From My Divine Purpose to Picking Up Dog Poop

Before the awakening, I believed I was here for some grand purpose. I thought my life was a karmic checklist — to go through each debt, clear it, and eventually attain enlightenment like a trophy waiting for me at the end of a cosmic obstacle course.

But awakening did not unfold with trumpets or visions or some dramatic revelation. Awakening had me picking up my dog’s poop every day.

I did not awaken in the way I once imagined. Rather, the five skandhas — the shifting bundle of form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness that loosely make up what I call “me” — awakened. Now, I see and feel the little things differently.

This led me to stop looking to my past...who I was and what past mistakes I needed to correct. I once believed I was a very bad person doing unimaginable things. In this sense, I am grateful for no reincarnation. I would not want to be reincarnated as a murderer. But just knowing these past experiences could have had a tremendous influence on this current life. And the second thing I am grateful for is the memory of past experience has been erased. Truly a rebirth and a new life.

So...I pick up my dog’s poop because I love my dog. Caring for her is important, so her poop is important too. This small, mundane act connects me to her well-being. It grounds me in the present. It humbles me. It reminds me that we are not here for a single divine purpose carved in stone, but for countless tiny purposes that arise and pass away, all dependently connected to our surroundings.

Everything that once seemed unimportant becomes important — and more heartfelt. The people I once took for granted now feel vital to my being. The daily acts I once dismissed as chores now feel like moments of genuine connection.

Awakening isn’t some grand, life-altering fireworks show. It’s the simple understanding that we are deeply intertwined with everyone and everything. And this interconnection — this fragile, ordinary, sacred web of life — is the true purpose of living after awakening.

There is no separation from the reality...this world, it means we blend into it with clarity and understanding and face all that is around with compassion.

So here I am, walking my dog and picking up her poop, not because it’s profound, but because it is real. And in that reality, I am free and awakening has occurred.

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Divad