When his fellow ascetics saw him walking toward them, they did not know who he was as he had changed since last they met. The former Siddhartha Gautama, when asked "who are you" answered not about who/identity, but what/consciousness----awake he said. He was speaking about being beyond the realm of self. I remember being asked a somewhat similar question every morning by my Mother, "... are you awake Danny?"

We look deeply into, being-awake this week, as we celebrate the experience of a person's realization of what he was/is. In the Falmouth Soto Zen Sangha, we undertake the same experience Siddhartha did 2500 years ago. We move through a gate by sitting. He sat for eight days waiting, thus allowing awakening to unfold. "Danny are you awake yet?" Yes Mother, I would offer appeasingly, trying to deal with "my not-quite-yet-ness." I would lie with it, then, rushing slowly, come into my beginning.

Sitting twelve hours from 6:30pm to 6:30am this coming Friday night, December 14 to Saturday morning, December 15, we become fully aware of experience, to the point that the experiencing is encompassing. We neither rush nor expect, but rather unfold something in the stillness and quiet throughout the night, dark-being sleepy-awake-light.

So, join us for Rohatsu or Awaking Day, as we experience transitioning while pondering our Mother's age old question...