Finding the path… to enlightenment?

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Feeling a little lost today I was cruising around through my virtual memory bank. I am not sure if it is some of the drugs from the medical procedure or the almost two day fast that put me into a funk so I asked my primary mnemonic colleague for a little assistance.


I was directed to a lot of possibilities as I searched for path and Shinzen Young had a Youtube video on the point with today’s posting:



It is not precisely what I was looking for… but less than ten minutes out of a life is not much in the grand scheme of things. I watched the video and embedded it in case the reader is so inclined.


According to Shinzen the first trap is the Map Trap. Although the path I am looking for is not one of spiritual and meditative enlightenment this seems to apply to my dilemma as well. Spending a great deal of time trying to find the right map to get pointed in the right direction is a hurdle for many.


Trap Two is the Fundamentalism or Mythological Trap. This is one of those circular arguments that will certainly take me off the path I am looking for and have not yet found. I am not looking to buy into a Mythological system no matter what. It seems to be a good thing if one has any successful method to achieve small or significant improvements in happiness both subjectively and behavior objectively.


Three – The Tranquility Trap… The problem of being stuck in a rut of tranquility in a good place has never been mine. I understand how too much tranquility possibly could prevent utter happiness or enlightenment.


Four – The Realm of Powers Trap… So the further out there or down there you get the more laterally you move. This is more and more sounding like Michio Kaku (加來 道雄) our beloved American Theoretical Physicist, string theory specialist, science communicator and futurist.


Five – The Enlightenment Trap… now this is something that I would not mind being trapped in a ‘Limbo of Enlightenment’ forever. Shinzen thinks of it as a continuum and it is dangerous to be stuck instead of continuing. There is of course enlightenment and then there is true enlightenment. On this I would have to equate complete or true enlightenment as an infinite thing that cannot be quantified. As such it is impossible to achieve and can only be sought.


Mercifully Six – The Observer Trap… if you just have to know watch the video and flush ten minutes if you are not quite as lost as the teacher seems to be.


For DakotaDawg and me it is more that we are looking for the path. We know the start of the path… it leads right out our front door. We also know the end of the path which leads right back through that same portal. It is all that middle that constantly causes the wonderment.


Neither one of us is searching for the beginning or the end but we get awfully wrapped up in the middle. I am not sure what this says about us other than it is the middle that is always changing. Our path varies from day to day and from morning walks to afternoon ones. The only constant is that if we take the same path day after day it becomes markedly boring.

We are going to search for new paths… to remember that the reason the hummingbird might have been buzzing my head out on the patio could have been that he was looking for that last drop of nectar in the feeder. As plausible is he was reminding me that the path to his happiness was right back into the house to find some more groceries for his feeder.
The reason DakotaDawg is back by the bathroom is not because she lost her way. Maybe her water bowl is empty and she wants me to fill it up.


I better get busy. I have an awful lot to do. Might be worth watching that video again.

© steven d philbrick sr+ DakotaDawg 09/15/2010