To focus or not to focus
The "awakening", the singular moment of enlightenment, the realization that all is not as it seems, has been exploited in numerous art forms, most recently in the movie franchise "The Matrix". Their general message has been taken close to heart by many people because it is common to feel that the order of things is "wrong". Few people are likely to be happy with any given situation, because there is only one reality but an almost infinite number of wishes about it.
This way of thinking, however, is superficial. It posits that there are two "worlds", one which is special because it is "real". However, this falls into the same semantic bog than nihilism : labeling something "unreal" does not actually tell us anything. It is mere wordplay. The world which is thought as "unreal" affects the believer as much as the "real" world would if he was in it. By trying to impose a dichotomy on his fundamental understanding of reality, the believer is setting himself up as a special being who has "solved the riddle" of his personal discomfort, just like belief in the supernatural is meant to elevate the believer as a special being.
The general notion of awakening, however, is a pivotal concept in spirituality. In order to be able to tackle questions, one must first be able to turn his attention to these questions. A person who does not doubt his traditional or cultural bromides will not pay attention to the questions. The Objectivist expression "to focus" is very appropriate here : it is like turning a knob to put a blurred image into focus.
It is not, however, instantaneous like turning a knob. Focus is, before everything else, a realization that our thought patterns are just that, our thought patterns, and that they do not have the automatic validity we give them instinctively. In Buddhism, this is called the "great doubt". This realization leads to the first explosion of the limited categories of our mind. There is a Zen proverb, translated in many different ways, the simplest of which is :
Great doubt, great enlightenment.
The story of how Siddhartha Gautama founded Buddhism is itself a story of great doubt preceding great understanding. If he had not realized that his luxurious life was not an escape from the constants of existence - suffering and death - and if this had not shaken his life enough to bring him to enlightenment, one could say the history of the world would surely have been different.
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