003 issue of Shambhala Sun (page 37):

When we see that we’re sleep, we might think we have to make superhuman efforts to wake up. We might look for technique after technique, or for more and more words of wisdom—but neither approach will give us the solution that we’re looking for, especially if we fall into then trap of trying to fix or change ourselves. Genuine spirtual pracitce is never about fixing ourselves, because we’re not broken. It’s about becoming awake to who we really are, to the vastness of our true nature, which includes even the parts of ourselves we label as “bad.”

Seems odd that as I sometimes fall asleep while sitting, I’m sitting just to wake up.

But he is right, it isn’t that we are full of sin or an enemy to God or the potential within us. We are just asleep and need to wake up and smell the infiniteness inside. But this isn’t a one-time-shot… this isn’t a say-something-and-your-saved approach. Its as if we just need to stay awake and not fall asleep again. As Thich Nhat Hanh has said:

Happiness and enlightenment are living things and they can grow. It is possible to feed them every day. If you don’t feed your enlightenement, your enlightenment will die. If you don’t feed your happiness, your happiness will die. If you don’t feed your love, your love will die. If you continue to feed your anger, your hatred, your fear, they will grow. The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food. That applies to enlightenment, to happiness, to sorrow, to suffering…

Small enlightenments have to succeed each other. And they have to be fed all the time, in order for a great enlightenment to be possible. So a moment of living in mindfulness is already a moment of enlightenment. If you train yourself to live in such a way, happiness and enlightenment will continue to grow.

Bayda reverberates that sentiment later on in his article when he says:

Once we see these beliefs clearly, what is the experiential component? It’s staying with the restlessness, the anxious quiver, the hold of discomfort out of which our addictions spring. Residing in the present moment when it’s uncomfortable isn’t necessarily easy, since we have a natural aversion to discomfort.

I guess I’ve had many awakenings in my life. One was in a hotel room in Miami while on business reading The Power of Myth. But I’m sure another one of my significant awakenings may seem like an easier sleep to some of my family and friends. But staying with the road that was given to me would actually be easier than finding a newer road.

And that has made all the difference.