Today, it is evident to almost every spiritual seeker living in this age, the age of awakening. However, spiritual awakening may be misinterpreted.
Many people think that awakening and enlightenment is the same, that it is a one-time event: that it is happening once and it is done! Rather, the truth is that enlightenment is a process that is actually a series of awakenings. Let's take a look at the three most important turning points during awakening.
1.- Upon awakening of identification
Each moment of our life is adjusted to a personal story with our own Being in its focus. Our life can only be interpreted within the framework of that story. The reason for this is that we identify ourselves with the voice of the ego, the narrator of our own history, so closely that our personal history becomes the foundation of all our life.
What does this identification mean? This means that we identify with a form (for example, our name) that originally does not belong to us (we are all born without a name), but through the specific identification of this form that has become a part of our existence.
A closer look at personal history will reveal that our internal history consists of a fabric of experiences and thoughts. Thoughts that explain our experiences, thoughts that we believe and that we have identified with, thoughts that will thereby provide the basis for 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 in the story it tells. In this way we renounce our state of alert, the world passes through us, since we only focus on the elements of reality that seem to confirm our personal history. Therefore, we lose our control over the deeper dimensions of life. The deeper dimensions are present in our lives, but they lose contact with them due to our lack of mental acuity.
The question may arise in us whether we are really identical to our own personal history, or perhaps we are more than that? Everyone has some vague suspicion that our personal history does not reflect reality, which is, in fact, on a deeper level than that.
When everything is apparently fine in our personal history, we achieve our goals, we are happy, and the vague suspicion vanishes completely in us, and our identification with our personal history becomes more powerful. There are, however, times in our lives when we don't seem to be successful, so we are unhappy and suffer. Suspicion then reinforces us, and we tend to believe that we are more than the accumulation of thoughts that make up our personal history. We realize that we are more than mere thoughts.
If we become aware, and aware of our own personal history that we are telling ourselves, we have the opportunity to awaken from the hypnotic spell of our personal history. This is the first turning point in the awakening process.
2.- The awakening of the ego
When consciousness identifies with a form, the ego appears. The ego always means some kind of identification, self-determination (I am a man, I am a father, I am English, I am a Christian, etc.). Therefore, the ego is based on our identification with the things that are important to us.
The ego is the central figure in our personal history, based on the past and looking to the future. The components of the ego are thoughts, emotions, memories (with which the person identifies as "my story"), fixed unconscious functions and collective identifications (nationality, religion, etc.). Most people fully identify with these components of the ego, and for them there is an "outside" me.
The identification of the self with things (object, the person's own body, the way of thinking) creates the link of the individual with various things. The self (and therefore 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 out the search for new objects. There is a powerful motivation behind this individual activity, a psychological demand for more, the unconscious feeling of "not enough", and this superficial feeling in a desire to have more. This desire is a more powerful driving force for the ego than the desire to possess. Feelings of restlessness, recklessness, boredom, stress, and dissatisfaction are all largely the products of unsatisfied yearnings.
Thoughts such as "it's mine", "I want", "I need it", "it's not enough" belong to the ego structure. The content of the ego changes over time; it is replaced with new content. Without content it is, however, capable of lasting ego satisfaction as long as the ego structure remains in place. The individual continues to seek something different, something that promises greater satisfaction, making the individual's sense of self more complete.
The ego intends to raise the forms (including its own form) to eternity, which is impossible. This intention of the ego will be the source of all suffering, because its world of forms and figures will collapse like a sandcastle after a time, until death snatches the last of the forms: her body. You came up empty handed out of nowhere, and that is the way you are going to get back there. The only treasure he could take along with him is his waking state, but the ego regards it as worthless in the world of forms and forms, as it was not a means of increasing the power of the ego.
The self is not bad, it is simply unconscious. The ego is the deepest dream of consciousness. If an individual is able to realize and observe the functions of the ego, he or she will be able to transcend it. In that case, the person who has been seeking fuller perception and acknowledges that it has always been there, but the functions of ego-identification with objects and thoughts-has pushed into the background. One of the ways of transcending the ego is not reacting wholeheartedly like the shifting kaleidoscope of thoughts and emotions, but concentrating on the alert awareness deep inside instead.
In most people, the term "consciousness" is identified with that socially conditioned Ego. In 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 capable of going beyond identification with the mind recognize this state of being socially conditioned, and are also capable of leaving social conditioning behind. Such a person will not identify with the mind, but increasingly with Consciousness.
You will need to be vigilant to control your mind more and more so that it manifests through the calm 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 identification, the ego also disappears. This is the second turning point in the awakening process.
3.- The awakening of the alert state
The gateway that takes us to the deepest dimensions of life is Alertness, which appears as a result of the liberation of our attention from the hypnotic state of listening to our personal history. The new state of alert allows us to learn about ourselves without having to identify with our thoughts and emotions.
What the first experience in this new state, alerting beyond our thoughts and emotions is the fullness of existence. In this state, all the fragmentation disappears from our lives, we are aware of the inner breadth of our existence, our inner happiness and tranquility. We feel at home in our own skin, and we realize that our awareness is alert and free of 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 whole new perspective. The unity behind the controversies is revealed before our eyes, and they no longer insist on seeing 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 carried out under pressure, since acceptance is the result of our complete freedom. 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 to take control of our minds whenever required by circumstances. When the work of the mind is not necessary, let's give it a little rest.
Everything will be calm and peaceful in us. We are beyond all good and evil, we are a mere conscience that cannot analyze or judge, only contemplates itself. We realize that the same soul contemplating lives throughout the world, so the differences between human beings are only superficial, and deep down we are all the same. Experiencing that unity will bring us the ecstasy of life, the perfect joy of Existence.