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Online Glossaries For Articles Click on underlined term for definition from Source: Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Autumn, 1971). World Wisdom, Inc. www.studiesincomparativereligion.com
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REALIZATION is a word often used but not always, I believe, understood. At one extreme the word, written with a small "r", often means no more than a logical appreciation of something quite trivial or ordinary, as when we say I realize that I missed a good opportunity or I realize that I am no longer a child. At the opposite extreme the word is written or printed with a capital "R" and conveys to many people the notion of a strange and unattainable state of being which they can never hope to reach; it is altogether beyond the capacity of any normal, ordinary person. Both these ideas are, I believe, wrong. Realization, in the sense of what might be called, somewhat inaccurately, spiritual realization is often a long process which takes us step by step from one realization to the next, each step leading us to a greater, deeper and fuller experience as we go forward. It is both an illumination and an experience of discovery. I will try and explain. There are moments when we suddenly perceive something new or a new meaning to something we have known in an external way, perhaps for years, and which we now see as it were internally with completely new eyes. These moments are very hard to describe or to communicate to others unless they have had a similar experience. It seems as though a wonderful new light has radiated in and around us and yet, when we try to say what happened, the only description we seem able to give appears totally inadequate and a long way below the actual happening. This new perception can happen for no apparent reason or it can occur as the result of some phrase heard or read, or as the result of an unexpected event or meeting in our lives. Outwardly nothing happens but inwardly a real new vision is born and it is because to the one who experiences it, it is such a very personal experience that it is so hard to convey in words to anyone else. This experience or realization may be a relatively minor one or it may be of very far reaching consequence and penetrate deeply and ineradicably into one's whole life. It can, I believe, happen to anyone, even to a child. I can very clearly remember an occasion when I could not have been more than four or five years old, when the sun was shining on an early spring day. Winter was hardly over and there were as yet no real signs of spring in the trees or in the fields. And then, suddenly, I came on a large patch of celandines in full flower, each flower with its brilliant, shining, yellow petals opened towards the sun and reflecting the brilliance of its light. To me it was no longer just a patch of celandines, it was a glory, an intense joy, such as I had never previously experienced. It belonged to a world which had nothing in common with my everyday world and I experienced a feeling which I couldn't express at all at the time but which I would now try to describe as a realization of a new world bringing with it an inner joy which corresponded in some strange way to the external divine glory which I had seen and which shone round me. The external vision has faded a little just as the flowers themselves have faded long ago, but the interior experience has remained as a certainty which has never lessened and which cannot be taken from me. This may be a very primitive example of realization, but, because it is simple, it may be easy to see some of the characteristic features of a realization however partial this may have been. It is always a personal experience, a taking or receiving into oneself of a truth, a meaning, which up to that moment had been unperceived, unknown, or only known in a completely superficial way. But even though it is taken into oneself one cannot speak of possessing it. It is more true to say that it possesses us. When it comes it does so with such overwhelming force that it is an absolute certainty that cannot be denied, and we wonder why a truth which now seems so self evident has not occurred to us before. It has a quality of transfiguration and is both divine and human. The illumination that brings this new vision is surely a divine revelation but it is also our human discovery. On the one hand God is always revealing to us what we can receive but it is only when we are open to Him and have made the effort necessary to listen, to be attentive, to be undistracted and to be aware, that we come to any realization of it, and then it is for us a great new discovery which we have made; and it is indeed our discovery because it is we who have found what it was that God was waiting to give us and which was always there for us to discover. There are a number of New Testament sayings which are especially relevant to the process of realization. Quite often Christ spoke to people in a parable and then he said, "if any man hath ears to hear let him hear". Some would only hear the literal words of the story which would mean little to them, others would listen attentively and hear further, but there would be some, those who truly had an ear, who would penetrate into the fullest meaning of the parable and to these would come, not only the full realization of the meaningfulness of the story which had been told, but of much more besides. A new light, a new way of looking at everything, a new understanding of life would have been born in them. Christ also said, "to him that hath shall be given and to him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath". This is true of realization. Only to those who already have some awareness of what might be discovered can more be revealed. Those who think they already know all that they need to know, but have not realized even this in their lives, will never have the joy of further discoveries, and they will find one day that even what they think they know will fail them because of its inadequacy. There is another saying of the Lord Christ which is very relevant here; it is the first Beatitude, "blessed are the poor in spirit for their's is the Kingdom of Heaven"; blessed are they who know the poverty of their spiritual awareness at each stage of their lives, because before them lie the immense possibilities of further discoveries and greater realization leading ultimately into the Kingdom of God, and only if they know their poverty will they take the next step towards a fuller knowledge and deeper experience. Another example of realization from the New Testament, vastly different from the childhood experience of the glory of the celandines, yet
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Original editorial inclusion that followed the essay in Studies: At last we have b een b rought face to face with Amida and his Original Vow, and are like men longing to cross a stream who have found a ferry. As, however, we reflect upon the passing of the days and nights, and how quickly we are drawing near to the land of shadows, we must make haste and seek deliverance with all our hearts, and, forsaking everything else, earnestly lift up our voices and invoke the sacred name, otherwise our golden opportunity will have passed and nothing b e left us b ut remorse Honen (Ed. Note: The correct author may have been Yokwan)
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