Rodney Smith is the founding and guiding teacher of the Seattle Insight Meditation Society and a guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. He is the author of Lessons from the Dying and Stepping Out of Self-Deception: The Buddha's Liberating Teaching of No-Self. In this illuminating book, Smith focuses on the journey of enlightenment but makes it clear that the central issue of spiritual growth is not self-enhancement but self-understanding.
Awakening is divided into three sections. The first four chapters deal with the challenges and problems involved in a paradigm shift of the heart; separation which is part of consensus reality must be set aside. The second section looks at spiritual pathways, the Buddhist understanding of suffering, the counterinfluences, the false nirvanas, and the shifts in consciousness that are part of the path. The last chapters lift up and affirm the qualities of the heart — love and nonseparation — which are the result of a paradigm change. Smith notes: "The sole prerequisite for joining this adventure is an enthusiasm and curiosity to know what is true rather than living with what is convenient and easy."
Smith is at his best when he is writing about something like not-knowing:
"Questioning is fed by the impulse to be free, and seeing the limitations of knowledge helps access that freedom. There is a wonderful opportunity when you misplace something to feel the forces that are aligned against not-knowing, and they are considerable. We can feel the tides of our evolutionary past fight the chaos of not-knowing. Forget where your car keys are located and all sorts of self-incrimination, blame, irritation, and confusion reign. We are so unsettled in that instance that all our energy goes toward moving consciousness back into the position of certainty. Nothing else matters except finding the keys."
What a gift to be able to take an ordinary everyday event and do a spiritual reading that opens up our understanding of the mind, our fears of chaos, and our uneasiness with not-knowing.
