It takes courage to live out of the box, as truth can break comfort. It can be about the need to make a career change, to leave bad relationships, to establish boundaries, to feel the emotions, or to take a different course in life. These changes may be challenging, but they make for a more cohesive life.
Purpose is also defined in terms of awakening. There is a sense of purpose that is imposed by the outside world, usually in terms of position, wealth, or accomplishment, before awakening. Once awakened, purpose relates to contribution, growth, love, and consciousness. The awakened one does not only ask “What can I gain from life?” but also “How can I serve life?” This change does not come by necessarily being a monk, spiritual teacher, or activist. Service can be manifested in the ordinary: kindness, honesty, creativity, listening, parenting, teaching, healing, or the act of being aware in ordinary interactions.
The definition of success changes as well when a person has a spiritual awakening. With regard to these, success is often defined in terms of wealth, fame, power or productivity in modern culture. When one becomes spiritually awake, they measure success in a different way. Inner peace, meaningful relationships, integrity, emotional freedom and values become more important than exterior status.
It does not mean that awakened people can’t desire for advancement or material comfort. Spirituality is not a complete disregard of the physical world. Instead it’s about not becoming its slave. The focus is on money, work and achievements as tools not as identities. When the awakened person is given the opportunity to enjoy his or her material experiences, but does not connect them with the measure of human worth.
Spiritual awakening can have a deep impact on the fear of death. Most people don’t consider death because it causes anxiety. Awakening invites one to directly encounter impermanence. People tend to be more appreciative, present, and compassionate when they see that life is transitory. Little things don’t matter; little things make a big difference.
A few spiritually aware people gain an increased awareness of the permanent nature of consciousness, but the meaning of this varies greatly from religion to religion and philosophy to philosophy. Regardless of a person’s views on reincarnation, afterlife, divine unity, or the nature of existence, awakening, in general, diminishes the fear of death.Whether or not one believes in reincarnation, an after-life, Divine unity or simply the mystery of existence, awakening usually quiets the fear of death by opening one’s perspective beyond material identity.
Spiritual awakening is not a destination, but rather a journey. Many people think that enlightenment is an end state of perfection that one achieves and never again will have to work on. Awakening is in fact a continuous journey. People grow and change, learn and heal all their life long. Moments of clarity, moments of confusion; periods of peace, and periods of struggle. Spiritual maturity comes in taking this ongoing process up into one’s arms, not holding onto perfection.
The experience of spiritual awakening is different for each culture and tradition. Awakening can be defined in the Buddhist context as the breaking of the bondages of attachment and illusion. In Christian Mysticism, it could refer to the unity with divine love. Awakening in the Hindu Philosophy could be the discovery of the higher self, which is beyond the limits of the ego. Today, in psychology the awakening may be connected with notions like self-awareness, emotional integration, transcendence, etc. Even though there are language and symbol differences, many traditions converge in the truths of greater consciousness, compassion, presence, humility and connection.
It is harder and more vital than ever to become spiritually awakened in the era of technology and modern culture. People today are constantly and consistently being fed information, advertising, social comparison and digital stimulation. The focus has broken down. Frequently, people do not have time to be quiet or introspect. This leads to a disconnect from oneself, while at the same time, not disconnecting from the outside noise.
The awakening of the Spirit brings the return to the inner depth. It invites them to take back the attention, the being present, the intentional living. This doesn’t mean we have to give up technology or contemporary life. Instead, it is about being conscious with these tools.
A key indicator of spiritual awakening is the feeling of freedom within. Freedom is not necessarily freedom from responsibility or challenge, it is freedom from unconscious patterns. The awakened one is less ruled by fear, greed, social pressure, resentment and attachment to the ego. They start to respond to life in awareness and not compulsion.
Pure light and infinite love be with us!