Buddha Quote
Saturday March 28, 2026
Sudden LightI want one too! I want to have one single startling realisation
that shatters kalpas of thick clotted ignorance heaped up in the
depths of my mind. I think you would want one too. But how many
of us actually have this one single amazing realisation beyond
all means of description? Is it not a spiritual fantasy to have
Enlightenment strike you out of 0the blue into
super-consciousness and liberation just like that, effortlessly?
Well, I think yes and no. "No" because no Enlightenment happens
overnight in the sense that today you are a total unrepentant
fool and in the next second, you are enlightened without any
rhyme or reason. "Yes" because all "sudden enlightenment" is but
the result of much cumulative efforts to attain enlightenment.
Like a cup that fills subtly with minor enlightenments over years
of spiritual practice, one fine day, it overflows at the brim. It
is this overflowing that appears totally sudden. We tend to make
a fuss out of wanting the over-flowing when we should focus on
the topping up! The Buddha did not just sit under the Bodhi tree
for one night to attain Enlightenment. It was a result of having
cultivated for countless past lives! The sudden is not so sudden
at all. Suddenness is an illusion. It is but a result of the
gradual accumulation of many causes and conditions.
But I still
want one single overwhelming realisation! But I've to work
towards that gradually! The grand finale is to be the glorious
moment of Nirvana attained in the flash of a lightning! Like the
best magic trick ever. The secret of the "trick" is good old down
to earth diligent practice.
|
