People talk about having a “spiritual awakening” and being a “conscious being,” but what does this really mean?
Awakening and consciousness are words that attempt to define the undefinable, so it’s only natural that there will be numerous definitions and descriptions of awakening and consciousness. Not only this, but the word means different things at different points along the spiritual path so not everyone is always talking about the same thing.
Some people use the term “awakening” to mean that I am awake and not being currently controlled by the ego. If I’m Present in the Now, I am awake, but this is only one stage in the process of awakening.
I actually use the word “awakening” to mean something very different. In my vocabulary, it is synonymous with “enlightenment.” It means to realize your true nature, not just intellectually, but to actually BE it. It is a radical shift of identity that involves the direct realization of the nonexistence of the “me” that I think I am. It is the direct experience of Oneness and Infinity/Nothingness as One’s actual Reality.
Let’s take a look at several different stages of awakening.
The following is not by any means an all-inclusive list, but it does highlight some of the common stages along the path to enlightenment.
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I recently sent out a newsletter (you can subscribe at the upper-left of the page) discussing how everything you need for Enlightenment is found in the Silence. It’s all within.
There were some wonderful responses to the newsletter, as well as one unsubscribe email that was particularly fantastic. It read:
Your advice, actually: “You see, if you’re looking for Enlightenment, it’s in the Silence that everything you seek is found.” I understand that to mean I don’t need your newsletters. Thanks, though!
Of course you don’t need my newsletters!
It means you don’t need ANYTHING!
You already have and are EVERYTHING you could possibly want!
How wonderful!
What a gift! 
(Actually, wouldn’t that suck if what you wanted could only come from someone else outside yourself? What if you couldn’t find them or they refused to give it to you? Then you’d be totally screwed! Fortunately, everything you seek is found within.)
The Love that you seek arises from the Silence that you are within.
The Peace that you seek arises from the Silence that you are within.
The Enlightenment that you seek arises from the Silence that you are within.
ALL that you seek is already available within, INCLUDING what you think is outside of you.
Just like other spiritual teachers, I’m not here to give you anything you don’t already have, but rather to point you towards where you’re not yet looking (within) and thus discover who you already are.
You truly need nothing else to awaken.
Just be yourself, your True Self.
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We tend to think that there’s an objective world out there and that we can affect and are affected by this outside world. There is a world “out there” that we are born into and interact with.
If we like the interaction between us and the outside world, we call this “good.” If we don’t like it, we call it “bad.”
The above drawing (awesome, I know, thank you 
) is how we typically perceive the world.
Notice that there is a “me” independent of the outside world who is perceiving what’s happening in the outside world. There is a sense of separation.
What’s actually going on is quite different. Let’s take a look.
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This world is one of paradox. It is a world in which two dualistic and seemingly opposing viewpoints often battle it out for the title of being RIGHT. (Insert heroic trumpet fanfare here!)
In fact, being right is the one thing that people(’s egos) will sacrifice most anything for, including their own happiness, health, wealth, and even their very lives. Never underestimate the human ego’s desire to be right!!
The irony is that from a higher perspective, from the level of non-dualistic consciousness, it becomes clear that NEITHER are right AND BOTH are right! Say what!? How can this be??
It’s not this OR that, but this AND that.
Perhaps you’ve seen two people who are arguing about something, only to realize that they’re both right. The thing is that they’re both looking at the same thing, but simply seeing it from different perspectives.
When you can stand in the center and realize how both seemingly opposing viewpoints are actually both valid, are really the same truth viewed from different perspectives, then you can say you are centered in your being.
The most natural way to get to that integrated space is to let the mind be quiet. Paradox can be conceptualized in the mind, but there’s truly nothing to understand. Simply be still and know. The paradoxes will be revealed to you.
It seems that reality is centered right between the paradoxes. Life finally “clicks” when you sit between the paradoxes.
A few quick examples…
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Non-duality is about inclusion, not exclusion. Non-duality seems to run contrary to duality. Non-duality (not two) says that All That Is is One.
The One is the All. The All are the One.
So how does duality fit into this?
Duality is the fundamental basis of separation, that there are many individual separate things. “This over here is me, but that over there is not.” While duality is not the ultimate truth at all, it is still a witnessable reality in a sense, is it not?
The All are the One. The One is All That Is.
If Non-duality didn’t include Duality within it, it wouldn’t be All That Is.
If All That Is didn’t include both the light AND the dark, it wouldn’t be ALL That Is. It would be Half-of-What-Could-Be.
Everything exists everywhere in the Universe simultaneously. It is omnipresent.
To experience physical reality, we basically put a filter over the Infinite to limit what we see, like putting on a pair of colored sunglasses. We vibrationally stand in a place which gives us a unique perspective to see various aspects of the infinite, a particular manifestation of All That Is. Playing with that vibration is the essence of the Law of Attraction. It’s a lot like looking at a hologram. It all exists now, but the version of the hologram you see depends upon the direction you are looking from.
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What can we do with our imagination, once we realize it has more reality than we realized? How can deliberate visualization then serve us?
We can sit down quietly, close our eyes, quiet our minds, and allow ourselves to fully experience another parallel reality, existing right here, right now.
We immerse ourselves in that reality, feel it, live it, hear it, taste it, touch it, smell it, breathe it. We engage our mind and our senses deeply into this reality and come to the FEELING place of this reality.
From this feeling, we can then ask ourselves, how am I living my life? What am I doing? How am I acting? How am I breathing? How am I feeling? What am I saying? What thoughts am I thinking? What emotions am I feeling? How am I carrying myself? How am I treating others? Do I feel heavy or light? Who am “I” being?
While living this reality in our imagination, we examine who the self is being, vibrationally. If we want the manifest self in physical reality to experience this unmanifest reality here in the manifest, we simply BECOME the self in physicality that we are living in our imagination.
The imaginary “you” is the MODEL the physical “you” should mimic in order to experience that same reality.
Copy that “you” in thought, word, and deed. That imaginary you is already the you you wish yourself to be. Copy it.
The you you are imagining actually IS you in that reality. The more you act like the imaginary you, the more you will be living that reality in physical form, the more that imaginary reality will be in you.
Remember, there is no physical reality outside of you. It is up to YOU to change if you want to see the reality made manifest in physical reality. You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Who should “you” be? You may go into your imagination and live that reality. See it as already existing now. (It already does.) Then be that version of “you” in “real life” and physical reality will automatically reflect this change back to you. This is one of the main functions that our imagination serves. It shows you what roles to play.
Whatever you are the vibration of determines what you will experience. Thus, if you want to have a particular experience, find out what vibrational feeling is representative of that experience by looking to your imagination and then bring this vibrational feeling “back with you” here into physical reality.
This process is yet one more way of integrating various aspects of the self to experience more and more of the Self.
Life… It’s just a ride.
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Let’s talk about the imagination and take a look at how it’s actually far more real than we give it credit for.
Your true nature is Consciousness itself.
Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream. Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go. The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it.
-Ramana Maharshi
You are the screen upon which various realities are projected. The thing is, and this is something that people don’t fully realize, all projections are JUST AS REAL in the experiential sense! Paradoxically, they’re all equally FALSE, depending on how you want to look at it for there is a deeper reality that is infinitely more real than “real life.”
Most of us tend to think that when we’re awake in “real life,” that’s “real.” On the other hand, when we’re visualizing in a non-physical plane or dreaming at night in our imaginations, that is somehow “less real” since our physical bodies were not in the experience.
What’s real is actually the Consciousness upon which all illusion is projected.
Consciousness experiences, but is not affected by all forms of illusion that is displayed upon it.
Coming back to a little more down-to-earth way of talking about it, let’s now look at the imagination.
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There is no physical reality outside of you.
The outer world is TOTALLY an illusion. It’s not real. What’s real is the EXPERIENCE you’re having and the experience you have in physical reality is directly related to your thoughts, beliefs, and frequency of vibration.
There is no physical reality outside of you.
There is no physical reality outside of you.
THERE IS NO PHYSICAL REALITY OUTSIDE OF YOU.
Let this sink in. There is no physical reality outside of you!
At all!!
What you are seeing outside of you is a projection of your vibrational state, a reflection of your deepest thoughts and beliefs.
What happens out in the world DOES NOT MATTER. That is, it does not determine who you are, nor does it control your state of being. In fact, the reverse is true. It is your vibrational state, determined by your thoughts and beliefs, which determines how you experience physical reality. It is your state of being that determines what matters, what materializes for you in physical reality.
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