Perceiving is one thing;

the issue is what we do next.

The five senses, or first five consciousnesses, are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. They enable us to accurately know what is being viewed, heard, smelled, etc. For awakened beings, these five senses coupled with innate wisdom enable them to interact correctly with their environment and everything and everyone in it. Then they stop there.

But we unawakened beings careen blithely into the sixth consciousness. This is the discriminatory mind, let’s say, the mind of black or white, different or like me.

From here, things get worse as we instantly lurch into the seventh consciousness, which attaches. This is the push-pull mind that attaches to ideas of I dislike or I like, etc.

Awakened beings stop at the point where they perceive and interact correctly. For them, there is no discriminating or attaching. Sadly, we’re not there yet. And so, we discriminate and attach, and can end up causing terrible suffering. For ourselves in the future. And even worse, for others now.

From Rage to Forgiveness: What Lies Between

Finding our path can resemble

a piece of a jigsaw puzzle searching for its home.

A class member told us one evening that although she was raised in a particular religion, she never felt as if it was the one for her. She did not quite fit in. Someone suggested that spiritual traditions are a bit like jigsaw puzzles. Some people gravitate to the closest “puzzle,” the one of their parents. Seeing an empty place, this person approaches it.

A perfect fit!

But others can approach their same puzzle and, for various reasons, they just don’t fit. They try to. They just don’t. Nothing is wrong with the puzzle. Nothing is wrong with the individual. They just don’t go together.

People can spend years trying various puzzles, looking for the one they fit. All the puzzles are beautiful. The fit just isn’t there.

Then, one day, the person walks up to yet another puzzle. Here I go again. But there’s no sigh this time. Instead, Wow! This is it! In a world of beautiful puzzles, with good fortune and persistence, we, too, will find the one that feels just right for us.