The more we wake up

June, 2025

The more we wake, the softer we become.

Not strong like stone – but strong like water

reaching toward a burning world
with nothing left to lose.

Veils fall, one by one – armor slips from the heart.

Not because we are weak,
but because truth has no use for shields.

At first, it feels like breaking.
Then we realize –  it is the breaking “open”.

All that we are is vast sky.
All that remain
is the pure heart of vulnerability.

 

Note

Some people hear the word “vulnerable” and think it means being weak. To me, it means the opposite. When we’re truly open, when the heart is undefended, there’s a strength in that that can’t be broken. It is real relaxation. It is real freedom.

Here we begin to see that we are not a separate self that needs to be defended or maintained. What we call “me” is a contraction, formed by fear, survival, and habit. When we see this clearly, something opens. Freedom isn’t a feeling; it’s what remains when we stop tightening around identity.

Life has these two sides: the feeling of being an open wound, and at the same time, being free and boundless. Both are real, and they are not two. This is simply what it is to be human.

 

Charlotte Juul Jugen Sensei Zen Priest

Charlotte Jigen Juul

I am a Zen priest with a MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology from Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado, USA and a BA in Psychosynthesis from “The Psychosynthesis and Education Trust” in London. Besides that, I am a certified SE-Practitioner (SEP), in Trauma Psychology, Somatic Experience (SE-practitioner, Peter Levine), I am a certified BigMind Facilitator by Zen Master Genpo Roshi and became an “Ordained Zen priest” in 2018.

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