My first awakening was sudden

My first awakening was sudden. I meditated for three months. I was 18 years old. I meditated for three months, 20 minutes a day, five, six days a week.

I was reading John Cabot-Zinn's book, Wherever You Go, There You Are. And just kind of taking the exercises at the end of the chapters and trying them out. And after three months, I stopped smoking and then the next day, I had a huge awakening experience that lasted four months. So basically, that's sudden.

It's not gradual. There's nothing gradual about it. Then my identity came back, and then the gradual process occurred.