Myspace.com Blogs - On Awakening.. - Buddha MySpace Blog
"What I think an awakening really involves is a re-examination of our common sense. We've got all sorts of ideas built into us which seem unquestioned, obvious. And our speech reflects them; its commonest phrases. 'Face the facts.' As if they were outside you. As if life were something they simply encountered as a foreigner. 'Face the facts.' Our common sense has been rigged, you see? So that we feel strangers and aliens in this world, and this is terribly plausible, simply because this is what we are used to. That's the only reason. But when you really start questioning this, say 'Is that the way I have to assume life is? I know everybody does, but does that make it true?' It doesn't necessarily. It ain't necessarily so. So then as you question this basic assumption that underlies our culture, you find you get a new kind of common sense. It becomes absolutely obvious to you that you are continuous with the universe."
- Alan Watts
"'separation is an illusion'
Hit the nail on the head - this is so phenomenally devastating to mankind. If you listen very closely, you can begin to extract the same motives and drives from even the most seemingly opposing communities in the world. Never stop asking why... you may never find answers, but it is there that you will find the right questions. Be content with this though, because "peace" itself is not an answer to such a question. Peace is a process that begins with the actualization of the right questions. Life is not a Bingo game... the quest is in itself worth living for."
