In the first talk, I spoke about some Zen master who was being approached by Western pilgrims who were eager and impatient to get enlightened quickly, wanted him to give them the secret or give them the pill for enlightenment. He reflected later on why some people do have these moments of enlightenment. He described it as karmic – probably true in a psychological sense. It’s not random. These moments are not predictable, but they are not unprepared for either. They come in the fullness of time, when the time is ripe. Silence is very full. A lot is happening in the silence. We’re not aware of it, we can’t conceptualise it, we can’t objectify it. But if we are on the journey, then that work of preparation is continuous. And even those times of dryness or failure, or you feel meditation is a waste of time, those can be, as John Main said, sometimes the most important meditations when you are just being purely faithful to it.
( Enlightenment by Laurence Freeman OSB )
