What is enlightenment? And what is the relationship to habits and karma? This talk examines what the words "enlightenment," "awakening," and "realization" point to. It presents a "practice of enlightenment" based on Dogen's instruction "to be steadily intimate with the field of mind." The practice of enlightenment is not a self-improvement or self-actualization project. However, improvement is a valid interest; so how do we approach it in the context of enlightenment?

Using the koan of "Baizhang's Fox" (Case 8 in the Book Serenity), this talk asks about the Middle Way of being simultaneously free from and entangled in the world of karmic patterns. We are free from karma by savoring nirvanic moments and establishing ourselves more and more in the field of mind that non-reactively allows everything to be the way it is. When we relax and stop seeing ourselves as a problematic person, we can engage with our habits in a practical way, engaging the 10,000 things from moment to moment and inviting their feedback about which of our habits need to change to better benefit all beings.