“Giving Up Smoking Is Easy”

Mark Twain got it right. He’d quit smoking hundreds of times. My teacher, Roshi Bernie Glassman, was channeling his inner Twain when he described Enlightenment, the realization and actualization of the oneness of life. Bernie talked about his cigar smoking. He knew all about the Surgeon General’s Warning. He realized that smoking was bad for his health, but he loved his cigars and kept on smoking. There was realization but no actualization.

What did I think Bernie was pointing to? An intellectual understanding of the dangers of smoking? I should have known better. I had my own history with smoking. I knew about the Surgeon General’s report. I kept smoking, even through my annual flu bouts, lying in bed, my hacking cough shaking the world, sipping my elixir Terpin hydrate. As soon as the coughing eased, I’d light up and resume hacking. I had my intellectual understanding of the surgeon general’s report but not realization, until finally, lying in bed with my hacking cough, I realized that smoking could kill me. Actualization, quitting smoking was still years away, one attempt to quit and then another. Twain was right.

I finally understood Bernie’s cigar analogy, but Bernie wasn’t just talking about quitting smoking. He was talking about the realization and actualization of the oneness of life. So, what is that realization? It is not the intellectual grasp of a theory, idea – what should we call it? – that we are all interconnected. That’s the warning label on the cigarette pack. It’s nice, maybe a step in the right direction, but it’s not realization. What’s the realization of the oneness of life. It’s an experience. Zennies call it kensho, but that tells you nothing. Zen is full of kensho stories. The stories of realization are fingers pointing to the moon, not the moon. Bernie’s words are as good a way to talk about the experience of realization as any, but they’re only words, not the experience. Have you experienced the interconnectedness? Realization is a crucial step, but it’s still not enlightenment. There’s still the work of actualization. You still have to quit smoking.