When discussing the fourteenth lojong slogan, Judy Lief writes, “It is as though confusion is awakening in disguise.” As a reminder, the 14th slogan is: Seeing confusion as the four kayas is unsurpassable shunyata protection. Which…is a mouthful. But basically, it means turning our attention toward the passing nature of our thoughts.

Even the four kayas point to a growing sense of awareness. First, we take in the scene. Then we try to make sense of it. And then we determine what to do. All of this together comprises the fourth kaya, the totality of the whole experience. And while, yes, we want to recognize how fleeting all of that is, we also can see how all those confusing, swirling thoughts can bring us to the doorstep of awakening.

I like seeing it this way, because it keeps us from wanting to make all these fleeting thoughts “wrong” or “unhelpful” or some other negative label. They aren’t positive OR negative; they just are. And we can use them to push into deeper confusion, or see them as a way to lead us out of it.

The choice is really up to us.

Chogyam Trungpa writes, “The reason the four kayas become a great protection is that we begin to realize the way our mind functions, our state of being. We realize that whatever comes up in our mind is always subject to that flow.” When we let that be, we enter into shunyata. Our protection is groundlessness, where we don’t feel like we need to grab onto or cling tightly to anything.

I know groundlessness can feel a little scary, as a word. It can conjure a nauseous feeling of pummeling down through the empty air. But really, it’s more like floating, like being buoyed by your own weightlessness in the sea. It’s not nothingness. It’s a sense of total trust. Groundlessness is another description of awakening.

What if we saw our confusion as awakening in disguise this week?