No cause, no preparation. Ordinary life, then something completely different
About a quarter of accounts describe awakening arriving with no apparent cause, in the middle of a conversation, while driving, walking, or doing something entirely mundane. No practice, no teacher, no seeking. Just ordinary life, and then something else.
These accounts are among the most striking in the collection because they most clearly separate awakening from anything the person was doing to bring it about. Something shifted on its own.
And at that moment you know, of course I was thinking, [says it singing]..."Hope you're O.K." And so I sat there for a second going, What just happened?" Because again, it was so sudden, spontaneous.
Well, when I had that experience of being in the present moment, I suddenly had this - it was like a "mini awakening" - realizing, "Hey, being in the present moment IS being in the presence of God!
Yeah, the spiritual bug bit me, very suddenly, quite unexpectedly.
Actually, for me, the most interesting thing was that every time I would sit, and we would sit for two hours in 35-minute rounds of sitting with 5 or 10 minutes of walking meditation in between, I would sit and suddenly I'd be aware of being very angry.