The sunsets in canyon country are absolutely spectacular! I find it amazing to realize that the most beautiful times of day - sunrise and sunset - are those periods that exist on the boundary BETWEEN light and dark. This phenomenon illustrates superbly the fact that it is not so much "enlightenment" all by itself that we seek, but the experience of transition BETWEEN ignorance and enlightenment. Indeed, it is precisely the movement from enlightenment back into seeming ignorance that allows the former to reveal itself yet again in a fresh and new way.
Putting this awareness into a Buddhist context, Chogyam Trungpa says: "There is this whole idea of using samsaric situations as stepping stones to enlightenment. It's the idea that if there is no samsara, there is no enlightenment. The two are interdependent . . . According to the tantric teachings, realization takes place in the moment when the boundary BETWEEN the two occurs."
Photos: Sunset, with the La Sal Mountains, a butte, and a Pinyon Pine
on the horizon; Canyonlands National Park, UT, November 28, 2014.
"Samsara" in a Buddhist context refers to the indefinitely repeated
cycles of birth, misery and death caused by ignorance.
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