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Simply put, enlightened mind is an awareness that is empty and an emptiness that is aware. When this empty, aware nature of mind is experienced—without an experiencer, a common misconception being that the recognition of any activity implies someone that recognizes it—the person involved becomes realized.

The shift from belief to experience on the Buddhist path results from a more sophisticated understanding of mind. In everyday usage, “mind” implies thoughts, memories, mental images, knowledge, and decision-making skills. In the Dharma (Buddhist truth), however, it refers to the hidden aspects of enlightened consciousness. Of these, two are crucial: awareness and emptiness.

The Buddhist path begins with faith and ends with experience. Its practitioners progress beyond a belief that the teachers, teachings, and practices will reveal the true nature of self and reality, to personally experiencing that reality. The path carries its followers beyond belief in another sense as well: it enters them into a previously unknown…