The closer you get to something, the more it expands into several things, and then many things. To see a mountain range at dawn, way off in the distance with the sun behind it, is to see a single undifferentiated sheet, a silhouette as solid as iron. Get closer as the sun rises, and you start to see crevices and gullies, along with individual hills and mountains. Closer still, and each mountain begins to show its own shape and become something distinct. “Awakening” is comparable to this. From afar, it’s just one solid, impenetrable thing, of concern to perhaps a few people. But take up a meditation practice, and you may soon sense that your own consciousness is a territory waiting to be explored.
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Excerpted from Original Love by Henry Shukman and reprinted with permission from HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright 2024.