The cessation of dukkha before enlightenment

On the bus home this evening I read from Philip Moffitt's "Dancing With Life". I bought this book shortly after I emerged from the Forest Refuge in November 2011 and read it cover-to-cover immediately and liked it very much. I've been picking it up again lately to read during lunch. Yesterday I was quite taken with his description of cessation and the practices that one might do regarding cessation. He suggested several subtle practices, one of which was simply to notice each moment whether one was suffering or not. He used the word cessation to refer, not only to the cessation of dukkha that occurs at the moment of path attainment, nor to the final and permanent cessation of dukkha that occurs at full enlightenment -- but also to the cessation of each individual moment of dukkha. It is inspiring to think that these are all cessation, all essentially the same experience, and that we each experience cessation countless times per day. I re-read this stuff on the bus home today and immediately began practicing it. I continued to practice it during the evening's sitting with the Extra Fancy Lotus Sisters. I experienced significant freedom with this practice: dukkha seemed less scary, perhaps because I was seeing it more clearly than usual.

Practice has been so interesting and rewarding lately. As I write this I know that I ought not to cling to how interesting and rewarding it's been. I may reach a plateau where I seem to learn nothing. I am indeed clinging to the excitement of practice now; it is hard to imagine that it will plateau. Though I ought not to cling, in some sense I cannot help clinging. All I can do is observe the clinging. Maybe that will be my meditation as I fall asleep.