Henry Shukman

I've never been in a therapeutic context that really deeply understood awakening.

But they didn't really know that they didn't really understand it.

And I've also been in meditative, contemplative contexts that didn't really understand trauma and thought that they were the fix for everything.

So I love this.

There's an early Chinese Buddhism from the 6th century.

There's a document that talks about

the path of practice as a cart track, not a path.

You know, we talk about like, often talk about like spiritual paths, it's the path up the mountain or something.

But this idea, the cart track, says no, it's not a path.

It's a track, meaning there are two wheel tracks.

And it says the first wheel track is the foundations of mindfulness.

And by that, it means this early Buddhist training

You gradually develop your mindfulness, and it expands.

It gets deeper and deeper.

You get into jhanas.

Maybe you get realization, but it's a gradual cultivation of the human mind, body, heart system.

the second wheel track running parallel to it all along, just like a cart track, is awakening.

So rather than it being a journey to the mountain, up the mountain, awakening's alongside all the way, which I think is accurate.

It's also because it's always here.

And it also, it's not affected by, in a certain way, it's not affected by the practice, the gradual cultivation and development that we probably all need to do to some degree.