A Different Stream of Consciousness

The Buddha described his teaching as "going against the stream." The unflinching light of mindful awareness reveals the extent to which we are tossed along in the stream of past conditioning and habit. The moment we decide to stop and look at what is going on (like a swimmer suddenly changing course to swim upstream instead of downstream), we find ourselves battered by powerful currents we had never even suspected--precisely because until that moment we were largely living at their command.


-- Stephen Batchelor in The Awakening of the West
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

many blessings,
lora