Today, it is clear for
almost every spiritual seeker that we live in the era of awakening. However,
what is the spiritual awakening is most misinterpreted.
Many people think that
awakening and enlightenment is the same, it’s a single-time event: it’s
happening for once and you are done!. On the contrary, the truth is that
enlightenment is a process that is actually a series of awakenings. Let’s take
a look to the three most important turning points during awakening.
01. Awakening from
Identification
Every waking moment of
our life fits a personal history with our own Self in its focus. Our life can
only be interpreted within the framework of that history. The reason for that
is that we identify with the voice of the Ego, the narrator of our own story,
so closely that our personal history becomes the foundation of our entire life.
What does this
identification mean? It means that we identify with a form (e. g. our name)
that originally did not belong to us (we are all born without a name), but
through identification this specific form has become a part of our existence.
A closer look at that
personal history will, reveal that our internal story consists of a fabric of
experiences and thoughts. Thoughts that explain our experiences, thoughts that
we believe and with which we identified, thoughts that will thus provide the
foundations of our self-determination.
Our personal history
keeps us under its spell, in a hypnotic state in which all our attention is
devoted to the inner voice and story it tells. In this way we give up our
alertness, the world passes by us, because we only concentrate on the elements
of reality that appear to confirm our personal history. We therefore lose our
grip on the deeper dimensions of life. The deeper
dimensions are present in our life, but we lose contact with them because of
our lack of alertness.
The question may arise
in us whether we are really identical with our own personal history, or perhaps
we are more than that? Everybody has some vague suspicion that our personal
history does not reflect reality, we are in fact at a deeper level than that.
When everything is
apparently all right in our personal history, we achieve our goals, we are
happy, and the vague suspicion vanishes entirely in us, and our identification
with our personal history becomes more powerful. There are, however, moments in
our life when nothing appears to succeed, so we are unhappy and we suffer. The
suspicion then reinforces in us, and we tend to believe that we are more than
the cluster of thoughts that constitute our personal history. We realize that
we are more than mere thoughts.
If we become aware and
conscious of our own personal history that we are telling ourselves, we have a
chance to wake up from the hypnotic spell of our personal history. This is the
first major turning point in the process of awakening.
02. Awakening from Ego
When the Consciousness identifies with a form,
the Ego appears. The Ego always means some sort of an identification,
self-determination (I am a man, I am a father, I am an Englishman, I am
Christian etc.) The Ego therefore rests upon our identification with things
that are important for us ego.
The Ego is the central figure of our
personal history, based upon the past and looking into the future. The
components of the Ego are thoughts, emotions, memories (with which the person
identifies as “my story”), fixed unconscious roles and collective
identifications (nationality, religion, etc.). Most people completely identify
with these components of the Ego, and for them no self “outside” of this exists.
The identification of the Ego with things
(object, the person’s own body, way of thinking) creates the link of the individual
to various things. The Ego (and thus the spiritually unconscious person)
experiences his/her existence through the possession of various objects. The
satisfaction provided by the sense of possession is, however, short, so the
individual usually carries on the pursuit for new objects. There is a powerful
motivation behind this activity of the individual, a psychological demand to
obtain more, the unconscious sense of “not yet enough,” and this feeling
surfaces in a want for more. This want is a more powerful driving force for the
Ego than the desire to possess. The uneasy feelings, recklessness, boredom,
stress and dissatisfaction are all largely the products of the dissatisfied
longing for more.
The thoughts such as
“it’s mine,” “I want it,” “I need it,” “it is not enough,” belong to the
structure of the Ego. The content of the Ego changes with time; it is replaced
with new contents. No content is, however, able to lastingly satisfy the Ego as
long as the structure of the Ego remains in its place. The individual keeps
looking for something different, something that promises a greater
satisfaction, making the sense of self of the individual more complete.
The Ego intends to
elevate the forms (including its own form) to eternity, which is impossible.
This intention of the Ego will be the source of all sufferings, because its
world of forms and shapes shall collapse like a sandcastle after a while, until
death snatches away the last of the forms: its body from it. It came
empty-handed from Nothing, and that is how it is going to return there. The
only treasure it could take along with it is its wakefulness, but the Ego
considers that worthless in the world of forms and shapes, as it was not a
means of increasing the power the Ego
The Ego is not bad, it
is simply unconscious. Ego is the deepest dream of the Consciousness. If an
individual is able to notice and observe the functions of the Ego, he or she
will be able to transcend it. In that case, the individual who has been looking
for a more complete perception of the self will recognize that it has always
been there, but the functions of the Ego—identification with objects and
thoughts—has pushed it into the background. One of the ways of transcending the
Ego is not reacting wholeheartedly to the ever-changing kaleidoscope of
thoughts and emotions, but concentrating on the alert consciousness in the
background instead.
In most people, the
term “consciousness” identifies with that socially conditioned Ego. At a number
of people this identification is so powerful that they are unaware that their
life is governed by a socially conditioned mind.
Those who are able to
go beyond that identification with the mind recognize this state of being
socially conditioned, and are also able to leave the social conditioning
behind. Such a person will not identify with the mind but, increasingly, with
the Consciousness. The
Alertness shall,
therefore, control the mind to an increasing extent and will be manifested through
the tranquilized mind.
When our
identification with a form ceases, a new space is generated between us and the
form and we are able to see and recognize that we are not identical with that
form. With the dissolution of the identification, the Ego also disappears. This
is the second major turning point in the process of awakening.
03. Awakening in
Alertness
The gateway leading us
to the deeper dimensions of Life is Alertness, which appears as a result of the
release of our attention from the hypnotic state of listening to our personal
story. The new Alertness enables us to learn about ourselves without
identifying with our thoughts and emotions.
What we first
experience in this new, alert state beyond our thoughts and emotions is the
completeness of existence. In that state all fragmentation disappears from our
life, we recognize the inner spaciousness of our existence, our inner happiness
and tranqulity. We feel at home in our own skin, and we realize that our alert
consciousness is free from all kinds of thoughts and emotions.
In that state of
Consciousness an entirely new dimension of existence opens up for us, showing
us Existence from a completely new perspective. The unity behind the
controversies is revealed in front of our eyes, and we no longer insist on
looking on the sunny side of life, as we are able to discover beauty on the
dark side, too.
We accept life as it is, and it is not done
under pressure, since that acceptance is the result of our complete freedom.
The freedom is, in turn, a fruit of our escape from the world of Shapes and
Forms. We have understood and experienced the process of awakening. The time has come for us to
take control over our mind whenever it is required by the circumstances. When
we do not need the work of the mind directly, let us give it some rest.
Everything will be
quiet and peaceful in us. We are beyond all good and evil, we are a mere
Consciousness that does not analyze or judge, only contemplates. We realize
that the same contemplating soul lives in everybody, so the differences between
human beings are only superficial, and deep inside we are all the same.
Experiencing that unity will bring us the ecstasy of Life, the perfect joy of
Existence.
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