Myself, I do not feel that it is a matter of salvation. The matter, is the
"great matter of birth and death." One of my favorite authors, Stephen
Batchelor, in his book -Alone with others- says that the "aim" is for "the
optimum mode of being." To me what this says is, that the aim of life would be
living in awareness, as you grow and age through the years, hopefully you will
become wiser. I recently had Dokusan with one of my teachers, and she said
that Zen practice and enlightenment is kind of like in those old cartoons, when
someone is about to receive a gift and they are told NOT to look. In the
cartoons, we always see them peeking with one eye at the gift before it is
given to them. So, I have been practicing since 2006, I have never had an
"awakening experience," and that is fine with me. Zazen has taught me many
things, and I know not to "peek," or in other words, to conceptualize what I
think enlightenment is and then strive for it. Rather, I just live my daily
life, always, constantly coming back to direct experience.
------------------------------------
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