Have you had your spiritual awakening?
Vic Shayne, author, The Self is a Belief
You see it all over social media — people proclaiming they’ve had a spiritual awakening. They must be proud of this or why else would they make such an announcement to everyone they know and those they don’t know? But what’s actually going on, and what is a spiritual awakening?
There are two ideas regarding an awakening: One is the kind mentioned above, which is actually an example of the egoic self relishing an experience of the mind; and the other is the realization of one’s essence as the whole instead of the egoic self.
What is the egoic self?
The egoic self is the person we take ourselves to be until we wake up to the fact that it is merely an accretion of thoughts that have created associations and identities. Since the earliest age we absorb information from parents, teachers, and authority figures and then apply this information — beliefs, ideas, memories, teachings, etc. — to a persona that we adapt. We call this persona “me,” or “I.” But when you earnestly search for the egoic self, you cannot find it, and then perhaps it dawns on you that you are not anything you thought you had been; and you realize that you are the totality of all that is. This is an awakening.
The egoic self is a strong and persistent image that causes untold suffering for yourself, others, the natural world, and the planet. The egoic self is selfish and self-centered. It is also quite sneaky, because it fools you into thinking/believing that you have risen to new spiritual heights by way of experience, information, ideas, or teachings.
A true awakening is not an experience. It is a deep, abiding, and life-changing perspective of the nonexistence of the egoic self. Even the word “I” takes on a new meaning and loses its gravitas. Of course, the word “I,” as with all other pronouns, is necessary for communication, but to one who has awakened to the Self of consciousness the word no longer implies one who believes he/she is an individual separated from all else and all others.
What have you realized?
We have many terms that describe what realizations are. We say, “I get it!” or “Aha!” or nothing at all. Silence speaks volumes, and there are not words to describe what we really are beyond this egoic self.
A true awakening is a realization, not another idea, experience, or greater sense of importance. Those who are compelled to announce their “spiritual awakenings” are simply caught up in ego-gratification. (Of course, we need to use some discrimination here, because if you have been invited to speak about being awake, you will be explaining it to others. However, the explanation will be one for the edification of others and not a matter of pride and accomplishment.)
There is no “other”
The ego is much like a character in a play, movie, or novel, because it is constructed out of thought and carries on a variety of roles — father, mother, engineer, saleswoman, Catholic, Hindu, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, American, Austrian, Asian, social worker, alcoholic, hero, and on and on. All of the information that has been inputted into the brain and mind becomes the reference for actions and communications. The egoic self says, “I am this or that,” because it exists only in relation to “the other.” But when one realizes that the ego is a facade, a mirage, then something changes in the way the world, relationships, nature, and the rest of consciousness is perceived. The individual dissolves. Along with this dissolution is the need to be important, make proclamations about yourself, believe that there is an “other,” and tell the world you’ve had a spiritual awakening.
Misunderstandings abound
Here is a direct quote from someone on FaceBook about her spiritual awakening: “I had a particularly profound awakening last night following an interaction with my son... It has all been wonderful and confusing, but I find myself more hopeful now than ever before. I feel like I am finally on the right path and I have energy radiating in me that I cannot wait to put to good use!”
If we look at this statement we find nothing more than the feelings of the “I,” which is the egoic self. The ego believes there is a right path and a wrong path. It confuses energy and feelings with the great emptiness of actuality. The ego alone experiences hope or despair, but the realized person knows that these are dualities that exist only due to the perception of the limited mind that is colored by its conditioning.
Another person on social media said that his awakening “came from God, basically.” One who has awakened to the core of the Self of consciousness also realizes that there is no God outside of him/herself. All is you, and “you” are not separate from the all.
In a popular blog article someone wrote that after a spiritual awakening “you may feel ‘disconnected and detached from the things and people you used to enjoy.’ This, again, is an experience of the egoic self. When it becomes clear to you that you are the totality of all, the result is not disconnection and detachment, but quite the opposite.
Insulting the egoic self
All of what I have written is sure to aggravate and anger the egoic self, because the ego wants and needs to be important. It doesn’t want to be called out as a phony. And it does not want to be embarrassed or diminished. It wants to hold onto its perceived sense of righteousness and superiority. But for those who truly seek the answer to the question “Who am I?” the experiences of the egoic mind will not suffice. It’s best not to read what people say about spiritual awakenings, because like most other expressions, they are based on misunderstandings, misinterpretation of enlightened gurus, and the ever-persistent self-aggrandizing desires of the egoic self.
Experience and experiencer
Every experience has an experiencer, just as everything that is seen has a seer. When one exclaims that he has had an awakening then the first question that arises is: Who has had an awakening? This “who” is the egoic mind, because the essence of what we are is not a “who” or a “what;” it is unalloyed awareness.
