What Does It Mean to Wake Up?
THE DREAM
In the spiritual world there is a lot of talk about Awakening, Spiritual Awakening, Transformation, Shifts in Consciousness, Ego Death, the Death of the Self, Dark Night of the Soul, etc., etc. But, what does it mean to wake up? What are we waking up from?
When you are sleeping in your bed at night and you are completely unaware you are in a body on your bed, you are immersed in the imaginative fantasy world your mind has created. This creation feels so real that you often get completely caught up in the wonder of it, or the nightmare running in the cinema of your mind.
If you are having a violent horrific dream, you feel your life is at stake until suddenly the alarm clock screams in your ear and you are instantly relieved from your panic stricken state. You wake up and realize it was only a dream, it wasn’t real. This is the same concept when you begin to go through the awakening process, you realize things are not as they seem.
SPONTANEOUS VS. SEEKING
There are two different types of awakening, one being spontaneous, and the other being the seeker. The spontaneous awakening is exactly that, spontaneous. This person was not planning such an event, nor did they foresee such an unusual occurrence happening in their life. Maybe a sudden death of a loved one, a traumatic accident or illness, or the sudden shift of one’s consciousness are possible triggers to the spontaneous awakening. No matter what the person’s experience prior to the awakening, they will be led down a path they least expected and their life will forever be altered.
The seeker is a person that is yearning for something deeper in their life. They know there is something missing, and they are avidly researching, reading spiritual books, attending workshops and retreats, gathering with like minded people, working on themselves in search of that missing piece. They know there is something more, and they are eager to find it. They know there must be another way to do this! What am I missing?
Whether you are a seeker or you’ve had a spontaneous awakening, it really doesn’t matter, it still brings each person onto a path of inner self-discovery, which is a path leading you to who you really are.
There are levels to waking up in this world, and you will begin to notice them as you go deeper into this process. Each new step is a guide for you to wake up from something you believed to be true, that you now realize was not so. This can be devastating and emotional for your mind as you are shown new ways of seeing. It is often a grieving process, and the grief is of losing yourself.
REACTIONARY STATE VS. ACTIONARY
Before you realize you are not your thinking mind, you are absolutely caught up in the mental dramas of your mind and the actions of the world around you. You are merely reacting to anything and everything, getting upset if someone interrupts you, complaining about everything, and feeling as if the world is doing these things to you, that somehow the world has singled you out and you are the point of attack. There is an overall feeling that people are purposely attacking you, that they are against you, and you simply lose hope that life will ever change. You are so completely immersed in this character that you have not yet seen there is a choice to be made within. You are currently blind to this opportunity.
When the seeker within is born, or the spontaneous awakening ignites, there is now a space to witness your thinking mind and how you respond to it. Only the slightest awareness is necessary to begin the path of waking up from the insanity in your head. When you are gifted this opportunity, TAKE IT! Take the opportunity to start observing yourself and notice just how reactionary you are. When you accept the current state of your mind, you can then move into the actionary state of choosing which way you are going to view any given situation.
MOVING MEDITATION
Meditating is a great practice for learning how to calm your mind, how to create the space within yourself that you can connect with, and to notice the insanity of your thinker. Meditation takes you to a very deep place of being, or detaching from the body and mind if you practice long enough. This is wonderful to have in your life, however, can you bring this meditation to your waking life? It’s one thing to take special time to clear yourself, but can you clear yourself in the midst of the daily dramas that come to all of us each and every day? This is why a moving meditation is a great way to begin applying the “observer” to your life ALL THE TIME. This is the real challenge, and where most of our spiritual work is done, in the world around us and in our relationships and interactions with others.
We get so caught up in ourselves and our lives that we don’t even notice this impressive field within and around us. It’s EVERYWHERE! In order to experience this field, the first thing is to notice what you are thinking, believing, and perceiving about yourself, others, and the world around you. Notice the mental commentary your mind creates on a daily basis, it’s incredible when you get good at watching it.
BE THE OBSERVER
Commit to watching and observing yourself for awhile. Watch yourself when you get up in the morning, watch your thoughts about the day ahead of you, watch your reactions to the experiences you have with family, friends, co-workers, and the random encounters in the public sphere with people you’ve never met before. How much chatter is your mind producing? How much of it do you actually listen to? How much of it do you believe is true? These are simple questions you can ask yourself as you begin to practice this moving meditation.
Most importantly, this exercise is to simply watch! You don’t need to do anything else. Don’t try to change anything right now, don’t try to change your behavior, and definitely don’t try to change somebody else’s behavior, that is not the point of this practice. The only thing to do right now is OBSERVE YOURSELF. Then ask yourself a simple question, “Who am I choosing to see with? Pain or peace?”