According to the Buddha, the cause of suffering is delusion, or ignorance. Awakening is to transcend our deluded and ignorant mind and have an enlightened perspective. If I were to ask you, ‘May I speak to the deluded and ignorant mind within you that has been unappreciated, unaccepted and disowned?’ what you might say is:
“I am the deluded and ignorant mind and I have not been appreciated or honored or respected by the self. For obvious reasons the self is embarrassed by me and tries to hide me and not allow others to see just how deluded and ignorant I am. For this reason I come out in very immature and even perverted ways. I come out as a façade of the self, him pretending that he is intelligent, bright, even at times enlightened. He ignores me, the deluded and ignorant mind. He is in constant fear of someone seeing through his façade, or mask, and seeing my presence.
“Because I am disowned, I see others as ignorant and deluded, in fact even stupid. I feel superior to them and that my way of thinking is superior to others’, that my perspectives are better than others’, and therefore I get into conflict and create disharmony in his life — because I am disowned.
“If he were to own and embody me, to acknowledge my very existence, to appreciate and honor me, then by him admitting I am deluded and ignorant, all the baggage that he is carrying around by trying to hide me or conceal me drops off and I allow him to be completely liberated and free, to be his natural and true self, to be calm, relaxed, and chilled out, simply because he can now say, ‘I am completely deluded and ignorant, I am just a stupid fool, and it’s OK. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone, I don’t need to be anything special for anyone. I can just relax into who I am.’”
Now let’s imagine that we’ve created a triangle, that you are this triangle, that this triangle embodies you.
Up to now we’ve been speaking to the left hand corner of the base of the triangle. Now I’m going to ask to speak to the right hand corner of the base of the triangle, and I am going to call you the awakened one that has not yet awakened.
So you are?
“The awakened one that has not yet awakened.”
What does this mean?
“I am the awakened one, but I haven’t yet awakened to the fact that I am the awakened one. In other words I don’t realize that I am who I am, I don’t realize that I am the awakened one.”
So, if I asked you, then how do you manifest in the self since you have not yet been awakened?
“Well, the way I manifest in him is I appear, or I am, deluded and ignorant. It’s all about me. I do not see that I am one with the world. I don’t have any broad or bird’s eye perspective. I am focused on my self, on my own wants and needs. I come across as self-centered, egotistical, and even selfish. I have lots of judgments about others, I am opinionated, when I have not yet been realized.”
So I would ask you then, what would it look like if you were awakened, if the self awakened to you, the awakened one? May I speak to that one, please?
“I am the awakened one, and I am completely trusting in my presence, my pure beingness. Well, immediately I see that I am no longer the deluded one. I embrace the deluded one, but I’m not that. I am one with all things. I have no boundaries, no barriers, no outside, no inside, I am unborn and therefore undying, I am beginningless, I am endless, boundless, absolutely free and liberated. I am his true self, his true nature, and I am no longer stuck or suffering. I have no fears, no conflicts, no judgments.”
So now I’d like to speak to the apex of this triangle that is no other than you, but at the apex you embrace or include both the deluded and ignorant one and the awakened one, and you transcend both. You include and yet transcend these two seeming opposites. May I speak to the apex, please?
“Yes, I am the apex. I am beyond delusion and enlightenment. In my delusion I am already awakened, and in my enlightenment I am deluded. As the apex I act with wisdom and compassion in every situation in life. I am aware that I am completely ignorant, and that is my enlightenment. I am aware that there is no enlightenment; and that is my enlightenment, and that there is no reason to try to get rid of delusion nor to seek after enlightenment.
“I am completely ordinary, relaxed and at peace with myself. Every action is a manifestation of what is most appropriate given my position, the time, the place, and the appropriate amount. I do not make my decisions based on preconceived ideas and notions. I am not attached to my ideas and notions. I have numerous creative thoughts, visions and ideas, and I think outside the box. I am not stuck, and therefore I am completely free and flexible. My life is filled with joy and happiness, and it is an unconditional joy and happiness, so when someone is hurt and suffering I feel compassion, empathy and sympathy. Their pain is my pain. I am truly present for others.”
"In my delusion I am already awakened." Yep