Excerpted from "The Art of Freedom" by Michael Damian.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the notion of enlightenment as intimacy with all things? Can you share a personal experience of a time you appreciated the wholeness and benevolence of reality? What helps you to include your own identity in your inquiry on the truth about existence?
The great Dogen said "Enlightenment is intimacy with all things." I say, Enlightenment is awakening to the awareness that everything is connected.
Seeing truth the way it is... is a return journey ... to be childlike again... to shun the teachings .. to self learn... for me.
It also frees me in certain ways.
When i experience reality as wholeness - I feel a sense of at-one-ment with the focal point of my awareness, and with all things too. It's good to be reminded of how much I don't live in that awareness to stay in the practice and notice what develops with more attention.
Enlightenment means filled with light and abiding in light. Enlightenment typically begins with being open to allow light with which to see what is, see truth, not see my own thinking or conditioning or preconceived beliefs and prejudices, not try to control or manufacture or manipulate what is, but truly see and accept what is, all of which is a process of intimacy with all things. I fairly recently came to see that all that is, living and not living, is an expression of and part of one field, and with that realization I appreciate the wholeness of what we call reality more than ever before. I don't know about the benevolence of reality -- I simply see that reality is, and what we make of it is our doing. I am part of existence, so openness to existence includes openness to myself, which of course is a challenge that I sometimes embrace and sometimes side step. Over time I gain a little enlightenment.