Memory may fade, but awakening does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the full-paper deadline for the 2025 International Academic Symposium on Awakening Thought approaching in mid-October, students involved in the proceedings are in the midst of final revisions.\nThis year, Wan-Chen\u2019s paper is titled Healing Through Zen\u2014Applying Zen Practice in Stroke Rehabilitation, with Yongqing as her research participant. During the Mid-Autumn Festival break, she conducted online interviews with Dad\u2019s caregivers\u2014my aunts\u2014to supplement her data.An auntie shared a delightful story about her dad reading Awakening Never Apart:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After dinner, Dad would sit in his rattan chair, and my aunt would bring out that little pocket book\u2014Awakening Never Apart.
He would read it slowly, word by word. And each time he turned a page and discovered there was more, he would exclaim with childlike joy, \u201cOh\u2014there\u2019s more!\u201d Then he\u2019d continue on, smiling as he read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My aunt said that when Dad practices reading the newspaper, he usually reads only the headlines\u2014and clearly has little interest. But when he recites Awakening Never Apart, his focus becomes remarkable. The verses are short, the characters are large\u2014perfect for elders to read aloud. The moment Dad begins, his mind settles, and he keeps reciting on his own, again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also recalled that when Dad reached the lines:\n\nGreat benevolence is never apart.\nGreat compassion is never apart.\nGreat wisdom is never apart.\nGreat meditative sam\u0101dhi is never apart.\n\n\u2014he suddenly broke into a smile and said, \u201cHow wonder<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My aunt couldn\u2019t help but wonder\u2014did he truly understand? Or did he somehow feel the inconceivable power of Awakening Never Apart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As memory gradually fades, awakening is never apart from the self.\nMay Father Fang dwell in Awakening Never Apart\u2014day by day, smiling with joy, with happiness never leaving his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\ud83d\udc97 May every family find its own moments of awakening.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories may fade, but awakening does not. At 96, my father\u2014living with dementia\u2014smiles as he recites Awakening Never Apart. These brief Dharma verses let his mind settle and abide, and they reveal to our family an inconceivable, gentle strength.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,22,20,21,23],"class_list":["post-3136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonials","tag-19","tag-22","tag-20","tag-21","tag-23"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeneverapart.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}