Awakening

As I explore this subject, I feel the universe laying its hand on top of mine. My word choice matters greatly in this subject. Why?

There is a lot of ego and Mind in spirituality and in awakening. Every religion has their word for it. Every country has their spiritual gurus who claim to be enlightened and awakened. Many people have claimed to be awakened and have written books and blogs, just like this one, about their awakenings.

I wish not to make awakening a goal. I don’t even wish to make it an intermediary. If it happens to you, you will know it and you will never speak of it again. The only times you may talk about it is in the company of a grandmaster or a truly sincere soul.

If you’re trying to figure out if you’re awakened, then you’re not there. And nor should you be. Awakening is a natural byproduct of a life dedicated to self-awareness and pursuit of the truth. I feel called to present a common trap in spirituality.

A man grabs a shovel and starts to dig a hole in the ground. He digs every day from morning to night. The deeper he goes, the different kinds of rock he experiences. As he digs deeper, he learns to prevent the ground from around him to falling in. He learns to improve the oxygenation at the deepest levels of
the hole. One day he’s digging and he hits a metal object. He digs around it and finds a door. He opens this metal door and steps into heaven. He’s literally on clouds. Floating. Free from turmoil. Totally at peace.

From his vantage point in the clouds, he can see all the things that are happening in the world, from a third person view, like an eagle flying through the land. He has no biases, no opinions, no desires, no needs. After all, he’s already in heaven.

Then he floats back to the metal door and comes back to land and then climbs out of his hole back
into his backyard. He remembers his peace and thinks there is nowhere else he would rather be.

On his pursuit to digging, he didn’t plan to hit that metal door. After all, he has stuff that he needs to take care of in the backyard. But being in heaven was special. Can he be floating in the clouds and tend to his backyard?
After experiencing heaven, peace, and bliss, the man thinks, if only I could just snap my fingers and float up. Why do I have to go down the hole and through that metal door? Can’t I just jump?

And just like this, the man can be at peace. He floats through the land around him while also tending to his backyard.

In spiritual culture people are told which shovel to use, how much to dig per day, what to expect after a certain depth, how big their door will be, and how many years they must dig to get to the door. All of these things are not awakening. The man who is awakened hesitates to write about it. He didn’t choose this goal. It was a natural occurrence after sustained sincere self-awareness and self-examination. Once awakening was experienced, it was difficult to go back.

Am i awakened?  If you must ask you’re not there.

How can i reach enlightenment or awakening? If you seek the metal door it will always elude you.

A sincere man will forever be wary of the instructions to find the door. An awakened man will be wary of anyone claiming to have been on the other side