Awakening The Self

In last month’s column, we talked a little about what it means to live consciously in the world, and I introduced a brief lesson on how to become Present and live from Present Moment Awareness. In this month’s column and in the future I’ll be expanding on this topic with discussions on the awakening process and giving you exercises to heal past wounds and ultimately open the way for you to be able to experience spiritual awakenings in your life.

Today I’d like to talk about why. Why is the world in the state it is in, and what benefits await us when we wake up? As I said in last month’s column, most of us at one time or another ask ourselves “Who AM I and why am I here?” When this happens we are experiencing the Divine Impulse to awaken. It is the movement of God calling us to Awareness and Spiritual Awakening, because it is the desire of God to bring Heaven to Earth for the whole of humanity.

We are all very much aware of the suffering in the world today, from starving and homeless children in Africa to wars and conflicts worldwide, and the untold millions of people living in poverty around the globe. But what is it that creates these conditions? When there is such incredible knowledge and so much prosperity that a single person can have billions of dollars, why do these situations exist? Some would say they’re brought about by lack of education or the lack of viable economic systems or of corrupt governments, but the reason behind it all is the operation of unconscious ego.

In a spiritually awakened world these conditions would not exist. Imagine for a moment a world where all people are loving and compassionate, a world where we all care for one another. Imagine a global community where every single person knows who and what they truly are, that they are part of God, living in the Body of God in Creation. Imagine what would happen if everyone on the face of this earth knew this in the deepest part of their being, and that it not only was common knowledge, but common experience. If this were this the case there would be global unity, love, compassion and prosperity. No one would be left out and none would suffer, because in this state it is impossible to harm another when you know the other as Self, and you know God.

Imagine also what would happen to your life if you were living in this awareness, and you knew who and what you are. The effect would be (and is) profound when experienced. Once it becomes part of your experience, your life is never again the same. Identity with ego ceases and a new identity in God forms, and as you move through the process of integration it becomes a new way of being in the world. All of the illusions, beliefs and judgments that you held dissolve and integrate into a new greatly expanded state of beingness.

What I have just described is not an impossible dream, it is intended to be our natural state of Being, and anyone with a strong enough desire to do so can experience it. We are NOT our stories or our beliefs, but we believe we are, and as a result we have created the world we now live in. The truth is that all of our beliefs, judgments and positionalities are physically nothing more than a collection of neural synaptic connections in our brain, and a corresponding issuance of peptides, and we have embodied many of these beliefs at a cellular level.

Once we know this and accept it, we are on our way being able to observe our stories, and the more we do, the less they define us. As time goes on we begin to experience ourselves as the one who experiences, and we come to know that we are the Awareness behind the experience. When this begins to arise we have opened the door which will allow the Truth of Life to rise up and reveal itself. We are then engaged in the process of Awakening, and of bringing Heaven to Earth.

To start this process yourself, begin to pay attention to your thoughts and feelings. Take out a pad of paper and write down who you have come to believe you are. Write down every judgment and belief you have, whether about yourself or about others or even the world. Therein lies part of your key to freedom. Be ruthless in your honesty with yourself. Only then will you discover the web of illusion your ego has created under the guise of you. And remember as you do this that it is not you and doesn’t define you. It only represents your past and what your past has taught you. Then once you have begun to identify who and what you have believed yourself to be, start to watch yourself in action as you go through your day. Don’t try to change it, just observe, as if you’re sitting in a theatre watching a play or a movie. This exercise alone will begin to free you from your mind and begin to bring about a shift in consciousness.

Next month we’ll talk more about this process and of ego, and we’ll also discuss suppressed emotion and how to begin to heal old wounds and bring yourself to greater consciousness.

Keep smiling!