The promise of awakening can be seen as the fundamental essence and starting point of the Buddhist journey.  To live in a way that expresses our unconditioned being—open to joy, fulfilled and free of suffering.  This is the awakened life that the Buddha invites us to discover for ourselves. Many of us feel intuitively the promise and power of this discovery. But what is it really?  Can and do we know it for ourselves?

Angelis Silesius, a Christian mystic said:

God is a pure no thing,

Concealed in the now and here.

The less you reach for it,

The more it will appear.

There are two striking elements of his description— what he calls God and we can call the Awakened  is nowhere else than the here and now, concealed and to be revealed in the present moment.  It is ever present, but our view is obscured.  Also, there is an element of trust, of  relaxation.  When we trust, we let our guard down; we relax into this body, this organic experience.  It is effortless—not striving, just abiding without grasping, directly in touch with the here and now. And  it appears – we awaken.