“Spiritual Awakening” crops up on social media in spirituality groups quite a bit, but what is it? There are plenty of answers, and it depends who answers.

Years ago I read some books published by Lucis Trust which were written in around the 1920’s. They were channelled books about spirituality and they went into very great detail on a lot of topics. They weren’t an easy read but they were interesting and you had to concentrate hard. Those were different times to how we take in information on social media.

One point that was made was that people are at different stages of spiritual development. Some are beginners, then there are novices, then there are adepts, and then masters, with levels in between. A very simple analogy could be the system of coloured belts that exist in various martial arts disciplines to show the different levels of expertise. In spirituality there are lots of levels, and it helps to also consider reincarnations.

Life, from the very first physical life, through the very many reincarnations, to the last life is a spiritual journey of developing consciousness. From being totally unconscious to moving into Universal Mind (or Infinite Mind) upon achieving God-realization. There are lots of stages along the way.

A person will be somewhere along their spiritual journey, whether they are a beginner in terms of their spiritual development, or a novice and so on. In the early stages of their life they may, or they may not, show a leaning towards spirituality.

Beings on the inner planes will be able to have a sense of a person’s spiritual level or aptitude, as they can easily read the aura, the chakras and any glow of light that person is giving out.

When the timing is right and the opportunity is there, these beings on the inner planes can give an energetic nudge, or a blast of energy, and really wake up the person to a new way of feeling, thinking and of viewing themselves and the world. Sometimes the inner plane beings can be gentle, or take advantage of an event in a person’s life, or whack some energy in to cause a crisis and really shove the person towards a change of life and a change of awareness.

The person has a spiritual awakening.

In some lives, that are rest lives, it doesn’t happen. But to take one of the very many steps up in spiritual consciousness is a spiritual awakening. In all the lifetimes that a person has they will increase their level of consciousness many, many times. That means they will have many, many spiritual awakenings.

To do it in one jump would be too much, the person would absolutely not be able to handle the energy, never mind the massive, gigantic change in perception and thinking. Besides, the soul would miss out on all that experience, and the journey is as important to savour as the end result. Though is that really the end result? Cycles within cycles, within cycles. There is always more.

In this lifetime, I think back to the awakening I had as I learnt T’ai Chi to deal with a relative’s death. I learnt about energy, myself and life in a new way. My life changed and there grew more distance between myself and old friends while I made new friendships (all according to my karma).

Some strange and dark dreams, an emotional breakdown accompanied by a physical clearing that I won’t go into, and a dive into various therapies led the way to another shift in awareness. I tried to absorb some spiritual concepts into my life and into my thinking. Again, there was a shift away from an old life, and old way of thinking, into a new life, and new thinking.

I had been reading a book called “A Course in Miracles” and using the daily lessons. I was still doing T’ai Chi which I think is truly fantastic and still do every now and again. I was between flats and staying in a spare room at a friend’s shared house. The other people took heroin and were more interested in that than looking after the place, which was grubby with a kitchen sink that had life evolving in it. I felt depressed. I had been reading a book that went on about seeing the beauty of God in things, which contrasted vividly with the place I was staying in. I thought about some of the things that I had seen that I thought were beautiful. I thought about the sunshine on a beach, snow covered countryside and falling snowflakes, I thought about the morning sun on a girlfriend’s hair. I thought about God being in these situations. And then I thought, “If I can see these things that God is in, then that means that God is inside me”. Immediately my life and my world fell upside down, or right side up. It was like a physical shock wave going through me. I smiled, and in that smile was the feeling of so much joy, of so much love, and peace and wonderment. My heart opened.

The next day at a T’ai Chi class in a break, the instructor was talking and asking us what we did for a living out of curiosity. When she asked me, I said that I didn’t know, that I felt I wasn’t sure any more. She looked at me as if I was some kind of fool, so I recounted what had happened the night before. She smiled and laughed and gave me a big hug, saying I had found something very important.

A couple of months after, and I had still been reading “A Course in Miracles” and doing the daily lessons I had an experience on the London Underground. I was sat in the carriage looking at the people and thinking “God is in you and God is in me”. I then thought “I am in you and you are in me” (because God was in me and the other passengers). The carriage filled with white light that seared through me. That evening in my flat, I was in a light filled state, feeling like each cell in my body was vibrating. I looked at objects in turn, saying, quite spontaneously, things like “God is in this chair”, or “God is in this table… window… tree” and so on. The flat looked out over a park and there was a great storm which swayed the huge trees and felled many, and I was vibrating, filled with light, and everything seemed to be filled with vibrating God as well. I was as high as a kite with this energy. I was truly white-lighted, spiritually drunk. It took me years to come back down to earth.

There have been many incremental awakenings since and some new style meditation techniques have played their part. Some awakenings were big, some small, but not so big that the energy blew my head off, though one time I went so high I could feel my heart beat becoming irregular and I had to make a massive effort to stay in my body, not drop my body and physically die, and get my roots down deep into the ground.

Spiritually awakening bit by bit is fine with me.

 

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