Realization is taking away the deepest assumptions in our programming
Trying out a car as an analogy: do we try to get the car running better by driving down different streets, into other territories? Or do we get it better by parking it, opening up the hood and sorting out the valves and plugs, reboring the cylinders. Maybe a new transmission is needed, etc.
Same with life: do we just pound down more avenues, or faster down the same avenues, chasing what we hope will make us happier, fleeing what we fear won’t? Or do we stop. Get the vehicle up on blocks and take a look at how it’s working, is there a glitch in the system, or maybe several.
There’s a koan: Keichu Makes Carts. If you take off the axle and wheels, what becomes clear about the cart?
We think: what is a cart without wheels and axle? Likewise, what are we without self and other, life and death, good and bad, right and wrong, pursuing and fleeing/avoiding?
Realization is taking away the deepest assumptions in our programming. It is to take out the axle, remove the wheels, then dismantle everything else too.
Then the car can really drive. Vrrrooooooom!