Demystifying Awakenings
There seems to be a movement today in terms of demystifying awakenings. And this seems to occur in several different ways.
Taste
One is giving people more immediate access to it, or at least the taste of an awakening into the Witness and Big Mind. Some examples are simple inquiries into the nature of mind (similar to the Dzogchen pointing out instructions), the Big Mind process, and Byron Katie's inquiry process.
Framework
Another is placing the different aspects of awakenings and development into a shared framework, such as Ken Wilber's AQAL approach.
Language
Taking the broad lines of the process out of the sometimes obscure language of the traditions and into everyday and common language. And do this while keeping traditional terminology for important distinctions, precision and clarity.
Richness of Views
And, maybe most importantly, as more people have glimpses of and then awaken more stably as the Witness and Big Mind, there are more first person reports available. There are more and more people exploring how to speak about it in their own language - in a way that makes sense to them and in our contemporary society.
Hopefully, this process will be another example of include & transcend. As much as this new approach seems needed and appropriate, there still needs to be some grounding in and appreciation for the wisdom accumulated and offered in the traditions. The exuberance of the new needs the keel and rudder of the old.