14. Path
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This stage, called Path (magga in Pali) also lasts just a moment, and after the first completed progress of insight it marks the first moment of the newly awakened being’s awakened life. It marks a permanent shift in baseline perception and brain function. It is as if you have flipped a huge switch that you can’t unflip, and new circuitry hums to life, circuitry it seems we build piece by piece during the stages of insight. The first time around, this is called “stream entry” or “first path” in the Theravada, the “fourth stage of the second path of five” or “the first bhumi” in the Tibetan tradition, and many names in Zen that are purposefully ambiguous, but “kensho” is the most common. [See Dharma Paths, by Ven. Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, Snow Lion, 1992, p. 223.] I will go into a long discussion of the uses and perils of path terminology shortly. Regardless, after a subsequent new progress of insight it marks the attainment of the next level of awakening, whatever you call it. It is directly followed by …
