Dear OOO
I'm sorry, I hadn't even thought of that at all.
The reason I asked you to ask me again this during the Dharma talk is simply that, regardless of its importance, I often forget such thoughts.
People jokingly refer to this as a “side effect of enlightenment.”
That’s because even those thoughts are ultimately forms of attachment.
If I were to give you an answer to that, would your enlightenment become even clearer?
If that were the case, I would make it my profession, publish books, earn money, and become rich.
A Seon master isn’t someone who gives the disciple the answer; rather, they pierce to the heart of the matter so that you can always verify things for yourself.
However, to answer your question: no one in this world wakes up and changes dramatically overnight.
Just like a baby growing up, when you look back after they’ve fully grown, it seems to have happened in the blink of an eye, but while they were growing, it can feel endlessly slow, as if there were no progress at all.
There is a Korean poem that goes, “There is no flower that blooms without wavering.” As I mentioned earlier, both the state of stability and the state of confusion are merely thoughts.
If it is clear that “this” is “this” whether it is stable or wavering, then stability is an illusion, and anxiety is nothing but an illusion as well.
It’s not that you’re anxious now and need time to work hard through manipulation or practicebto change that later.
If it becomes clear that you don’t need to do anything because you’re already that way and if this is confirmed to be happening right now, in every single moment, rather than in the future then the “day” of perfection you’re waiting for in your mind is slipping past right now, in this very moment, amid your indifference.