Awoke/ Woke

A seeker came to Buddha and asked, “Are you a God?” Buddha replied “No.” “An angel?” “No” “A saint?” “No.” Frustrated, the seeker asked, “What are you then?”

“I am awake.”

 

I awoke this morning with the word “woke” on my mind. Time to post a blog!

 

The little story above is one of my favorites about Buddhism and the reason it attracted me. Here is a religion without a god to believe in, worship, venerate, obey, submit to, pray to, be “saved” by. Instead there is a seeker (Gautama Buddha) who is determined to dispel the clouds of ignorance and has an awakening experience, an enlightenment. And then invites us to do the same through the active practice of meditation and a disciplined life lived practicing kindness, virtue and attentive mindfulness. No Crusades to convert or kill the infidels who don’t believe, no threats of burning in hellfire, no evangelists flying in private jets and demanding our money. Just waking up to our true nature, that selfless self that is intimately connected with the whole universe, from the tiniest bug to the firmament of stars up above. 

 

But in addition to the spiritual version of awakening, there are many ways in which we can move from our unconscious ignorance to our conscious knowledge. We can wake up to how things work in our country founded from genocide, slavery and profits at all costs and be aware of all these forces still at play in the daily news. We can wake up to the many ways we’ve been programmed by our upbringing— family, church, school, media, etc. —to keep agreeing to their manufactured consent so they can keep the whole show of unearned privilege and power going. We can wake up the harsh facts of how we’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, fooled, lied to, all the ways we once were lost in the swamp of others manipulating us, blind to their intentions, but in a moment of “amazing grace,” suddenly feel found where we once were lost, can see what we’ve been blind to. 

 

And so that word “WOKE” came onto the scene. All well and good. In a country being lied to every single day by those in power, it’s an important tool of resistance. But notice. The dictionary defines “awakened/ awoke” as either an adjective—"not sleeping or conscious”— or a verb—"to stop sleeping and become aware of something.” As an adjective, Buddha’s pronouncement “I am awake” speaks of a quality of his being that he has consciously cultivated. As a verb, it speaks of awakening as an active practice, not a passive belief. Indeed, Zen is often called Zen Practice and requires active participation in the various disciplines of meditation.

 

But here in consumer America, the verb of “awoke” has become the noun of “Woke.” It’s a thing, an identity, an item on the shelf to be passed by or taken off the shelves and bought. It presumes “I got it! I’m woke!” and invites others to package it so they can dismiss it. It feeds the oppositional thinking that is wholly contrary to an actual experience of awakening in which all sentient beings are seen as intimately connected and joined in their true natures. 

 

Maybe a little less pride in being “Woke” and more effort to truly awaken.