Awakening is not a process of attainment, but of discovery.
I don't think the Zen/Vedanta ideas on this is very helpful to newbs, though.
Conversation
"But we're already enlightened!"
Yeah, in the same sense as the Earth was already vast and populated before the Age of Discovery.
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"I've discovered a new continent!"
"He lies, this is all there is!"
See the point of confusion?
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The vehicle metaphor in Buddhism is one of those things they got right pretty much on the nose.
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All any enlightenment tradition or contemplative practice amounts to in the end is a vehicle for exploration.