A Wildly Practical Guide to Authentic Spiritual Awakening
by Scott JeffreyWhat is spirituality? Are there actual signs or symptoms of spiritual awakening?
Of all the topics we cover here, spiritual awakening is perhaps the most misunderstood.
Let’s resolve that confusion now and ensure that we’re on the path to authentic spiritual awakening.
Table of Contents
- Let’s Start with a Few Definitions: Spirituality and Enlightenment
- What is Spiritual Awakening?
- Spiritual Awakening versus Psychic Awakening
- What is the Ego and the Spirit?
- Here’s What Happens During Spiritual Awakening
- Spiritual Traps: False Signs of Spiritual Awakening
- Beware of the Spiritual Bypass
- Ten Spiritual Awakening Signs
- Sign #1: A Noticeable Change in Your Behavior
- Sign #2: A Deepening in Your Emotional Wellbeing
- Sign #3: A Tendency to Slow Down and Reflect Back
- Sign #4: A Shift in Priorities and Values
- Sign #5: A Transformation of the Inner World
- Sign #6: Holding the Opposites Together
- Sign #7: An Experience of Okayness and Inner Freedom
- Sign #8: A Deeping Sense of Self-Honesty and Personal Responsibility
- Sign #9: A Massive Change in Lifestyle Choices
- Sign #10: A Sense of Interconnectivity or Oneness
- The Role of Religion of Spiritual Awakening
- Inflation, Deflation and The Center
- How to Approach Spiritual Awakening
- Recap: Spiritual Awakening Signs
- What Do You Think?
Let’s Start with a Few Definitions: Spirituality and Enlightenment
One of the reasons there’s so much misunderstanding around the topic of spiritual awakening is that we often fail to define relevant terms.
In A Sociable God, for example, Ken Wilber provides nine valid definitions of spirit and spirituality.
We often link “spirituality” to the context of religion, but in my experience (as we’ll see below), this is problematic. For now, let’s define the spiritual as a quality of being beyond the physical or material domain of existence.
Enlightenment, too, can mean many different things, but it’s most often associated with cognition. You can have an “enlightened mind” through disciplined study of higher spiritual principles. But this enlightenment doesn’t mean you’re spiritually awake or psychologically aware.
What is Spiritual Awakening?
Spiritual awakening, then, is an awakening of a dimension of reality beyond the confines of the ego. The ego is our exclusive sense of self or “I.”
This awakening occurs when, for whatever reason, the ego somehow let’s go so that a Higher Self or Spirit can arise within.
The average individual is more archetype than human. That is, the ego is mostly a collection of archetypes, programs, or set patterns of behavior. The Taoists call this series of programs the acquired mind—a set of mundane conditioning we collect since birth.
Spiritual awakening implies the return of what the Taoists call the Original Spirit, or what Jung called the Self. And it’s this return of Spirit that makes us truly human.
Spiritual Awakening versus Psychic Awakening
Another common confusion is between the terms spiritual awakening and psychic awakening.
Psychic awakening relates to the activation of the pineal gland. With it, you open up to other dimensions of reality beyond this limited three-dimensional realm of space and time.
Spiritual awakening, in contrast, involves opening the heart center. It’s a process more closely associated with one’s psychology, the emotional body, and the soul.
What is the Ego and the Spirit?
The ego, or what the Taoists call the lower soul, believes it’s in charge.
This ego is our sense of self or “I.” When you say things like:
- “I am [your name].”
- “I have a [job, house, car, mother, father, spouse, child, headache].”
- “I think [insert a thought].”
That’s the ego. It’s possessive because it experiences itself as separate from everything else.
This lower soul is driven by base pleasures, negative emotions, and trying to meet Maslow’s basic human needs. The appetite of the lower soul is insatiable and, if left unchecked, it goes on for eons.
When Maslow said, “Man is a perpetually wanting animal,” he was referring to his ego.
Thankfully, there’s also a Spirit, Higher Self, or higher soul. And this divine spark isn’t driven by these basic needs. Instead, this Spirit is calm, neutral, compassionate, understanding, and intuitive.
While the ego accumulates knowledge through learning, the Spirit intuits reality by virtue of what it is. The ego thinks. The Spirit knows.
While the ego is always doing, the Spirit remains eternally in a state of being.
Here’s What Happens During Spiritual Awakening
We tend to identify exclusively with the ego.
As the process of spiritual awakening unfolds, the ego begins to sublimate to the Spirit. In the language of Taoism, the lower soul gets refined into the higher soul.
Arriving at this Spirit, or psychic wholeness, was the goal of Jung’s individuation process.
But despite popular belief, this doesn’t generally happen in a single “moment of awakening.” While we can have “peak experiences” that open us up to Self-transcendent reality, these experiences tend to be fleeting.
Instead, the developmental literature explains that there are stages of psycho-spiritual growth. And these permanent stages tend to develop over time.
And this is part of the reason many people are confused about spiritual awakening. Walking in nature or on a psychedelic substance, they may have a beautiful experience of oneness, for example, but this experience is momentary. The individual’s structure of consciousness hasn’t changed yet.
Spiritual Traps: False Signs of Spiritual Awakening
So before we go into authentic symptoms of spiritual awakening, let’s review common false signs.
Trap #1: Thinking You’re “Good” and Others Are “Evil”
This belief is deeply rooted in most of us as it’s a typical program taught in all Western religions.
To uproot this belief requires shadow work. You’ll know you’ve undone this limiting belief when you stop judging others and instead see yourself in everyone you meet.
Trap #2: Identifying Yourself as a “Spiritual Person”
This false identification is universal in both religious and new age circles. You are neither spiritual or material. You transcend and include them both.
Identifying yourself as being spiritual is a sign of a spiritual ego or inflation (discussed below). Again, shadow work will help you see that you’re no different or better than anyone else.
Trap #3: Seeking “Love and Light”
Pursuing “love and light” or “goodness” is another deep-rooted program in religious and new age teachings that block authentic spiritual development. Acting “spiritual” creates a persona or social mask that gives others the impression that we’re “good people.” While this persona might elevate our status and increase our self-esteem, it does not promote psychological or spiritual growth.
In truth, spiritual awakening comes from the opposite direction where we face the fear, anger, guilt, and grief stored in us since childhood. Coming to terms with these experiences paves the way for authentic spiritual development.
Trap #4: Acting Nice
Acting nice and being innocent isn’t a spiritual awakening sign but an indication of psychological immaturity. We are told by our parents and various institutions (school, religion, etc.) to “be nice” and behave ourselves. And we comply with this demand, to varying degrees, thereby reinforcing the shadow side.
If you’re acting nice, it’s a sure sign that someone is manipulating you. (The original manipulator or Trickster is usually a parent, but now it’s in you.) In contrast, a mature adult acts assertively without seeking the approval of others.
Trap #5: Secretly Believing You’re Better Than Others
Perhaps you see a pattern here: all of these traps points to ego inflation. Spiritual awakening grounds us in our humanity, and yet, more often, spirituality becomes another tool for disassociation, judgmentalism, and grandiosity.
This trap often occurs when you:
- Read a lot of spiritual texts
- Join a spiritual or religious group
- Start a spiritual practice
- Find a spiritual teacher
Specialness is yet another ego game.
When you think you’ve “found it,” be on high alert. This belief is a symptom of a specific early stage of psychological development, not a spiritual awakening sign.
All of these subconscious signs also point to emotional vampirism.
Beware of the Spiritual Bypass
Perhaps the biggest trap in the spirituality game is called the “spiritual bypass.”
Here, we use spiritual ideas and practices to avoid unresolved emotional or psychological wounds. These wounds must be addressed to proceed in our psycho-spiritual development.
We often resist this process because addressing these wounds requires going through the discomfort they represent.
These wounds are mainly childhood traumas. In fact, virtually every emotional trigger you have in your present environment is likely from your past.
As Heidegger puts it, “The Dreadful has already happened.”
A great many individuals in various Eastern and Western religions fall into the spiritual bypass trap. I did too for most of my 30s.
Ten Spiritual Awakening Signs
Now that we’ve looked at some of the false signs of spiritual awakening, let’s review some of the authentic indications.
Sign #1: A Noticeable Change in Your Behavior
Perhaps the most essential and authentic signs of spiritual awakening can be observed in your daily behavior.
Compulsive, neurotic, and addictive behaviors are symptoms of the ego or lower soul. The Spirit or Higher Self has no such tendencies.
The Spirit isn’t driven to meet basic needs because it’s already whole and complete right now. So when you feel this completeness or okayness, moment to moment, it’s a good sign of spiritual awakening.
And as a consequence of this okayness, you may be genuinely kinder (and less reactive) toward others without trying to be.
See also: Impulse Control: How to Change Any Behavior
Sign #2: A Deepening in Your Emotional Wellbeing
Disruption in our emotional body is perhaps the main thing that blocks spiritual awakening. The Jungians call it a wounded feeling function. In resolving emotional trauma from childhood, we undo this wound, enabling us to feel more deeply and genuinely.
Re-engaging this emotional flow influences every area of our lives. Now, instead of being possessed by a host of archetypes, we become more authentically human.
As such, there’s less resistance to feel (even negative emotions we resisted before). Instead of sedating yourself and running from your feelings, there’s a growing willingness to confront emotions like fear, anger, and guilt.
Sign #3: A Tendency to Slow Down and Reflect Back
For the above signs to unfold, self-reflection is necessary where you turn back to understand the present. This reflecting back is challenging in modern times due to the fast pace we tend to run. The drive for achievement, productivity, and peak performance have their place, but they quickly become signs of neurosis. For spiritual awakening, laziness can become our friend.
So another spiritual awakening symptom is that you begin to slow down more often and reflect back. An impulse comes alive in you to more clearly understand yourself and your behavior. The Buddhists call this Stopping and Seeing.
Reflecting helps us access repressed memories in our unconscious that cause irrational behavior in the present. But this self-reflective drive doesn’t judge, blame, or criticize, as the Spirit is neutral yet curious.
Sign #4: A Shift in Priorities and Values
Locating authority within ourselves changes our values. Religion provides a moral code based on a system of rules. “Don’t do this; don’t do that.” But now we can develop our personal ethical framework where we evaluate what’s best in the context of the moment. The ego is unable to do this because basic needs drive it; only the Higher Self can.
This shift toward higher spiritual values is why our behavior changes during spiritual awakening. Maslow called these spiritual values “being values” or B-values, and they include wholeness, perfection, completion, justice, aliveness, beauty, truth, and self-sufficiency.
Sign #5: A Transformation of the Inner World
In the average person’s waking state, an individual’s ego is almost exclusively focused on their outer world. Work, money, achievement, family, friends, and social life are all elements of the external environment.
Another spiritual awakening sign is a profound shift from this external world to one’s inner realm of thoughts, feelings, dreams, and imagination. In Buddhism, this dimension is called the subtle realm, and it’s considered more real than the gross dimension of our waking state.
Sign #6: Holding the Opposites Together
Most of us have a rather rigid, fundamentalist mind that sees things in black and white. Red and Blue, Democrat and Republican, Male and Female, Good and Bad, Left and Right … you get the idea.
To avoid the ambiguity inherent in mature adulthood, we cut off one pair of opposite and identify exclusively with the other. For example, as parents, we might think we unconditionally love our children without acknowledging the wellspring of hate and resentment we have toward them.
And while dissociating from one pair of the opposite seems to resolve our ego’s tension, in truth, it only re-enforces our shadow. With our spiritual awakening, we begin to hold the tension of opposites within us, putting us on the road to psychic wholeness.
Sign #7: An Experience of Okayness and Inner Freedom
The ego is our source of fears, desires, and constant tension. When the ego is no longer in control, there’s an inherent sense of okayness—regardless of what’s happening in our lives (good or bad).
When the Spirit is at the helm, we naturally relax into ourselves, providing a sense of inner freedom we once sought in the external world. In Hinduism, they call this moksha or self-liberation.
Sign #8: A Deeping Sense of Self-Honesty and Personal Responsibility
As you begin to locate more authority within, there’s a willingness to be radically honest with yourself. You simply can’t tolerate the Magic’s shadow game of self-deception anymore.
Now, you feel a growing sense of responsibility and accountability for your thoughts, emotions, and actions. It’s for this reason that psychotherapist David Richo says the last gateway to mature adulthood is guilt.
When we’re unconscious to our behavior, there’s no accountability. And when there’s no accountability, there’s nothing to feel guilty about. But the guilt that comes from spiritual awakening isn’t from someone else shaming you; it’s from your conscience, driven by a desire to correct your way of being.
Sign #9: A Massive Change in Lifestyle Choices
Another noticeable sign of spiritual awakening is that you become highly conscious of your lifestyle choices. Most notably, there arises a complete aversion to eating meat or any animal products.
If you’ve developed sensitivity to your body and you avoid eating meat for a period of 90 days and then eat it again, you’ll likely be amazed at your experience. You can feel the consciousness of the animal you’re consuming. Usually, the feeling is fear—the last emotion the animal felt before being slaughtered.
With your spiritual awakening comes the understanding that eating meat is a form of cannibalism, an act you wouldn’t have chosen if given the choice when you were a child.
And in case you believe you need meat protein to thrive, watch this interview with a vegan strongman who only eats one meal a day. Or, as Nikola Tesla wrote,
“Many races living almost exclusively on vegetables are of superior physique and strength. There is no doubt that some plant food, such as oatmeal, is more economical than meat, and superior to it in regard to both mechanical and mental performance.”
Sign #10: A Sense of Interconnectivity or Oneness
The ego, or as Alan Watts calls it, the superficial self, feels separate and alone. It fears for its safety, clinging to life while fearing death.
The Original Spirit has no such fear or sense of separation. It doesn’t play the ego’s game of “us versus them.” The Spirit doesn’t identify itself with gender, race, nationality, religion, or a species. It simply is. And it exists outside of space and time, so death isn’t a relevant concept for it.
I’ll leave it to philosopher Alan Watts to drive this point home:
The Role of Religion of Spiritual Awakening
In reading the works of thinkers like Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Ken Wilber, you begin to see a clear distinction between being religious and being spiritual.
While I won’t say that you can’ be both religious and spiritual, I will say that they are VERY different ideas. Perhaps in its purest form religion could help individuals develop spiritually. However, observing around the world, the opposite is more often the case.
That is, religion (both East and West) more often inhibits one’s natural spiritual progression as it tends to keep us fixated at a low level of psychological development. Many individuals must transcend their religious upbringing to begin their psychological and spiritual development.
Inflation, Deflation and The Center
Psychological development and spiritual growth are so closely tied together that developmental literature uses the term psycho-spiritual development. We just can’t separate psychology from spirituality.
The primary block to spiritual awakening is the ego’s tendency to be inflated or deflated. Inflation means grandiosity. Many spiritual teachers and their students fall into this trap.
Feeling of superiority—or god-like qualities—are signs of ego inflation. And this grandiosity triggers the active shadow archetypes Moore and Gilette discuss in King Warrior Magician Lover:
- The Tyrant
- The Sadist
- The Detached Manipulator
- The Addicted Lover
And the other end of the spectrum is ego deflation. Here, the ego feels small, less than, and inferior. Ego deflation leads to depression, anxiety, envy, and hate. Deflation activates the passive shadow archetypes:
- The Weakling
- The Masochist
- The Denying “Innocent” One
- The Impotent Lover
The ego tends to toggle between these active and passive shadow archetypes. The Spirit, however, is in the Center. And it’s this Spirit or Higher Self that brings organization to the psyche so that these shadow archetypes no longer run the show.
How to Approach Spiritual Awakening
From my experience, a practical approach to spiritual awakening works on multiple levels: physical, emotional, and energetic.
While those pursuing spiritual awakening often meditate, it’s a means, not an end.
What do I mean?
Sitting meditation practice is a tool to calm and quiet the mind, but in itself, it doesn’t foster spirituality or psychological development. (In fact, more often, meditation is used to promote inflation for the spiritual ego that feels superior because it meditates while others do not.)
Meditation is important, however, if your mind is always distracted or if you’re anxious. Being calm and quiet allows us to reflect—one of the signs of spiritual awakening.
And this reflective mind supports shadow work, which from my perspective (and transpersonal research), is one of the most essential practices for those of us on a spiritual path interested in realizing mature adulthood.
The barriers to spiritual awakening are very simple: fear, anger, guilt, and grief. Cultivating self-leadership and building emotional intelligence is the natural path toward authentic spirituality. (See How To Be An Adult by David Richo for more instruction.)
Spiritual awakening comes down to self-awareness and consciousness. With this increasing awareness, we’re able to shift beyond self-actualization into the realm of self-transcendence.
Your identification begins shifting away from your ego because there’s less internal tensions and self-identification. And this process happens naturally without “trying” to make it happen.
Learning to abide in our Center, without succumbing to inflation or deflation, we can support the process of our natural spiritual development. And to access this Center instinctively, it’s most helpful to reforge your connection to your body.
Finally, I highly recommend learning about Spiral Dynamics and familiarizing yourself with value stages many individuals disconnect from along their “spiritual journey.”
Recap: Spiritual Awakening Signs
The false spiritual awakening signs all have to do with ego inflation. They are symptoms of grandiosity and self-delusion.
Authentic spiritual awakening signs are similar to characteristics of mature psychological development and what we can call humanness.
Here are some positive signs:
- One locates authority within themselves. (See this guide on psychological projection.)
- There’s a growing sense of responsibility for one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
- Spiritual values begin to supersede (but not replace) the values of this material world.
- Things slow down, allowing you to reflect back and understand your past.
- As a consequence, your mind is calmer and you have a deeper connection to your emotional state.
- You begin to focus more on your inner experience than your outer environment (but the outer is still important too).
- When the Self is at the wheel, there’s a feeling okayness and inner freedom. You feel light and free.
As they explain in the wisdom traditions, the primary key to accelerating spiritual awakening is to hold to your Center, again and again.
From the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi:
Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.
What Do You Think?
We covered a lot of ground in a short distance in this guide.
Share your thoughts and comments below.
Traps #1 & #5 are my nemesis. Any tips on avoiding / transcending those specifically would be appreciated. Thank you Scott!
I think that’s the case for most of us. First, remember this “us vs them” belief system is a program that was installed in us. We didn’t think we were “better than” others in the beginning. It’s a collective programming that reinforces dualism.
Second, come to see how the program was installed. Sometimes it came in your mind directly by someone telling you that you’re better than someone else. But often it came in as a subtle, subconscious program.
Third, feel the belief in reverse. Meaning, reflect back on how it felt to have someone else look at you as inferior. We’ve all had this experience, whether we recall it or not. And if we can’t recall it, then we’re certainly making others feel inferior (without even knowing it). Connecting with this feeling brings more consciousness and helps us change the underlying belief and resulting behavior.
Thanks for the comment, Tony.
Hi Scott,
Thank you for this wonderful article and your website, From all the subscribed mail in my inbox, your emails are the only ones I ALWAYS open to read.
This article came at the precise right time for me.
After making a huge shift in lifestyle (me and my family moving to an off grid farm in the mountains, taking our kids out of school, quiting our jobs with the intent to “heal” or you can say become more awake) I have found in my inner journey and spending time everyday doing “inner” work that It has became very difficult for me to be the social person I use to be, in fact I recently prefer to be at home on the farm doing as little as possible and focusing a lot of time on myself and educating my kids. When I am social I am so aware of all my emotions and judgements that it makes me feel uncomfortable to just make conversation. At the same time it worries and scares me and I think a Combination of the “traps” and actual awakening is taking place within me.
I would like to know if you do coaching or which of your courses you would suggest to help to get down to more practical work with relation to shadow work, and connecting with those early child hood traumas to be able to access and express repressed anger, fear and guilt.
Once again thanks for you site.
Regards
Sonnet (south africa)
Hi Sonnet,
I can relate to your experience. Perhaps it will provide some solace to know that what you’re describing is quite common on one’s individuation path. Most socializing is conditioned behavior from the convention we’re born in to. We subconsciously learn that it’s not okay to be in solitude and that we must live active, social lives (and now we’re supposed to document how “good” we’re doing in social media).
The more steady your home environment becomes, the more your mind will likely begin to reflect back on your past. (It sounds like you’re making many external adjustments all at once, so your energy will naturally go to this first.)
If you haven’t already, check out this guide:
https://scottjeffrey.com/shadow-work/
I don’t have any courses on this topic at present, but I’ve been contemplating developing one.
Thanks for your comments.
Hi Scott
I must admit really enjoying this journey that i am on (I think it is called life). The conversations that you generate are at time known to me and other times a challenge.
I could feel myself cheering with the ‘good and bad’, ‘right and wrong’ conversation. For some time now these opposites have bewildered me. I would like to know why we have to stand for one. Why can’t we appreciate the differences that all bring to this existence.
I was confused about the removal of meat from our diet. Man as a creature has usually had meat as part of their diet. Is it only animals that have a consciousness, do plants?
Look forward to the next post
Hi Jan,
We can develop our minds to not get stuck in the opposites. Traditionally, this is called transcending duality. But everything in our environments is designed to reinforce dualistic thinking. And so a different stage of consciousness is required to “hold the opposites together.”
I understand the confusion about meat. I shared it in the past. I’ve come to learn that virtually everything we’ve been taught about the subject is wrong. (For example, that we’re carnivores.) It’s certainly a topic worth exploring online (with an open mind).
And yes, plants do have consciousness too. And ideally, we wouldn’t eat them either. But animal consciousness is closer to our own. And plants generally aren’t tortured through their existence like animals are. This topic is going to be emotionally charged for a lot of us, mainly because of our prior conditioning. It’s for this reason that I offered the experiment of not eating it and then eating it. Otherwise, we get stuck in beliefs and conjecture.
Thank you for your comments.
Another fantastic piece, Scott. Always look forward to your insights.
A comment and a question:
I have no religious affiliation, per se, though I do acknowledge my Christian bias/culturalization. And after years (decades?) of disavowment and disgust (at least, from the more fundamentalist “turn or burn” point of view), I have begun, in the last few years , to read Scripture anew through what might be thought of as a Jungian lens. In other words, as more of a treatise on shadow work. And understanding and navigating (and integrating!) one’s own psychological landscape. And I have to say, it’s been nothing short of illuminating.
That said, one of my monumental life struggles seems to revolve around the idea of “being in this world but not of this world”. I continually feel the call (pull? urge?) to back out of the world and do deep inner work. And the inner work I am able to do makes me very satisfied and complete indeed. However, like the rest of us, I have to “pay the bills”, and I have employees who depend on me to run a successful business. I also feel (an obligation?) to teach whatever it is I’m supposed to teach so as to hopefully leave the world better than I found it.
Let’s just say that balance is tough to pull off. And I get this life isn’t supposed to be smooth sailing, lol… but still!
I also know from Human Design and Gene Keys work that “disassociation” is one of my major shadow-self “traps”. But it seems that it’s only through disassociation that I get the distance I need to do the internal work that my soul craves. In other words, “disassociation” seems to be my go-to mechanism for dealing with “being is this world, but not of this world”. And even though I believe I could do the “monk in a cave” thing and be perfectly happy, I “know” that I was put here to get down-and-dirty in the material world, and figure out the balance.
I know that’s the stuff of 10 years worth of intense therapy, lol… But if you had a thought or two on this, that would be much appreciated.
Hey Keith,
There’s certainly a lot of juicy topics here to comment on. :-)
Let’s see…
I intend to do a guide on Spiral Dynamics in the future as it addresses a number of challenges you’re addressing here.
https://goo.gl/images/QiCt1h
The Orange value structure seeks achievement (the Achiever Self) while the Green value structure seeks the human bond (the Sensitive Self). Both are aspects of our being.
Yellow (second tier) represents the integration of Orange, Green, and all the value structures below them. And this integration is achieved by a tiny portion of the world’s population — and almost never accidentally.
In the absence of this integration stage, we are left with dissociation. Keep in mind that dissociation occurs as a consequence of our mind not being able (or willing) to hold the opposites together. That is, our minds seek comfort and order. And the process of integration requires periods of ambiguity and inner tension.
For example, yes, we need to pay the bills. But we rarely define exactly what that means. Instead, our Achiever Self is aimlessly trying to achieve more, with no end goal, for even if it achieves a goal it quickly replaces it with a new one. (And without self-reflection, it isn’t clear what drives this behavior.)
The same goes for Green. It’s always on a mission: to do more, serve more, be more, help more, etc. (And again, without self-reflection, we don’t catch the hidden motives behind our “good intentions.”)
The aim of our psychological development is to contain all of these drives. And to rebalance the scale. Meaning, while the Achiever Self has likely fully possessed us through the first half of life, now we begin to draw more energy inward (Jung’s “inward turn”), which facilitates the emergence of Yellow.
The “monk in a cave,” btw, is another extreme — one that has infected the minds of many of us Westerners who were introduced to Eastern ideas. Most spiritual adepts, in fact, lived “normal” lives (the so-called “household path”). Caves and monasteries arose for social and economic reasons. They were designed for individuals who lacked discipline.
I appreciate your comments, Keith! :-)
Excellent points to ponder. Thanks, brother!
Excellent study very informative and easily understood well done , brilliant.
Thank you, Nathan!
Well written. Thanks.
Thank you for these emails. I find your writing to be refreshingly direct and succinct. Thanks for synthesizing so accessibly.
Sure thing, Sean.
You hit the mark on my goal for these guides: to synthesize complex psychological ideas into accessible and practical methods.
Thank you for your feedback.
There is no Spiritual Awakening. Awareness (Witness to Self) IS. All else is unreal. Awareness is the Balance between the ONE (All) and the NOTHING (0). The Witness observes both Simultaneously and is a part of neither. Awareness is Complete and Non Existence. Nothing else exists.
Indeed. And then you would need to ask yourself: Who read this article? (Although I’m not certain based on your comment that you did.) And who wrote your comment about there being no spiritual awakening?
It appears you have fallen into the trap of misinterpreting the message of nonduality. The nondual must by definition include the dual. The Witness observes the collection of “mundane conditioning” called the ego, mind, or conscious spirit. And all this conscious spirit may not have any reality in an absolute sense, it is “real” from the standpoint of the experiencer. And it is this experiencer that awakens by stripping away the layers of its programming.
I found this extremely helpful thanks! Except for the comments about eating animals being a form of cannibalism. If all that exist are One, then no matter what we consume we are cannibalizing Our Self. Who are we to say that plants and minerals have no feelings and memories. It is so true that the cruelty and conditions these poor animals suffer is an ABOMINATION. The extremity of your statement regarding eating animal products however reveals prejudice rather than enlightenment. The very “cutting off one pair of opposite and identifying exclusively with the other” that you spoke of. Just wanted to help you see that because I do believe you are blind to it. Peace to you ❤
I once shared your viewpoint, Traveler. But it’s an ideology, more than a reality.
I didn’t suggest that plants and minerals weren’t “alive” or conscious in my statements. I simply stated that we are assimilating the consciousness of what we consume. To say the consciousness of a cow and the consciousness is the dandelion are the same is simply a mistake.
If you had the sensitivity to feel the consciousness of what you consume, the error in your statements becomes apparent.
This is so interesting thank you!
Yes I agree that this is a question of ideology, perhaps that is why the reference to the complete aversion to animals and animal products as a sign of spiritual awakening truly had a different vibration to me. I found this entire thread extremely beneficial and useful and it resonated with me except this one idea.
Not to say the Vegan ideology is in any way inferior, it is beautiful! But the path to God isn’t only paved with Vegan footprints.
After reading Charles Eisenstein’s “The Ascent of Humanity”, I found myself yearning for our ancestral existence. I realized I didn’t even know that this was something deep within my soul, primal. Agriculture, mathematics, language, will never be the same to me now!
It is possible to take the life of an animal while honoring it and its gift of life to those it will sustain. It is a solemn act heavily laden with layers of meaning. The warmth its fur provides in winter, the sustenance of its flesh etc are SACRED aspects of life.
It is entirely possible to be on the path while being an omnivore. It felt like an exclusion in a way, perhaps a simple paraphrase would be “only Vegans can be on the true spiritual path”. This stood out to me loudly, honestly! Loud enough that I posted a comment which I never do lol.
Be well, I really enjoyed your work thank you ?
Time and experience have taught me to put little stock in ideologies of any kind. Our mind can confirm whatever ideology we align with. Veganism as an ideology would be the same.
But when you develop the sensitivity to feel how we assimilate (take on) the consciousness of the animals we consume, you may find it difficult to make the statements you have made and hold to those beliefs.
It has more to do with “energetic sensititivity” than it does about “spirituality” — which can easily become another ideology.
I find the idea you are expressing very intriguing I confess! Energetic sensitivity.
I’m not sure what spiritual path you are on, where our subjective truths fork and merge.
I have always been riveted by the puzzle of truth. Define truth. Is there absolute truth, or is all truth subjective. Can anything we perceive as Truth on this plane be anything but subjective? Do we make our own truth simply by the utter conviction we experience? If we believe a thing so completely, does it not manifest itself in our lives? Can we 100% refute or endorse anyone else’s truths?
I have no doubt that you experience energetic sensitivity in the way you described, and I really do find it interesting!
I come from a long line of hunters, and farmers. I believe in the symbiotic, cooperative dynamic between man and nature. I eat lots, and LOTS of eggs. But! They are eggs from happy, healthy, free roaming, pampered chickens. I mean pampered lol, plus they are protected from the raccoons and coyotes, we provide that for them. And oyster shells and worms that they eat like ice cream. And dirt baths for the bugs. We only have hens, we do not slaughter them. They provide us with delicious protein rich healthy eggs.
There are sooo many other examples of healthy and happy relationships with animals. It is civilization turned malignant, that created the exploitative slavery and misery our poor little friends experience now. Their bondage is ABOMINATION there is no other word for it. This does not have to be, and is not always, the case.
Yes, if you’re going to consume meat, doing so in the manner you’re describing would, for many reasons, be preferred.
In terms of truth, if you examine it from the lens of the Three Jewels (in Buddhism), you have the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha represents a direct subjective experience. The Dharma is the teachings, philosophy, or injunction (method). Sangha is a community of others to verify the experience.
So ideas alone aren’t enough. The injunction I’m suggesting here is to develop sufficient energetic sensitivity within your body, quieting your mind so you can feel inside yourself. Go at least 90 days without eating any meat (including eggs). Then, eat whatever meat you want, but with your heightened awareness. This may be the only way to test if what I and many others are suggesting to be true.
Alternatively, look deeply into an animal’s eyes so extended length of time. Then, kill it and prepared. Then, eat it with the image of the animal’s eyes imprinted in your mind. This may also reveal a similar experience. (But I don’t know for certain because I haven’t done this.)
But ultimately, changing these patterns and even testing them with an open mind is no small feat. The conditioning of our beliefs is deeply rooted.
I fear I have overstayed my welcome lol, truly it is against my nature to ever be more than a fly on the wall of any given room at any given moment. I’d like that to resonate with you for a moment, you are hearing from a genuine wallflower.
I would like to leave you with this urging. Please, !? look up Charles Eisenstein, The Ascent of Humanity. He provides it free on line, he is a true human being and pilgrim in this dark world.
I also lament that we will not be any time soon, donning loin cloths and dancing around the campfire ululating. I lament this loss!!!! If that book taught me anything, it was that primeval, primitive man was anything but primitive. And that living off the land, including animals, in their nomadic foraging state was the end all be all bees knees human existence. Ooooh woe to man, in his lofty endeavors. In his pride and arrogance, he lost his soul. He gained nothing. Peace tou ALL my brothers and sisters! ✌
Great, l think that one will not experience spiritual ego and bypass if you accept, allow and surrender yourself to undergo the process of the dark night of the soul in total obedience which often leads to spiritual awakening because you will be able to recognize in your behaviour when the ego is speaking and will be able to silence it and won’t be afraid of letting go.
In my experience, Chary, trying to “accept, allow and surrender yourself” is actually effective to any form of awakening — mainly because we generally aren’t conscious enough to what we are accepting, allowing and surrendering.
As a result, we can easily delude ourselves into believing we’re surrendering while various parts within our psyche (the dimensions of our personality we don’t really know) clings to their beliefs and inflated/deflated identity.
So acceptance, if used too early in the process does become a spiritual bypass. First, we have to develop an orientation towards our real personality where we can actually see our shadow (developing consciousness). Then, acceptance and allowing can come into play.
Wow. Thank you! I would love to say more but speechless.. Thank you & God bless you.
You’re most welcome, Monica.
Thank you so much for this article. I have been stumbling around in the dark for such a long time feeling drawn along by something that I didn’t understand. What started off as a quest to finally get to the bottom of my self limiting behaviour patterns because I felt stuck and thwarted by life has led to some profound revelations about myself and seems to have put me on a path that I didn’t understand. At times I felt like I was losing my mind, but it seemed like the more I followed the inner pull the more stable and peaceful I felt. I now trust it completely without knowing why. Until now. I was drawn to your article and read with a shock of recognition each of the points raised to varying degrees. So it seems I am a work in progress on a path I didn’t consciously choose, but the rewards have been transformative.
May we all have courage, fortitude and peace on our journey.
Kirsty.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Kirsty. That’s what happens when you turn towards your Inner Guide.
Feeling crazy is normal — actually, if you don’t feel a bit crazy along your path, you’re probably stuck in conformity.
As Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Great article such a pity you had to get on your vegan soapbox and lecture us omnivores about the sins of eating meat when it is the most natural thing a human can do this is after all a human experience. Being awakened is about acceptance I am awakened and am able to master my inner world yet I love eating meat but I also love animals its called duality try telling a tiger not to eat a deer tigers are spiritual beings also
Jim, first off, I’m not a vegan, nor did I claim to be one. Veganism, like any -ism, is a political agenda that does create yet another polarization.
Not that I expect you to return to this post because your intention was to reinforce your beliefs so you don’t have to feel the discomfort from the ambiguity within you. (Otherwise, you wouldn’t have taken the time to write your comment; you have just exited the page. But for anyone else reading this, see my comments above to “Traveler.”
This issue comes down to energetic sensitivity. It’s not about morality or right/wrong. If you reach the sensitivity to feel the consciousness of the animal you consume, you likely will lose your drive to consume them. And if that never happens, that’s fine too. What I’m describing is a common experience that many others have experienced–and they are often surprised when they do.
Whilst reading this I had a lovely feeling come over me and I felt calm x
:-)
Thank you for this wonderful article. I feel way different now. I’m just a 13 year old boy who wants to find his “self” in this so called “life”. I’ve always wanted to find peace in this world full of good and bad. I know that i can learn more and this article helped me a lot.
That’s awesome, Raf. 13? And you’re interested in this material? Amazing …
Wow
Hello, I am more aware of my feelings and thoughts. And the words others speak. I am more emotional(crying a lot)especially when listening to some music,do not care anymore or get angry when someone says something bad to me. Peace
It is webbed together with such efficiency!
Been on this path since late teens and now have reached a healthier being.
Thank you for this amazing website! It helps me to really connect the missing pieces.
That’s great to hear, First timer. Connecting the missing pieces brings the puzzle all together! :-)
Hi Scott , I totally enjoyed reading your article and want to learn more , i am needing guidance, would love to know where I can go to read more of your stuff.
Hi Eduarda,
The place to start is here:
https://scottjeffrey.com/guides/
And subscribe for updates and new guides here:
https://scottjeffrey.com/join/