Spiritual Awakening :: Integrating With Infinite Consciousness

Spiritual Awakening is both an event and a process, one which is intrinsically defined by a shift in awareness within the individual into consistent experiences of spirit, which can be classified essentially as ‘mystical’ experiences. This has nothing to do with intellect, thinking, learning, faith, or belief. It is a dramatic and transformative shift in awareness where your perception of reality fundamentally changes, which must be achieved organically through specific spiritual techniques. (Drugs have no place in this process, and are only a hindrance, in the end.)

Without a transcendental experience of Spirit then one has not yet undergone a spiritual awakening event. Yet just having a spiritual experience is not enough to say that one is undergoing the shift of spiritual awakening, because true spiritual awakening is an event which sets a person on a trajectory of conscious growth towards a new and completely transformed experience and understanding of life, self, and reality. The process is where true spiritual awakening is to be found, and this process is endless.

In this article I will do my best to broach this topic, and to give you a core understanding of the process to the best of my knowledge at present. Though know that, as with the whole core of my writings, this is a topic I will return to over the years and will absolutely reach new layers of understanding in the future which will require certain alterations and corrections in the understanding presented herein. Please bear with me, as there is nothing that I can do about that at this time. I believe, trust, and know unequivocally that I am at a sufficient level to begin speaking about these topics. Though I also know that I am far from my own personal ideal of mastery, and have much room to learn and grow.

What Is Spiritual Awakening?

To understand what spiritual awakening really means, we first have to wonder what it means to be spiritually awake at all? If there is a process/event called spiritual awakening, then what is the difference of perception and experience between one who is awake and one who is asleep? From a scientific standpoint, I honestly do not know. Understanding spiritual awakening on a sound scientific foundation is a prime objective that will revolutionize our understanding of consciousness, perception, spirit, and reality as well as redefining what it means to be a human being.

However at this stage we know little about consciousness, the nature of perception, imagination, concepts such as intuition and visionary experiences, etc. Thus I cannot tell you what the shift means from a scientific perspective. The experience is perceptual, and we do not yet know how to measure and quantify perceptual experiences.

However, from a perceptual and experiential perspective I know this process well, and I know enough to see that there is a definite science to it in practice at least, even if our theory is not yet complete. It deals with definite and repeatable shifts in perception and experience, which we cannot at present quantify, leading to a new experience of being, and connection to Spirit which changes everything in our lives.

If I were to describe this in my own terminology, I would say that the event of spiritual awakening starts when an individual has developed to the stage that they become aware of two aspects within themselves. One of which is a false construct and distortion of the true nature of the individual. This false self is what I call the Ego, and it is a very small, limited, ultimately erroneous identity based on an understanding of ourselves (self-image) formed primarily as a product of the experiences of this lifetime.

When the first stages of spiritual awakening occur we begin to recognize a deeper part of ourselves. One aspect of which can be called the Silent Observer, as well as the True Self, in that we begin to identify with the part of ourselves that is perpetually and silently observing our thoughts and emotions, though is not engaged with them. This creates a necessary disengagement within ourselves from the internal dialogue and perceptual patterns of the Ego which gives us the opportunity to break the repetitive cycle that all people get stuck in when they are continually informed by the Ego of how to act based on learned patterns. These patterns are what maintain our worldview – our mental, emotional, and behavioral experience – which are invisible when we are completely engaged with them.

Once we initially diverge from the Ego and begin to experience and perceive ourselves as something else, something more, something different than what we once though ourselves to be, this separation is all that we needed for a transcendental experience of Spirit to be attained. These experiences may happen spontaneously in a spiritual awakening event, or they can be worked towards with the right practices, once we realize the need and desire to forge this spiritual connection and spiritual awareness. In either case they occur as a result of our own penetration to greater depths within ourselves beyond the superficial levels of the thinking mind.

An experience of Spirit is literally the event that I believe initiates Spiritual Awakening, because the whole process itself is essentially our journey of greater awareness, comprehension, and integration with Infinite One Consciousness. It is a journey of greater identification with the divinity within us and fundamental to all things. I really do not have any words to describe this experience to you. You will know it through experience. Furthermore, I am not at any final stages. I doubt there are final stages because identification with what is infinite is literally something that will take an eternity, because infinite is, well, infinite.

Thus how can we truly say when this process of Spiritual Awakening really began? Though from my own experience and observation, Spiritual Awakening is a fairly definite event that takes place in a person’s life maybe over an instant or a period of time extending months and years. This event is not something that can be forced onto someone, because a prerequisite is that a person has to reach a place in their life where they realize that they need something more. Where they know that there is a deeper experience to life, a deeper nature of who and what they are, and simply more to this existence than what the majority are living and breathing. This has to be a choice, from which conscious Spiritual Awakening can begin because you can definitively work towards spiritual experiences with the training regimen that I provide an overview of later in this article.

Ultimately spiritual awakening is a process of becoming what we are, and realizing that there is a capacity to humans as a fundamental extension of our nature as consciousness which enables us to turn our attention towards and experience what can only be called Infinite Consciousness – Spirit. The process towards degrees of this experience is called Spiritual Awakening.

The Process of Spiritual Awakening

As well as being an event (which actually occurs at various stages in our lives) spiritual awakening is also a process. It is when the True Self grows more powerful than the Ego at the moment that we as conscious beings realize that we need to change, and that the people we have become are not a genuine expression of what we really are. This state is probably the ignition point of spiritual awakening. Though from there the accentuation and expression of the True Self occurs as a result of specific, definite work that we do as individuals.

In no small way is the process of spiritual awakening driven by our need to be what we are and also to connect with spirit more and more deeply. From the first onset of spiritual experience, most will realize right away that there is nothing more important in our lives. This isn’t only because of the feeling of being more complete and whole in these experiences than in any other time of our lives, or the ecstasy of bliss and inspiration, but also because we recognize that we are better people when we are connected in this way, and we have more to offer others and the world. Though the greatest drive for our commitment to spiritual development is because we have realized the necessity of truth in everything that we are and in all our expression.

The first phase of spiritual awakening is a shift in focus towards a definite perceptual experience of what I generally call spiritual awareness. Yet the term spiritual awareness is in some ways erroneous. I call it spiritual awareness because it is not a thing, but a state of being or level of consciousness that we reach. It is a place in perception and emotion that we can attain through a number of tried and tested techniques.

Remember that we do not “go to” Spirit as if it is something outside of ourselves. Singular Infinite Consciousness is the fabric of reality, and we are all embedded within it and are indistinguishable from it, when observed from higher levels of consciousness. The process of spiritual awakening and spiritual development is then one of moving inwards towards singularity, the core of our being, where we gradually by degrees begin to experience and identify with Infinite Consciousness.

The Spiritual Awakening event is the first step towards a genuine experience of this, defined by separation and disengagement from the Ego accompanied by an experience of Spirit which is literally the result of this separation from the Ego. For that detachment gives us the space for a different perspective and experience as our minds and behavior are no longer restrained as tightly by the perceptual programs (mental-emotional programs, beliefs, and worldviews) that define the Ego. Along the way we cultivate spiritual awareness as the progress through successive experiences of greater and greater identification with One Consciousness. Another way of saying this is that the cultivation of spiritual awareness and the process of spiritual awakening are the regular attainment of new peaks of spiritual experience.

These two shifts – a shift in our identity based on a new perception of ourselves, and a new connection to and experience of Spirit – in concert mark the initial event of spiritual awakening. Yet the process is also set into motion by this event, because this new experience of what we are cracks the foundation of our false identity, and this new experience of Spirit lingers, and in some sense pulls us towards it because it cannot be ignored. Some people try their best to return to their normal lives, to what they had always been and known. However this doesn’t work, and only pain will result.

Generally speaking, a clear experience of Spirit is years away. Nonetheless these first few spiritual events are powerful and incredible, because relative to our emotional range and the range of our perceptual experiences before, spiritual awakening represents nothing less than the next order of magnitude above. The next octave of human experience.

I do not intend to take anything away from you after having such experiences, but please learn from my mistakes. After these first few stages, you will feel as if you have attained the final stages of your journey. Though in reality you have so much further to go, and it will be many years before you actually attain the state of balance within yourself necessary to sustain spiritual heights. So when you fall after the initial phase of spiritual awakening – or at least seem to – this is a part of the process. Now is when the personal development work begins as you learn to consciously align yourself with spirit and reclaim those heights.

The awakening is strong, and chaos ensues in its wake because our whole world and identity are cracked at their foundation by this experience of truth, as so much of our identity and worldview are erroneous in the light of these new experiences, being founded on incorrect assumptions and ignorance. Through this process we essentially have to re-learn what we are in the years that follow as we gradually build the knowledge and skills to express and live as the person we discovered ourselves to be within the shattered husk of the Ego. It will still require years to untangle ourselves from the false aspects of our so-called identity.

There is a logical progression to spiritual awakening. The results of various techniques are accumulative, and we will see in hindsight some of the logic and symmetry behind the process of the unfolding of ourselves within the progression of a lifetime. Not even in the sense of some pattern to our lives, or some deeper hidden meaning necessarily, but literally in the attitudes and behaviors that defined us at each stage. For we will see again and again that we reached new stages of spiritual awareness and awakening once we had shed certain specific limiting patterns.

In this way spiritual awakening has so many concepts and themes in common with the learning process. New knowledge (of ourselves and spirit) is gained through our spiritual experiences, which give us a different perspective and understanding of what we are. This impels us into specific action, into the cultivation of knowledge, skills, habits, thinking & emotional patterns, attitudes, and behaviors in greater alignment with the person we realize ourselves to be. While in the midst of a phase of learning it feels like a great intensity of chaos, in hindsight we see clearly what we were working on, and also why we had to struggle during that phase in order to reach the later stages.

Spiritual Awakening occurs in cyclic phases which, from the perspective of the individuals perception and emotional experience, are felt as an oscillation into and out of phase with Spirit. I personally believe that the frequency of these oscillations into and out of Spirit is partially natural. There are phases of suffering, emotional processing, intense struggle and hardship, along with periods of blissful ecstatic ease that we simply must go through. There is no way to avoid the challenges that we have to face along our natural path of growth and development because personal evolution will only take place as a result of overcoming the challenges we face. Yet in the end it will be the specific and conscious shifts that we made (in our daily routine, training, dreams and ambitions, attitudes, habits, outlook, knowledge, etc.) that resulted in our progression towards higher states.

Every single time that I came back into phase, it was when I consciously turned back towards Spirit. You have to understand that I was connected the entire time, because our levels of spiritual awareness and spiritual attainment are generally accumulative. You cannot lose what you have already earned. Though after a few weeks of feeling great at a new spiritual-emotional level, that will feel normal very quickly, so once again you will reorient yourself within the relative spectrum of highs and lows, and will have no choice but to turn your attention once again towards Spirit.

The appearance of moving a step (or 3) backwards occurs because of the information that we take in from each spiritual peak. We receive information about ourselves, and that information must then be integrated into behavior and action. We unlock more intense and deeply buried mental-emotional patterns and pain, and have to acknowledge this part of ourselves, the faults that arise from this internal conflict and distortion that was always there, then process it by experiencing it deeply. This more than anything describes the process of Spiritual Awakening, the consistent practice of looking deeply while engaging in emotional processing.

The Dual-Polarity of Spiritual Awakening

There are two fundamental aspects to the process of spiritual awakening: the Spiritual Cultivation of turning our attention inwards, and the knowledge and skill development necessary for Self-Expression. They are completely different, even though technically speaking they do require a similar mental & behavioral skill set: discipline, focus, concentration, work ethic, willpower, commitment, a sense of quality, a bent towards refinement and mastery, resolve and determination, purpose, passion, and enthusiasm. The main qualities, every one of which can be developed and enhanced with conscious effort. However where Cultivation and Expression differ is in the parts of ourselves that they each develop.

Self-Expression and Spiritual Cultivation are the two main aspects of our training throughout the spiritual awakening process. They must be understood in concert because if we neglect either, if they are not in balance, then the one we emphasize will be hindered by our neglect of its opposite. Spiritual Cultivation is the conscious practice of moving towards Spirit, searching for Inner Silence, learning to see more deeply within ourselves beyond the Mind into experiences as the Silent Observer and integration with Infinite Consciousness (Satori or Samadhi).

This practice is embodied in meditation, though meditation isn’t the only necessary practice to support our ability to do this, which we will cover below. The purpose of Spiritual Cultivation is to see ourselves more and more clearly in order to discover throughout our lives more of what we are, and what the purpose of our lives are, as well as to consciously move in action, thought, and experience towards Spirit.

The Self-Expression is essentially the opposite polarity of our internally directed attention. It is the act of cultivating, expressing, and ultimately realizing the individuals that we discover within through our spiritual training. We are more than people just going inwards to have transcendental experiences, many of us having a collection of roles to play in our lives which are equally as important and instructive as our spiritual experiences.

We have these roles because they teach us just as much about life, divinity, awakening, and existence as any other experiences. It is through the trials of our roles, ambitions, relationships and lives that we learn and grow. They teach us about every aspect life and reality. We all have reasons to be here, whether that is becoming a better parent, becoming a teacher to aid, serve, and guide the next generation, becoming a psychologist to help people grow and overcome their problems, to improve their lives consciously, or to become a physicist, oceanographer, or scuba instructor.

These aspects of our life and self-cultivation are just as important as transcendental spiritual experiences, because they are the resolution of what we are. Spiritual Awakening above anything is simply becoming what we are. Spiritual Cultivation guides us towards Spirit and to the realization of what we are, though ultimately one aspect of Self-Realization is attained through the action of actually becoming in life what we discovered ourselves to be in meditation. “Be the change you wish to see in the world” as Gandhi said.

Human beings are creatures of action. We are dynamic. As such what we have the potential to be is not necessarily who we are at present. It is our actions that define us, our behavior in the moment. In one of those intense phases of spiritual awakening where you proceed to new levels of awareness, you will always return with an idea. Some understanding, some piece of yourself, insight into your nature, or insight into your life’s work, or nature itself, depending on your inclinations and arts as a human, which tells you how you need to grow.

From spiritual cultivation and the resultant spiritual experiences individuals are gifted with knowledge and insight related to how they need to grow as humans. Maybe they are inspired to learn music, realize that they need to be kinder to one of their friends or family members, that they have to forgive themselves or some other person, that they had to quit their job, that they need to cultivate presence, deepen their meditation practice, learn to surf, swim, perform taiji or asana. These are the types of knowledge from spiritual experience that I am talking about.

Though rarely have I seen people act on this kind of information. This is important to understand because the Spiritual Cultivation and Self-Expression must be undertaken at the same time because spiritual cultivation informs our direction for self-expression. It tells us who we are, what we are, how we need improve, what our contribution and service to the world and community is, and what we need to change about ourselves in order to attain the next stage of spiritual awakening.

If Spiritual Cultivation and Self-Expression are not in balance, then you may be bent too far towards Spirit but aren’t doing all of the work you need to do in order to cultivate yourself as a person. This means that your spiritual progress will halt until you make personal progress, because it takes personal development to align your habits and behaviors with the person you truly are. This is also greater spiritual alignment. Likewise, if you are bent too far towards Self-Expression then you may become great in your chosen field, eminent among humans, but will lack the power in your work of one who is awake, which stems from truth and genuineness. Or you will be depressed, superficial, lost, and unfulfilled regardless of your wealth, status, intelligence, and achievement.

The ideal is obviously balance between Spiritual Cultivation and Self-Expression, because only then are we completely engaged in the process of spiritual awakening, enjoying spiritual connection in the moments of our lives and success in what we do simply because the work we are doing is important to us and a harmonious extension of what we are. This state of harmony is where inner peace emerges from. So choose to consciously grow, by acting on the information that we are given at each stage, thereby resolving that aspect of ourselves so that we can work on our next objective / blockage, because fundamentally we are beings of action. In this way our Spiritual Awakening becomes a fast moving process.

A Holistic Approach To Spiritual Training

The Core Themes of Spiritual Development for Conscious Spiritual Awakening

With the right techniques humans can achieve incredible perceptual (mental and emotional) states of mystical spiritual awareness. Although they are not easy to attain, and even more challenging to maintain because of what they require in the realm of self discipline, mastery, and development. At each new pinnacle during the process of spiritual awakening, I found every time that there were specific principles of training and specific tools that brought me back towards connection. Half of my progress into the next phase of spiritual heights occurred because I actively resolved myself, meaning that I actively sought out everything that I was, inspired and inclined to do, and then made a habit of continually building those parts of myself.

Look within yourself, and seek to discover all that you are. Find the musician, software designer, electrical engineer, field biologist, surfer, jogger, or ballet dancer. Find every piece, both the great and the small, and embrace them all. Develop them, learn to make them all a regular and consistent part of your life, and make sure that the core of your Daily Ritual is populated by those parts of yourself that are the most fundamental and important to you as an individual. Ignore all else in pursuit of what is most important to you, and zero in on that which excites the most passion, enthusiasm, wonder, and curiosity in you. Yet remember that you are but part of a greater whole, so that what interests you most of all is not in any way superior to another persons path and work.

We all play our roles, and that is the end of it. We just have to play the right roles with joy in our hearts, and service to others and to spirit in our minds. When you begin to express yourself on a daily basis in every way that you are passionate about, you will gradually begin to find piece because you are satisfying what you are in what you do, in the time of your life, and that is really all there is to it. With a dedicated spiritual practice, then you will also fuel your work, creativity, and actions with power and life that can only stem from spirit.

It is meditation which gives us the subtlety to tease out various emotions, not through force, but through observation of what we are feeling. This is how we choose what is right for us. This was always the case at every stage of my own numerous learning processes. I regularly reached obstacles in my ability to learn something, because of how I was approaching that thing. I wasn’t getting the effect that I desired. If I was instructed by a spiritual experience, major or regular, or by a passing insight so powerful from my perspective that it virtually ordered me to make a change. Over time I became better and better at making that change no questions asked. Taking it in stride without even breaking my Daily Ritual.

Though that personal discovery and cultivation is part of the Self-Expression aspect of spiritual awakening. The counterpart as I’ve stated is Spiritual Cultivation. This spiritual training and cultivation requires us to address four main areas: Mind, Body, Energy, and Spirit. These are the principles of the internal side of spiritual development, the practices of Spiritual Awakening and Integration.

• Mental Training :: The concept of Mind is the training of a certain part of our awareness that I will call Mental Discipline. In short, it is our ability to focus and concentrate on something. Not focus, concentration, or attention in and of themselves. Rather the will associated with this practice, which is the actual strength and ability of being able to consistently bring our attention back into focus when necessary. This is necessary because higher spiritual states make people “spacey”, and if we want to direct and use that awareness, channel that energy (so-to-speak) into our work and actions, we require this mental fortitude.
• The Training of the Body :: We train the body simply to keep it healthy. Consider strength and/or conditioning work (anything from jogging, to cross-fit, rock-climbing, asana (yoga), martial arts, dance, and beyond) for the purpose of engaging our bodies. Keeping our bodies fit and healthy, because that makes life more enjoyable, and only in a state of vibrant health is our nervous system at its most optimum for thinking, feeling, and experiencing. Though keep in mind all the aspects of physical training: strength, conditioning, flexibility, as well as movement itself as an art with an element of mastery in the form of skills. I personally find that a balanced physical regimen and practices that I am passionate about is absolutely necessary for Spiritual Cultivation because it takes us out of our mind and practicing asana (yoga), taiji, or martial arts forms / techniques can be a complimentary meditation to my actual meditation practice. Though remember that Physical Training is only part of a greater regimen.
• Energetic Training :: In concert with our Physical Training, we must also take into account our energy system. I have found in practices of qi gong, even taiji to some degree, as well as in pranayama (breathing techniques), raja yoga, chanting, meditation techniques, and various kundalini yoga techniques, that we have a different level to our bodies than the physical, the energetic, which is utterly tangible with training. I do not understand everything about this. Remember that I do not yet understand fully why certain techniques work, producing the effects that they produce, or what the true impact of those results are within the greater context of spiritual awakening and the development of the individual spirit. There is effectively nobody alive who understands this fully. All I can say is very, very tentatively what these techniques seem to do, and the effect they seem to be having on my bio-energetic system and on my awareness. All I know is that there are certain core techniques which are of special importance. Specifically a couple of bandha practices, stomach pumps, various postures and movement sequences to move energy through the body, breathing practices, and meditation techniques which are essential. They do something to the body, mind, and spirit and are part of a complete spiritual training regimen. Though I would not practice them without a physical and mental foundation, because there are dangers. Thus exercise immense caution.
• Meditation: The Spiritual Practice :: Meditation is the only Spiritual Practice, in my mind. With great respect to the numerous branches and techniques of yoga and the various Asian energy arts (I train regularly in the core of them all) the only truly spiritual practice is Meditation. This is because meditation is ultimately the only thing which brings us to a direct experience of Spirit attained through degrees of an experience of Silence, Emotional Processing, and the Resolution of the Self. Physical, Mental, and Energetic Training all have their place as a foundation for our Spiritual Development. However, that Spiritual Development only occurs when we Meditate. Or at least, it most readily and consciously occurs when we meditate. You can find silence in any action, though the greatest refinement takes place in Meditation, because Meditation is what teaches us what silence really is at our most intimate internal boundary with it – the boundary between silence and the observer, where our thoughts and emotions seem to emanate from. Furthermore, it is with Mental Training (that we can best cultivate through our physical training, arts, and disciplines as we seek mastery, in my opinion) which provides us with the right mental discipline, mental toughness, and force of mind that is required to sustain degrees of connection with spirit – and to go deeper.

Deeper Engagement In Spiritual Awakening

Spiritual Awakening is a vast subject, with a number of specific concepts that are relevant to the understanding of the greater whole. It even incorporates my writings on personal mastery and the principles of personal development and learning, because those are insights and understanding I earned as I refined my behavior to better come into alignment with Spirit in my life. Therefore if you explore these articles more deeply I will explain to you the process, principles, concepts, and themes relevant to Spiritual Awakening from my own personal investigation of it.

Remember that these are the things which have worked for me, and while I have striven to outline general themes and principles, I will have undoubtedly have made some mistakes. Furthermore, while the specific practices of mine may work for me, you and I are not the same people. Thus to satisfy your own nature, you will likewise have to find what works best for you. Your practices for physical training and for mental training, as well as energetic training may be different from my own. Though I believe our common ground will always be Meditation.

The question in Mental and Physical Training is not so much “How do I get my body in shape and what arts can I do to help me achieve it?” so much as it is a question of “What is it that I am so passionate and inspired to do with m body that I have a deeply buried need to do?” see the difference? We are seeking for results, yes, but only in the greater context of the people we are and would like to be.

With that, I suggest that you further refine your understanding of Spiritual Awakening with these select and organized articles:

• The Process of Spiritual Awakening
• The Dual Polarity of Spiritual Awakening
• Spiritual Training :: The Tools to Foster Spiritual Awakening