Sudden enlightenment

Apprentice People talk about satori, sudden enlightenment, glimpses of enlightenment. I tend to be a bit suspicious of these things—what do these things mean?

Ngak’chang Rinpoche You are sensible to be suspicious. Sudden enlightenment is invariably followed by sudden unenlightenment. In any case, one would need to be in an authentic framework, as it were, and the corresponding state of mind for such an experience to manifest. So-called ‘sudden enlightenment’ needs preparation for its suddenness to be possible—otherwise, it cannot be sudden. For a sudden motor accident to occur one would have to be driving a motor vehicle. If one were nowhere near a road and if one were not driving a motor vehicle one could not have a sudden motor accident. Wherever there is talk of sudden enlightenment, there is wishful thinking and immense self-congratulatory bravado.  There is also laziness and immaturity.  Anything sudden requires the development of process, commitment, discipline, devotion, and the concomitant experiences.  This can only occur as a result of sitting practice combined with the on-going life-processes of dealing with your husband or wife and your intimate life: your children, job, household duties, finances, friends, neighbours, holiday plans, prospective purchases, and whatever else makes up the fabric of your existence. We must all deal with everything we experience in our lives. We have to embrace our situation before the gradual process becomes inevitable as suddenness.