Spiritual Awakening. Part 1
You may have heard it before: “She’s a very spiritual person,” or “He’s not a very spiritual person”, or ”They say they are spiritual but not religious”, or some variation on the commentary of a person’s spiritual status. But what is the “spirit” and what does “awaken” really mean? This must be important because people have asked this question for thousands of years and come up with hundreds of answers.
Most of us have the feeling that spiritual awakening means something that is out of the ordinary, like some special condition that is beyond the everyday world. This is partly true because our spiritual side is usually cloaked in the nuts, bolts, bells and whistles of daily living. Our spirit – that most essential quality of being human – is always there but because of distractions we aren’t aware of it; we are asleep.
Great wisdom teachers from Buddha to Carl Jung have said that our biggest problem – the thing that causes dissatisfaction and suffering – is that we think we are separate from the rest of the world. This separation comes from the ego. The self-oriented ego learns from experience what is necessary to get physical and emotional protection; it’s purpose is self-preservation. Eventually we get to the point where our energy is consumed by defending a sense of “I”. This leads to alienation from others, which then causes greed, prejudice and hostility – at this point the ego has degenerated to selfishness. The antidote to the poison of selfishness is spiritual awakening.
“Spiritual awakening” is a state of being that has many names: Enlightenment, Nirvana, Buddhanature, Void, Original One, Revelation, Mystery of Christ, and more. This can be a heady topic but, while each of these designations is usually linked to a specific religious philosophy, they all are based on the awareness of a mind state that is not referenced back to the ego. It is an experience that unifies subject and object, self and other to arrive at equanimity. This experience of universal oneness is acknowledged by all spiritual traditions as the ultimate flowering of the human spirit.
Your Basic Nobility
Our true nature – that essential core of who we are – is kind and compassionate. I believe we do have an innate nobility that is always present in our HeartMind – that wonderful combination of emotional intelligence and rational thinking. Regardless of all the problems, conflicts, disappointments, and unhappiness that we may suffer, there still remains that central spirit of kindness, compassion and goodwill. Like a benevolent king or queen, our spirit promotes our well being with decency and honorable action.
You may be saying, “Okay, so the spirit in me is really great. I’d be calm, cool and not have any problems if my spirit woke up, right?” Not exactly.
What you think of as problems – those experiences that cause suffering – are the source of afflictive emotions. Something happens – a problem – and you react with anger, fear, greed, hatred, jealousy or any emotion that causes you to suffer distress. These experiences will always happen but when your spirit is awake your reaction to “problems” will change. An important key to spiritual awakening is to recognize the arising of these mind states and to let them go. The mind is both the source and the remedy for afflictive emotions.
Your spirit is naturally joyful, compassionate, kind and caring;
it does not dwell in afflictive emotions;
it is the source of your well being.
…to be continued in Part 2
Dr. Ron Davis
“My mission in life is a triad of offerings: to help people access their deepest level of well-being, to teach them how to enhance their vital energy for better health, and to provide therapeutic services that will guide their body, mind, and spirit toward a life of peace and happiness.”
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