It is said that the Buddha when first enlightened was reticent to go public because he knew that the subtlety of his revelation was all but impossible for an ordinary being to grasp. Chuang Tzu (who lived about the same time as the Buddha) also goes on about the problem of subtlety for a complex mind, contrasting the Way of Heaven and the Way of Man. Plato had his Cave. What all were referring to was the fact that Transcendental Awareness is always first encountered completely identified with its host. When housed in a lion it serves the lion's purpose. When housed in a lamb it knows only lamb-ness.
One of the high purposes of the practice of austerities and of meditation is that resistance to the flow of our humanity reveals our humanity. Humanity is a conditioned state of Transcendental Awareness. Humanity is a condition of being made inevitable as the Awareness which is the substance of the universe makes its way to self recognition through the vehicle of living organisms.
The mind wants it's individuality, self expression, and so-on; well it can have them. But as long as Transcendental Awareness is a slave to its host where is the individuality in that? It is the self expression of an automaton. For the Enlightened being the body is the magic carpet and the mind is the wish-fulfilling gem.
The tree of life is a wondrous occurrence in the fabric of the universe. Transcendental Awareness is the sap of that tree, and Enlightenment is its finest flower.
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