Changing Path
2025, July, Issue 159
At last!
Here we are with that Spark,
Enlightenment Mind appearing,
Ascending within us,
changing our View,
Our First Step!
A poem by Robert Aho © 2025
When we have definitively decided to enter the Spiritual Path, that is to decide once and for all that, above all, we must awaken, we must tread lightly. It is useful to know that our view will change as we discover more and more, as our heart and mind open, revealing different ways of seeing things. The first eight vehicles on the Path each have very unique views, as we are cutting through relative reality in order to discover Ultimate Reality.
By discovering this spark within our own heart center, this aspiration to awaken, we have discovered the most precious thing that can be known. It is the most important step. We should be certain that we understand what we have done by coming to this knowledge, before we start hopping and skipping, and sprinting down the Path. We need to know that the Path, being all about discovery, about mind, changes continually, right up until we discover the Nature of Mind.
When you discover this spark of enlightenment mind, it is easy to think that you now possess all the answers to everything, the meaning of life and everything, the ultimate answer to what seekers have always been seeking. It’s that amazing. In reality, it’s just the first baby step. It’s somewhat like climbing a tree, as you go upwards, the view changes, you see more and more. When you discover the Nature of Mind, it is like realizing the clear sky above, learning to be that.
The first step is like discovering a pathway into the heavens. It’s pretty amazing. Aspiring to awaken is like that. We discover that we don’t need to keep suffering, that there is a simple way to awaken, that we have it in us to go beyond all that binds us to cyclic existence. We make a subtle admission, a subtle shift in how we perceive the world around us, and now we think we know everything.
When Spiritual Practitioners enter the Path, it is not unusual for them to criticize others. What is not obvious is that the Path changes. What may be true today may be completely erroneous tomorrow. It helps to know this right from the start.
So, with the first step, we are forming the foundation of the entire rest of our journey. We joyfully get our bearings, then we need to start accepting, and letting go, with a bit of humility. We must be ready to examine everything, and simultaneously ready ourselves for abandoning all beliefs, concepts and ideas, if we are expecting any sort of results.
Ultimately, we will need to abandon anything and everything that resides in conceptuality; however, we can’t simply do that, we must have true knowledge. This can only be obtained through a very deep commitment to awakening and through Spiritual Practice. We need to not cling too tightly.
This is why Buddhist teachers will tell us not to criticize others. We don’t really know anything. If we criticize others, then we damage ourselves when it is time to adopt what others have realized along this Changing Path.
The first few steps are really about accumulating virtue in order to discover the empty reality of all that we perceive. It is about examining our own mind in order to sort of cut through all the delusion we continually rely upon and generate. This is very important, often overlooked as being just baby steps. People are in too much of a hurry to get to the really advanced stuff. If you don’t take special care on your first steps by acknowledging your own aspiration to awaken, then you won’t have the strength to go on. If you don’t learn the basics of examining your own mind, then you will easily fall into delusion and become distracted, just as you were before your first step, simply floundering about, without the slightest ability to awaken.
We learn to rest the mind; and, also, we find ways to gain insight into all phenomena. Where these two types of meditation meet, we discover our own enlightenment mind is expanding, sort of enveloping our delusional life, giving us the ability to actually awaken. This is also very important because this is the foundation of all that will follow on this ever-changing Path, which actually has millions of aspects, not just the simplified way we might discover in this teaching or that teaching.
When our capacity increases, we can begin to help others awaken. This takes a considerably different view, if we begin to live altruistically, being ready to help. This is the Mahayana.
When we are ready to go like the blazes, we can enter the Vajrayana. This means we learn to efficiently transform. In reality, it is both the most amazing way to look at phenomena and the most exhausting. The Vajrayana should be approached cautiously and with full commitment.
The most earth-shattering vehicle on the Path is the Dzogchen. In this, we are practicing with awakening itself, getting accustomed to that. This doesn’t make sense to anyone, at least not until you realize the Nature of Mind.
Blessings in Light,
Robert Aho