Global Buddhist Summit, New Delhi, 2026

(WION) Global Buddhist Summit: World Buddhist leaders gather in New Delhi | WION News

Short Attn Span Theater: April Fools pranks

April Fools prank Denmark, Copenhagen subway (in reality retired car from Stockholm subway)

Annual "Washing of the Lions," April 1, 1857

April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (sometimes called All Fools' Day [1]) is an annual custom on the first of April, consisting of pranks, practical jokes, and hoaxes.

Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. The corporate mass media (and even serious spiritual journals) can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day.

The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon our neighbors has been common in the world historically [2].

The Onion buys Alex Jones' InfoWars.com

• (InfoWars) LIVE Liberation Day (April 2) Coverage: Markets surge ahead of Trump tariff announcements, Elon Musk considers closing DOGE as Russia warns of TOTAL disaster if US attacks Iran! Plus, SpaceX completes first human orbit of Planet Earth’s poles! This is a must-watch/share live broadcast

Jimmy Kimmel PRANK livestream

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) April Fool's Day: our favorite pranks - Jimmy Kimmel LiveSTREAM!

Origins of April Fools' Day

The Fool Tarot Card meaning (edelwyn.com)

Although many theories have been proposed, the origin of April Fools' Day is not exactly known.

A disputed association between April 1st and foolishness is in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1392) [3]. In the "Nun's Priest's Tale," a vain cock, Chauntecleer, is tricked by a fox "Since March began, full thirty days and two" [4, 5], that is, the 32nd day from March 1st, which is April 1st [6]. However, it is not clear that Chaucer was referencing April 1st since...

In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d'avril (April fool but literally "April's fish"), possibly the first reference to the celebration in France [9].

Some historians suggest that April Fools' originated because, in the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns [10], with a holiday that in some areas of France, specifically, ended on April 1 [11, 12], and those who celebrated New Year's Day on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools' Day [13].

The use of January 1 as New Year's Day became common in France only in the mid-16th century [8], and that date was not adopted officially until 1564, by the Edict of Roussillon, as called for during the Council of Trent in 1563 [14].

However, there are issues with this theory because there is an unambiguous reference to April Fools' Day in a 1561 poem by Flemish poet Eduard de Dene of a nobleman who sent his servant on foolish errands on April 1st, predating the change [8].

April Fools' Day was also an established tradition in Great Britain before January 1 was established as the start of the calendar year [15, 16]. More: April Fools' Day

AI is used to make porn unrelated to video short

• April Fools video; Jimmy Kimmel Live, April Fool's Day, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Comedy of one-liners with Brian Kiley (video)

The most one-liners ever heard in a comedy show: Brian Kiley (full special)

(Dry Bar Comedy) Dec. 20, 2023: The most one-liners you'll ever hear in a comedy show might be this full special from Brian Kiley. In his first ever full Dry Bar Comedy special Brian Kiley rattles off rapid fire jokes that are sure to have any fan of stand up comedy or one-liners laughing from start to finish. Watch this special plus hundreds more on the Angel Studios app (angel.com/drybaryt).

Into the woods: withdraw to meditate (sutra)

Charles Patton (trans.), suttacentral.net, "Increasing One By One" (DA 11: 增); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Hiking, exploring, seeking solitude in the woods, Chiang Mai, Thailand (bing.com)

.

I was reading the Buddha's advice. I thought I heard him say, "Go into the woods" or a similarly solitary place in search of peace.

If I keep silence, after some bumpy adjustment, my mind/hearts goes quiet and peaceful. There's a time in there when, like drug withdrawal from being addicted to thinking and worrying, there's a real hump.

But if I stick to it and keep at it, peace descends and joy arises. First comes joy then comes focus, samadhi, meditative absorption. It's uneasy at first, to be sure, but things do settle. It's not noticeable at first, but when it becomes noticeable, it's clear how much progress has been made. Why did the Buddha speak this way?

SUTRA: "Increasing One by One" (DN 11)

Thus have I heard: At one time the Buddha was staying in Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, Jeta’s Grove, in Śrāvastī. He was accompanied by a large assembly of 1,250 monastics.

It was then that the Blessed One (Bhagavān) addressed them:

“I will give a discourse (sutra) on the sublime teaching in which all the words in the beginning, middle, and end are true, the content and expression are pure, and the spiritual life is perfected. It’s called the teaching that increases one by one. Everyone, listen closely and consider it well. I will teach it for you.”

The meditators then accepted [receiving] this teaching and listened.

The Ones

The Buddha told them, “This is the teaching that increases one by one: There’s one thing to be achieved, one thing to be cultivated, one thing to be recognized, one thing to be ceased, and one thing to be realized.

“What’s the one thing to be achieved? It’s the non-abandoning of the good Dharma (Teaching).

“What’s the one thing to be cultivated? Constant mindfulness of oneself.

“What’s the one thing to be recognized? Contaminated contact.

“What’s the one thing to be ceased? The conceit of self.

“What’s the one thing to be realized? It’s the freedom of an unobstructed mind.

The Twos

“There are also two things to be achieved, two things to be cultivated, two things to be recognized, two things to be ceased, and two things to be realized. More

• DA 5: 小緣—Charles Patton (suttacentral.net)

Vote Democrat no matter what? (TJDS)

J. Dore, Kurt Metzger, Michael Moore (TJDS); Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Poem: "Into Me See" because we are all one

Lakshmi (awake.net); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), CC Liu (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sri Shankara, creator of Hinduism: Faith required for liberation | Advaita Vedanta | Tom Das

We're All One, so intimacy is key. If only you could into me see -- is what the poem seems to be saying. We come from nothing, we are one, we divide into two, split into three, and so fourth, quintessentially... Does it land as clever or a deadened flop on the ground, a moist thud? It's hard to say. Who dares to be poetic nowadays? It's a dangerous game. There's spoken word; that's safer.

From a recent talk by Wisdom Quarterly's Dharma editor

While the Vedas have been with us for a long time, Hinduism is rather recent, systematized and sanctioned by Sri Shankara.

It dates itself back thousands of years from its inception to say it is and has always been the Vedic religion, the Sanatan Dharma or Eternal Truth, but it was only organized long after the tremendous success of the Buddha's Dharma of Awakening, which challenged Vedic orthodoxy and the Brahmanical power structure.

Buddhism swept the empire/nation, brought together by the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka. Sri Shankara and others wanted an indigenously Indian faith to follow, not some outsider thing like the Scythian Buddha of Saka, who was not India and not even proto-Indian but adjacent, living around old Gandhara in the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Hinduism won. No one even considers the more than one billion uncounted Chinese Buddhists, so everywhere we see that Hinduism is called the world's fourth largest religion. In fact, there are only three "world religions," missionary in their structure and universal in their application: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.

But Hinduism has thoroughly suffused Mahayana Buddhism, much as Judaism has Christianity. Mahayana is the largest surviving school Buddhism. So we have the Heart Sutra and Eastern Philosophy in general, mainly the influence of Taoism, as if there were no difference in Teaching or definitions of moksha ("liberation").

There are tremendous differences. The Buddha taught one thing. The others teach something else. It's beautiful that the Dharmic religions can get along so well, but they neither intend nor teach the same things to the observant practitioner.

Are we all one? Misconceptions about Advaita

Dr. David Frawley, Misconceptions About Advaita, 8/19/19; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Allure of the Direct Path

OM, I thought nonduality meant One! - It does. - h

Advaita, which refers to the state of non-duality of the Self [Atman] and God [Brahman], can easily lend itself to all sorts of misconceptions.

Indeed, one can argue that since the Advaitic state transcends all thought and dualities, all conceptions about it are ultimately misconceptions!

Advaitic practice is itself about the removal of misconceptions, particularly wrong ideas about our true nature -- negating our false identification with the body and the external world.

But misconceptions about this direct path also exist and can be significant obstacles to overcome along the way. Of course, many of these same misconceptions can be found relative to any spiritual path, because all spiritual paths aim to take us to a higher state of consciousness, which can appeal to fantasy and escapism as well as to genuine aspiration.

Yet as Advaita is the highest and most direct path [according to its advocates], this potential for distortion is even greater, like an ordinary climber’s fantasy to quickly scale the heights of Mount Everest.

Advaita is formless in nature and in practice, so there is much room for overestimating, if not exaggerating one’s attainments, and little objective in the practice to keep one grounded.

Going all the way back to the Upanishads there are criticisms of practitioners who can brilliantly talk the Advaitic line but lack the realization to really back it up.

Advaita, though referring to the Brahmic state [of Brahman not Brahma] beyond Maya [Illusion], therefore, has its own glamor or Maya.

The allure of a quick and direct path to becoming God and guru has a special appeal not only to the awakened soul but also to the unawakened ego that wants the glory of spiritual realization without undergoing any real toil or tapas [cleansing austerities] in order to get there.

These usual misconceptions are getting further magnified as Advaita becomes popular in the West, which as a media-dominated culture easily falls into stereotype, image production, and fantasy-fulfillment.

Just as Yoga has undergone many distortions in the West, which has reduced it largely to a physical asana [posture or pose] practice, so too Advaita is often getting reduced to an instant enlightenment fad, to another system of personal empowerment or to another type of pop psychology.

An entire "Neo-Advaitic" movement has arisen reflecting not only traditional Vedantic teachings [the best of the ancient Vedas] but the demands of Western culture. While this movement is arguably a good trend for the future and contains much that is positive in it, it is also a fertile ground for many distortions, which are likely to become more pronounced as the popular base of the movement expands.

The Advaitic path is rooted in a powerful and simple logic, which is not difficult to learn. “You are That,” “The Self is Everything,” “All is One,” and so on.

We can easily confuse adapting this logic, which is not difficult, with the actual realization of the deeper state of awareness behind it, which is something else altogether. We can answer all questions with “Who is asking the question?” when it may be no more than a verbal exercise.

Faced with both old and new misconceptions, the Advaitic student today is in a difficult position to separate a genuine approach and real guidance from the bulk of superficial or misleading teachings, however well-worded, popular, or pleasant in appearance these may appear to be.

Advaita and Vedanta

The first Hindu: Sri Shankara

Advaita is primarily a term of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dualistic tradition of Vedanta.

Though rooted in the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita, its most characteristic form occurs in the teachings of Shankara Acharya (circa 500 AD), who put these Vedic teachings in a clear rational language that remains easily understandable to the present day.

The basic language and logic of Shankara can be found behind most Advaitic teachings, even those who may not have studied [Sri] Shankara directly. More

• Strange, giant stone jars created by a mysterious people were just found in India

David Icke: Are we being LIED to? (video)

David Icke (davidicke.com), May 23, 2018; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

David Icke: What if all we ever knew was a lie?

To receive David Icke's "Dot Connector Videocast" in full every week, register here: davidicke.com/register. For world tour tickets: davidicke.com/shop/produc.... All of David Icke's books are now available here: davidIcke.com/shop. Latest news from David Icke at www.davidicke.com and via social media: Facebook.com/davidicke, Twitter.com/davidicke.

Messiah is here: Shamir on how Israel gets what it wants

Nature of Reality: The Simulation Hypothesis

I Know Nothing

20 May 2018: "White Hats" of Secret Societies – Who Are "The Secret Teachings of All Ages in the Hands of...

US soldiers may soon have health monitors IMPLANTED so remote doctors can track their blood pressure, sleep...

TECHTOPIA 2: The Truth about 5G, Surveillance State, Artificial Intelligence, VR & Techno...

Student Suicide Clusters – Is Microwave Radiation and its Technology to Blame?

Google is sued for £3.2 BILLION for "secretly collecting data from 4.4million iPhone users...

Environment and Climate

Christopher Brooker: Scandal of 'killer' wood burning stoves and the question - is the political class’s obsession with...

Scientists Will Now Kill More Bees To Get Their Bacteria…To Help The Bees

What is it to "awaken"? (David Icke)

David Icke (Economic News Today); Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

A nation of sheep is soon ruled by a pack of wolves. So wake up before we're too late.

The Big One to come (earthquake)

Wisdom Quarterly; GetPreparedCalifornia.org

 

While California has two-thirds of the nation’s earthquake risk, relatively few residents have acted to secure their homes and reduce injuries from earthquakes.

So the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) and American Red Cross (Red Cross) have joined forces to help more people prepare to survive from California’s next damaging earthquake.

CEA and Red Cross are working together to deliver important information on earthquake preparedness by combining Red Cross’s expertise on preparing a kit, making a family disaster plan, and being informed, with CEA’s expertise on residential insurance and structural mitigation.

 

To help motivate more Californians to increase their earthquake preparedness, the Joined Forces supports a unique Get Prepared, California! Auction^SM in April, the Traveling Red Table™ tour, and the Great California ShakeOut™ in October. More

• What the world look like in 2050 (by design)?
• Behind the Green Mask: UN Agenda 21 (Rosa Koire)

Intention Experiment: science of spirituality

Lynne McTaggart (TheIntentionExperiment.com); Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly

This is a book without an ending. The Intention Experiment, which was voted a Top Amazon 100 by readers and is now a worldwide sensation, is the first book to provide full scientific evidence for the power of human intention. It is also the first book to invite readers to take an active part in its original research. The book seeks to answer the most fundamental question left open by The Field: If we are all connected, all one, can our thoughts and intentions affect and change the world and things out there in the world? More

• Lynne McTaggart, author of The Bond: How to Fix Your Falling-Down World, appears on The Aware Show today and soon on a free teleseminar call. She's found something more powerful than intention.

For centuries Western science and cultures have taught us to think of ourselves as "individuals." But a revolutionary new understanding is emerging: What matters is not the isolated entity but the space between things, the relationship. The "bond." It challenges the way we conceive of ourselves and our world. It also shows us that the essential impulse of all life is a will to connect rather than a drive to compete.

U.S. Attorney General is [a criminal] in contempt

(NPR) In a dramatic showdown between the branches of the U.S. government, the Republican-led House voted along party lines to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. This is the first time in history... droves of Democratic lawmakers protested by walking out of the House chambers... [in] disgust. Now the criminal contempt charge is referred to the U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. In other words, Holder's own Justice Department will decide how to proceed. More

• The Nation: Scalia's broken Moral Compass ...approximately 83 percent of Americans are affiliated with an organized faith, be it a form of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism... 
• Pakistan: BUDDHA attacked by Taliban gets facelift The monk credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet, Padmasambhava, was born in Swat. 
• Return to the Same City
• Thai Buddhist Film Festival seeks to spark faith The International Buddhism Film Festival was an effort by the government and private religious groups to popularize the Dharma among the younger... 
• "Many strands" of Aung San Suu Kyi's life unite in Oxford
• [Forced insurance] law upheld: Now what?
• Why there's less red meat on many American plates 

Life During Wartime: "Xmas Truce" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, Noe's Buddhist Christmas; History Channel
(TheDocumentarySite, Dec. 2011)

Imagine living in a time of endless war consuming country after country. But then it's the day before the night before Xmas. There is no reason to shop because you're in a ditch, with wet feet, freezing. It's not December 2011 with the US on its way to invading Iran. It's August 1914 and 10 million men are about to die in Europe -- then an unexpected and unexplained truce.

The "Christmas Truce" was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front. Instead of killing one another, men laid down their arms and celebrated together.

The truce began at Flander's Field around Christmas 1914, during the WW I. Parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches. On occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides -- as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units -- independently ventured into "No Man's Land" (the space between opposing trenches), where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs.

• When this Buddha in meditation ornament was auctioned, I simply had to bid. Its purpose on the tree is to represent diversity and tolerance for differences during the holidays. It may seem odd or even irreverent to some to have a Buddha or menorah hanging from a Christmas tree, but it is very important to me to be respectful of all beliefs.

In addition to joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides even played friendly games of football (soccer) -- which were to eventually replace war as we took sports to extremes of hooliganism, mass violence, drunken debauchery and child sex trafficking in the US and possibly in the EU.

The truce is seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of modern history

The Germans began by placing candles on their freezing trenches and on Pagan-holdover Christmas trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols.

The British responded by singing carols of their own. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon there were excursions across No Man's Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco, spirits, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats.

The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held.

The fraternization was not, however, without its risks: Some soldiers were shot by opposing forces. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night. In others, it continued until New Year's Day.

• FOOTNOTE: Adolf Hitler, then a young corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry, was a notable opponent of the truce. Why? Hitter, bad; Vandals, good.
  

Consciousness and Connection (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

(Surfroseman)

Gregg Braden takes us on a short trip through consciousness. It is what connects our feelings and our mass reality. Braden was in Sedona, Arizona spreading the word. The shift is getting closer.

Gregg Braden has searched remote monasteries, high mountain villages, and forgotten texts to uncover their timeless secrets for over 22 years. Combining those discoveries with the best science of today, his original research crosses traditional boundaries in science, history, and religion offering fresh insights into ancient mysteries. He redefines the relationship between inner and outer worlds, sharing a life-affirming message of hope and possibility. According to hm there is a great epoch of peace, cooperation, and healing yet to come!

We Are All One... or are we? (video)

What does it mean to say "We are all one"? A very spiritual girl I knew scoffed at the notion. Even after becoming an expert Buddhist meditator, she did not speak of nonduality, Oneness, or unity. She could see through the delusion of separation, yet she would not make the claim of all being one. She asked, "Do you think we're all one? What does that even mean?"

"Of course," I answered emphatically. "It's not even that hard to understand." One needn't be St. Francis or Thich Nhat Hanh (or "Nitch Natch Hans Christian Anderson" as we would refer to him, never being able to get our Vietnamese or Thai lessons to stick) to understand the unity (nonduality) concept.

It was not by direct mystical experience that I understood it. But there's almost no one I know who hasn't had intimations of sensing how we are all interconnected.

Official trailer for Tom Shadyac's film, "I AM" now in theaters: iamthedoc.com

• On a subatomic level, we're all constantly exchanging ions (and not just the living beings, but rocks, streams, blades of grass...unseen emanations of energy).
• On a social level, we're all going through the same thing -- even as we experience it differently according to our attention, intention, and habitual reaction patterns).
• On a physiological level, we are all more or less the same: subject to the same follies, mortal, morbid (when we get a boo boo, we instinctively exclaim ouch).
• On a psychological level, we have the same neurotic tendencies and stumble into the same thought traps.
• On an emotional level, we can empathize with one another (by force of our mirror neurons being triggered before we're even consciously aware of it).
• On a biological level, we're all built up out of DNA, cellular material, the Four Great Elements, subatomic particles, properties, name-and-form (nama-rupa)
• On a spiritual level, we all have the same potential (enlightenment, buddhahood, basic goodness, Buddha Nature, humanity, self-actualization, altruism)

It might be better to ask, In what way are we actually different? Take a set of building blocks and build something. Everything tangible is the same. Everything intangible (the arrangement of all the tangible things) is within the potential of others.

When we're in love, we love connecting, merging, losing our burdensome ego (our sense of separateness or isolation). But even when we hate someone or something, we are bonding with it by our attention/intention, and so we run into it again and again. How great, then, to cleanse the heart of bias and partiality and accept everything with the same equanimity and peace of mind that still allows us to act and respond appropriately without getting snared and entangled.

Our main separation -- and our main problem -- is the delusion that we are apart, independent actors, isolated, alone, abandoned, forgotten, or left behind. We are not.

We are united (whether we like it or not at any given moment), we are together, we are in the same boat (Earth as our own Easter Island, and we all know what happened there -- and if not, we can all get on the same Network and find out), we are inter-dependent, we are All One in this sense and probably many others.

And it is possible to glimpse in a mystical/shamanic/DMT (the spirit molecule)-fueled state that this is literally true at all times and in all situations even though we now look back and feel we were alone a lot of the time. We were never alone. She agreed.

It's easy to forget this growing up in our competitive society watching "Survivor" and wondering why Donald Trump seems to get off firing people and feeding a scarcity mentality. But even Christians have an easy reference to this universal truth in theistic terms: There's that poster in the bathrooms of footprints in the sand; when we felt most alone and look back to prove it, we were actually being carried.

Everyday Zen: "Religion" and Satori

• Satori is a Japanese term often confused with enlightenment (bodhi). It literally means "understanding," akin to the term epiphany. In Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition, it refers to an intuitive flash of sudden awareness, considered a "first step" or embarkation toward nirvana, the result of enlightenment. It is typically juxtaposed with the related term kensho, "seeing one's nature" [as not separate from others or other things]. These tend to be briefer glimpses, while satori is considered deeper. It has been described as similar to awakening one day with an additional pair of arms and only later learning how to use them. Charlotte Joko Beck explains further.

Religion, Part I

Charlotte Joko Beck (Everyday Zen)

People who come to Zen practice are often upset or disillusioned with their past experiences of religion.

The original meaning of the word "religion" is interesting. It's from the Latin religare, which means "to bind back," "to bind man and the gods." Re means "back," and ligare means "to bind."

What are we binding? First of all, we bind our self to itself -- because even within ourselves we're separated. And we bind ourselves to others, and eventually to all things, sentient and insentient. And we bind others to others.

Anything that is not bound together is our responsibility. But most of the time our task is to bind ourselves to our roommate, to our work, to our partner, to our child, to our friend, and then to America, to Japan, to Sri Lanka, to Mexico, to all the things in this world, and to this universe.

Now that sounds nice! But in fact we don't very often see life that way.

And any true religious practice is to see once again that which is already so: to see the fundamental unity of all things, to see our true face. It's to remove the barrier between ourselves and another person or another thing -- to remove or to see through the nature of the barrier.

Satori is a momentary flash sensing the oneness (non-duality) of oneself with all things.

People often ask me, If this fundamental unity is the true state of affairs, why is it almost never seen?

It's not seen because of a lack of the right scientific information. I've known a lot of physicists who had the intellectual knowledge, yet their dealings with life did not reflect this awareness.

The main cause of the barrier, and the main reason we fail to see that which is already so, is our fear of being hurt by that which seems separate from us.

Needless to say, our physical being does need to be protected to function. For instance, if we're having a picnic on a train track and a train's coming, it's quite a good idea to move. It's necessary to avoid and to repair physical damage.

But there's immense confusion between that kind of hurt and other less tangible occurrences that seem to hurt us.

"My lover left me; it hurts to be alone." "I'll never get a job." "Other people are so mean." We view all of these as sources of hurt. We often feel we have been hurt by other people.

If we look back on our lives we can make a list of people or events that have hurt us. We all have our list. Out of that long list of hurts we develop a conditioned way of looking at life: we learn patterns of avoidance; we have judgments and opinions about anything and anyone that we fear might hurt us.

Boundaries
Our innate capacities are exerted in the direction of avoidance, in the direction of complaining, of being the victim, of trying to set things up so that we maintain control. And the true life, the fundamental unity, escapes us.

Sadly enough, some of us die without ever having lived, because we're so obsessed with trying to avoid being hurt.

There's one thing we're sure of: If we have been hurt, we don't want it to happen again. And our mechanisms for avoidance are almost endless.

Now in many religious traditions, and particularly in the Zen tradition, there is great stock placed in having what are called "openings" [satori] or enlightenment experiences. Such experiences are quite varied. But if they are genuine they illuminate or bring to our attention that which is always so -- the true nature of life, the fundamental unity.

What I have found, however (and I know many have found it too), is that by themselves they're not enough. They can be useful, but if we get hung up on them they're a barrier.

For some people these experiences are not that hard to come by. We vary in that respect -- and the variation is not a matter of virtue, either. But without the severe labor of unifying one's life, these experiences do not make much difference.

What really counts is the practice that we have to go through moment by moment, with that which seems to hurt us, or threaten us, or displease us -- whether it's difficulty with our coworkers, or our family, or our partners, anyone.

Unless we in our practice have reached the point where we react very little, an enlightenment experience is largely useless.