get out of the way

The Buddha speaks of 37 qualities that came to be known as the "thirty-seven wings of awakening" or "thirty-seven factors of awakening". It's a meta-list comprising seven individual lists, some of which have been discussed in this blog before. It's qualities like energy or persistence, faith, mindfulness, wholeness of mind, joy or rapture, curiosity, tranquility, equanimity. It also includes the eight path factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, the four frames of reference for mindfulness. These are to be cultivated, developed, and brought to completion, and once that is accomplished, they take over and propel you into stream entry and the higher levels of awakening. The Buddhist path is not about lofty metaphysics and philosophy, but about practical, everyday work.

But the thing is, you can't make these things happen. You can't force your mind to be unified. You can't force yourself to be compassionate. Instead, you set the conditions that can make these things happen, and get out of the way. Most of these qualities are like faculties or capacities that we have within us that we can tap into. They aren't things we do, they are things that come out of our inner being. We don't make them happen, we allow them to happen. Indeed, once cultivated, these qualities want to come into manifestation, almost of their own accord. And once you learn to step aside and let them do their work on their own, then they become powers you can draw upon, and you move into a space of greater liberation.