Spiritual Awakening: It Ain’t All Prayer Hands and Humbled Egos
How can we look at the process of spiritual awakening more authentically
Let’s talk about the proverbial: spiritual awakening. The buzz word in the spiritual community where one, who undergoes a spiritual journey, supposedly experiences a grandiose epiphany. This leads them to understand: their life purpose, themselves, the world around them, and experience a complete loss of ego. It is represented as a sort of big bang moment, a sense of clarity, the transformation of a lifetime. A journey that doesn’t necessarily take a lifetime to go through. It seems attainable, tangible, and perceivable. It is the must have experience for all of us on our spiritual journeys. It is instantaneous, we are conscious of it, and when it happens, we reach enlightenment. ‘Ohhhh, Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma’am!’ (David Bowie Suffragette City)
‘Some people have an image of an instantaneously life-changing event — the equivalent of being struck by a bolt of lightening or being spoken to by a burning bush (a la Moses) or some similarly dramatic and unmistakable occurrence.’ (Dan Mager 2014)
When one has undergone their ‘spiritual awakening’ we are #loveandlight, we are un-phased, we are beyond human. We are truly aligned to our true selves, our higher selves. We are beyond petty, beyond anger, sadness, and discontent. We have learned the lessons we need to learn. We are good to live our lives in prayer hands, humbled egos, and higher consciousness. This is the ideal state we all are aspiring to be in, right? We are above it all and all knowing. We are the Divine, All that It Is, God. We are meant to be and live as one with the Universe.
These ideas have been discussed and talked about by psychologists, PhDs’, and other spiritualists, like myself. I have also experienced several spiritual awakenings in the recent past, and felt these ideas needed to be explored further to give the real scoop on what a spiritual awakening really is. I wanted to share my own experiences, along with the opinions of experts. I want to explore if a spiritual awakening is in fact this one experience, one definition, one exact defining moment towards enlightenment. Is the experience as beautiful and enriching as it has been discussed? Or is it a fluid, sometimes dark, individualised, continuous set of experiences that cannot be pinpointed into one exact tangible moment, to reach enlightenment?
You are conscious of your awakening which results in peace, happiness, and drama-free fulfilment.
There is no peace when suffering in silence. Most people who undergo profound spiritual experiences, can be quite isolated or feel alien to the world, not knowing exactly how to exist after their spiritual awakening. (Bruce Davis PhD 2014) A spiritual awakening can be quite difficult to understand. It is a confusing set of experiences. Despite how vast and informative a simple Google search is, there are so many different ways to experience an awakening that the lists online don’t always address them all. When it clicked that I was in a spiritual awakening (this took years of analysing and over-analysing my experiences), I felt extremely alone. I kept telling my friends at the time that I felt off, sad, and didn’t want to be where I was. My environment was completely contradictory to who I wanted to be, and who I am now. My friends, then, thought I didn’t like them anymore and thought I was overreacting to life. Turns out, I was indeed reacting! The things that once worked so well in life; such as, moving from one relationship to the next, not understanding myself or who my partner really was to me, no longer suited my life. I was confronted by a hard fact. The way I operated in this life could no longer work; or, work as effectively as it had in the past. The truth was revealed: I was not with the right people, in the right place, and in the right mindset.
Awakening feels like being violently disturbed from a slumber. It isn’t peaceful, quiet, or happy. ‘A spiritual awakening represents the lifting of the veil of ignorance or avidya, meaning incorrect understanding.’ (Adam Brady 2019) Imagine when you were a kid, the moment you realised the tooth fairy didn’t exist. Imagine when you found out Santa really was just your parents snacking on your milk and cookies, whilst taking presents from the closet to place under the Christmas tree. Imagine the disturbance to your childhood that life really was not a fairy-tale or fantasy. Imagine knowing that things weren’t all what they seemed. Was that a fun, lighthearted, experience? Probably not! It was a real and confronting transition. One that could have been met with resistance, shock, and a bit of disappointment. Now imagine that as it applies to your set of beliefs about yourself. Particularly, who you are and what you are to yourself, and to the world.
It happens once, and then its done. Boom baby! You are enlightened.
Enlightenment is a process and takes lifetimes to reach. (Dan Edmunds 2012) This concept that you have one big spiritual awakening is not always the case. Life is a journey and has many shifts and changes. One awakens to new concepts, new understandings of themselves, and the world around, all the time. Most spiritualists discuss spiritual awakening as a journey, a path, a process. The journey to enlightenment is not a singular process by which an event happens to change one’s life. It is a series of awakenings. (Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D.)
Spiritual awakenings are ripples in the pond to one’s life. I also believe it depends on what you may be awakening to. Spiritual awakening can occur to shine a light on your life purpose, your ego, how you relate to others, etc. A spiritual awakening peels back layers to what is misaligned and reveals truth. These experiences identify the truth; so, one ceases suffering in all areas of life. Buddhist teachings outline this path in the Eightfold Path, described in the last of the Four Noble Truths. The last truth is the Path is the Cessation of Suffering. (BBC) Each element of the Eightfold Path teaches the follower to have: right thought, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration, to reach Nirvana. Each element has cause and effect; and, each element relates to each of the other eight elements. (Thich Nhat Hanh 1999) Every element will be experienced throughout everything we do and come across. Therefore, our whole lives, we can be in a state of constant awakening. Some truths can be revealed in a one and done spiritual experience. Some truths will take a multitude of experiences to reveal how we may want to revisit our actions, motivations, efforts, and concentrations.
You have found yourself.
On the one hand, spiritual awakening can allow one to find themselves; but on the other, it can allow one to lose themselves as well. How is that for a metaphysical paradox!? Many spiritualists reveal that when one actually undergoes a spiritual awakening or awakenings, one loses themselves, or a part of themselves. By themselves, I mean one’s ego. But, when one loses their ego, they gain their authentic self.
‘This is when the journey of unlearning begins; the journey whereby you strip yourself of the layers in which you have been wrapped, like an onion, to reveal, at the end, your authentic self, the state of enlightenment.’ (Itai Ivtzan 2016)
We are all spiritual bodies living a human experience. When we are undergoing a spiritual awakening, we are purging a life, truths, and beliefs we once knew, to realise that none of those may make sense, or even matter. We lose our sense of identity and align to our authentic selves, our spiritual selves. We are more aware of the bigger picture, and less concerned by our beliefs, woes, and troubles. The awakening experience makes us realise the world is a much more benign and meaningful place than perceived. (Steve Taylor PhD 2018) We somehow become one with the world. (Steve Taylor PhD 2018). In monotheist faiths, humans were created in God’s likeness. Spiritualists suggest a similar philosophy, stating that spiritual awakening makes one aware that they are like the Divine, and the Divine is them. (Bruce Davis PhD 2014) The things that had once been so important: the pursuit of other’s praises, obtaining more and more things, competing with others, becomes trivial.
Our spiritual bodies do not live in a realm where time is of the essence; or, the more money and things one has, adds value to who they are. A spiritual awakening can bring about a feeling of ‘coming home.’ (Bruce Davis 2014) Not coming home to your ego, the material world, and your possessions. It is coming home to your spiritual family, divine counterpart, to the Divine. (Bruce Davis 2014) It is being mindful that our ego is superfluous to our lives. It is about soaking in the awareness of love, nature, forgiveness, and gratitude. All elements usually attributed to the Divine.
‘[Awakening] was a moment of connection to the source, to the undercurrent, to your Authentic Self; a moment of enlightenment. …You stop thinking and come in touch with your Authentic Self.’ (Itai Ivtzan 2016
From analysing these three beliefs around spiritual awakening; it would seem that they can be defined as spiritual experiences that vary. They can vary on how long or how many they are, how they may be experienced, and who you may become as a result of them. One thing is for certain. Spiritual awakenings are here to reveal truth. They strip away layers we have built up over a lifetime in order to reveal the reality we may be hiding from ourselves. They are blunt and often confrontational. They force us to address the harsh realities of our existences; whether for better, or for worse. As long as one is mindful and is conscious of these experiences, they can be profoundly used to lead us closer and closer to a path of understanding and enlightenment.
