Life is an opportunity for exploration. But not everyone answers the spiritual call to investigate the inner world of consciousness. That is sad. Everyone has the potential for the journey from awake and aware to enlightened. Are ready for this quest?
Life presents us each with a unique experience. The experience of life is short for some, and others have many years. You can be alive and spend all of your life comfortably within the boundaries of your default states of consciousness. For many others, this is not enough. They need to explore and grow. They become involved in cultivating awareness for enlightenment.
The Path from Awareness to Enlightenment
The journey from awake and aware to enlightened is not straightforward. Everyone is different, and so everyone travels a different route to reach enlightenment. Even though our paths may be different, we can still travel with others and we can use the same tools.
You can be awake but not aware. To be awake is like opening your the eyes from a deep sleep. Awakening is the spark. You can fan that spark into the flame of awareness or go back to sleep. — Guru Tua
A person can be alive but not awake or aware. Being alive presents us with the opportunity to awaken. The awakening is the first step. To be awake is to realize you are no longer asleep. However, many people sleep-walk all of their lives and never awaken. How about you?
Many people are asleep because they have are under the hypnosis of propaganda. They are under the control of religion, commercialism, or both. Some are seduced by conspiracy theories and live a nightmare existence as pawns of unscrupulous con-artists. These people will never take the path from awareness to enlightenment. They prefer being able to make scapegoats on which to inflict their hate. The current sociopolitical climate encourages the marginalization of minority groups. It openly discriminates against those who don’t support conservative ideology.
The Journey From Awake and Aware to Enlightened
1. Start Observing Thoughts
To start the journey of awareness, you must pay attention to your thoughts and feelings. You can do this by sitting quietly and focusing on your breath. This helps you to notice what is happening inside your mind and body.
When you do this, you may understand yourself better and see things differently. This is the first step towards becoming more aware and eventually enlightened. The path from awareness to enlightenment takes honest self-reflection.
2. Analyze Your Beliefs
The next step is to analyze your beliefs. Use a journal and record your sacred ground. These are the things you hold most sacred and important. Then, ask yourself if these beliefs that are important have a positive impact on the world. Do they cause anyone or anything harm?
Ask yourself if what you believe is wrong, can I change what I believe? If you don’t think you can or don’t want to change your beliefs, even if they are incorrect, you are asleep and you want to stay that way.
3. Identify and Remove Harmful Beliefs
Harmful beliefs are hard to spot. If the belief causes harm, then it is not healthy. Here are some examples:
Ageism: Prejudice against people based on their age, often targeting older adults or young.
Antisemitism: Hostility or prejudice against Jewish people.
Classism: Discriminating against people based on their social or economic class.
Racism: Believing that one race is superior to others.
Sexism: Thinking that one gender is better than another.
Homophobia: Having a fear or hatred of people who are LGBTQ+12.
Transphobia: Discriminating against transgender people2.
Xenophobia: Fearing or hating people from other countries.
Islamophobia: Prejudice against Muslims.
Some beliefs seem innocent on the surface. But, once you subject them to critical analysis, their corrupt nature comes to light. An easy way to tell if someone is asleep or under the influence of groupthink propaganda is to find out about their beliefs in an imaginary friend.
For example, let’s say a person you meet believes God as defined by one of the Abrahamic religions. In order to believe in one version of God must reject the belief in all other Gods. You see, from this mindset, we are all going to hell in someone else’s religion.
So, ask yourself, is it more plausible and probable that one of the 5000 different versions of God this person believes in is correct? Or does it make more sense to reason that Gods of mythology are not real in the first place?
As a person awakens and begins asking questions like this, they then become more aware. When they choose to awaken and become aware enough to see the flaws of magical thinking, they are on the journey from awake and aware to enlightened.
Above all, break free of the man-made misinterpretations of mythology. And so be brave enough to break the chains of the dominant cultural narrative. Learn to move beyond the limitations, boundaries. Resist the religious, ethnic, and gender bias and prejudice. Learn to see the facts in the fiction. Religion can not reform mankind. It opposes freethinking. It detests science. — Robert G. Ingersoll
Mark Twain says some people believe in absurd things. They believe in talking animals, zombies, sticks that become snakes, and bushes that burn but are not consumed. And, these same believers think we are the people who need to be saved?
Cultivating Awareness for Enlightenment
Apparently, myths become truth if upheld long enough. — Eric Chaisson
Mr. Chaisson pinpoints the reason lifelong indoctrination is so effective. It has been the key for Western organized religion. Start exposing children to groupthink manipulation early and they will adopt magical thinking. Just like Mark Twain pointed out. This is why conservatives want to ban books and the study of science. These subjects strengthen critical thinking, cultivating awareness for enlightenment.
Enlightenment is not a far off abstract goal. Enlightenment is about personal breakthroughs and overcoming self-limiting beliefs. It is about incremental shifts in awareness and understanding that take us on the path from awareness to enlightenment.
These eureka moments of enlightenment might be about overcoming limiting beliefs. These include negative the self-talk such as I’m not good enough or I can’t change. When we recognize them as mere constructs of the mind, not absolute truths, we can change them. Enlightenment is the increase of awareness that helps you identify and challenge these beliefs. Asking yourself if they are really true and examining the evidence that supports them weakens their hold on your thinking.
You must become accustomed to challenging your beliefs. When you develop this mindset, your perspective shifts. Practices like meditation help quiet the mind and reveal deeper truths, allowing you to see yourself and your capabilities in a new light. This new perspective makes you more open to change. It encourages you to step out of your comfort zone and take actions aligned with your true potential, rather than being held back by fear or doubt.
Enlightenment is not a onetime event but a continuous journey. Each breakthrough builds on the last. Cultivating awareness for enlightenment is personal growth. It helps you break free from the chains of self-limiting beliefs, allowing you to realize and actualize your true potential. It’s about seeing past the mind’s illusions and embracing an empowered view of yourself and your abilities.
Osho and many other spiritual teachers tell us to find the truth within yourself, not by following a religion.
Listen to your own Self. If you listen to that Self within, then you find the Truth. — Kabir
The decision to move from awake to aware is often challenging. There are many counterfeits and substitutes. There is a flood of religions and teachers, but few give you the tools to seek your spiritual truth. Organized religion is the chief counterfeit. It substitutes doctrine and dogma for methods and processes.
It is best if you have goals for this process. You can create many benchmarks along this path. The ultimate goal might be the journey from aware and awake to enlightened. However, you can measure your progress toward this objective. Ideas for benchmark goals might be learning Japa meditation, lucid dreaming, and attending Tai Chi classes.
You can measure your growth by your social impact on the lives of others. Are you interested in sharing your knowledge with others? Do you volunteer to help those who need help? Is recycling something you do to minimize your carbon footprint?
The innate desire to explore the unknown is what Joseph Campbell (1) calls The Hero’s Journey. It is a call to embark on a journey cultivating awareness for enlightenment. If you need to explore, you are awake enough to hear the call. You have a critical choice to make. Some people get frustrated and go back to sleep. They ignore the innate desire to explore the unknown inner world. They try to ignore this aspect of nature by involving themselves in substitutes with daily life, careers, and religion.
4. Encourage The Growth of Awareness
Many people answer the call of this quest. The Hero’s Journey is a pattern we find in many ancient cultures for consciousness exploration. This pattern revolves around three primary phases: awakening, transforming, and inspiring. By answering the call of spiritual exploration, we are cultivating awareness to enlightenment.
Awareness and perception growth can occur in great leaps and bounds. We look forward to those Eureka experiences. However, progress is made in small, incremental steps. That is why keeping a spiritual journal is important. It shows us our incremental growth and our roadblocks.
Walking the path can put you at odds with the status quo. It’s an excellent way to tell if you are indeed forging your way. So, it is prudent to share your quest only with those who understand your freedom. The world needs more freethinkers. We need those who can rise above an unhealthy culture filled with sectarian division and commercialism.
There is a list of awareness expansion techniques below in point six. Almost any positive learning technique will help to expand your awareness.
5. Overcome Roadblocks on The Path
If you didn’t already know it, there are roadblocks on the journey from awake and aware to enlightened. Those who control much of the cultural programming don’t want you to become more aware.
Walking the path from awareness to enlightenment is discouraged by Western organized religion. They are the primary source of all harmful programming in our culture today. This unhealthy program takes the form of religious superiority and entitlement. It promotes everything from genital mutilation to genocide.
Some answer the call but are led astray. Instead of becoming more aware, they are put back to sleep with religion. This is where they get bogged down with meaningless doctrines and dogmas. These systems keep you in a state of perpetual need. They hypnotize with promises and propaganda. — Guru Tua
Any belief system that is based on fear, encourages weakness, sanctions intolerance, threatens vengeance, promotes passivity and requires you to relinquish your personal power is doing you a disservice. — Walt F. J. Goodridge
The church doctrines of obedience to authority, repentance, fear of punishment, self-abnegation, acceptance of outer direction rather than inner assurance, elevation of faith over reason, and intolerance make institutionalized religion an ideal instrument of social constraint. — Madalyn Murray O’Hair
Believers fight to have their religious dogma become the laws of the land. At the same time, they deny with equal veracity any evidence that contradicts their beliefs. The battle between science and religion, facts, and myths, is long. Cultivating awareness for enlightenment takes patience and courage.
The age of science and reason was supposed to help people break free from the hypnosis of Western religion. Researchers like Kersey Graves (2) proclaimed that knowledge about the origins of Western religion would bring it to an end. But he underestimated the power of religious indoctrination.
Today, we know that intelligence and logic are no match for the power of self-hypnosis and group hypnosis tactics. Their use creates an inverse relationship with common sense. The more you believe in mythology and superstition, the less you can use common sense and logic. Religious indoctrination is powerful, but we can overcome it with persistence and the right tactics. One of these we call the unorthodox approach to saving the believer.
Okay, so we have a good idea of the obstacles on the path from awareness to enlightenment, but what tools do we need to forge our way? Spiritual technologies for exploring and developing consciousness are what you need.
Religion is absent any processes for enlightenment. There is nothing to turn the spiritual spark into the fire of enlightenment. It makes the journey from awake to aware impossible to keep people as customers. — Guru Tua
Be aware that once you open your awareness, there are unintended consequences. Your heart will open as well. Once your conscience is online, you will see things you overlooked before. You will feel empathy and find specific causes to champion.
Being aware can be a burden of sorts. You can not unsee the many needs of the world. You cannot shut your heart to the suffering and injustice.
6. Engage in Spiritual Exploration
Spiritual technologies are ancient methods designed to unlock human potential. These methods were developed over eons by various cultures. They are effective tools with consistent repeatable outcomes. Anyone can use them who can follow a process. We think of them like recipes for baking a cake. Follow the recipe, and you’ll get a delicious result.
Here’s a simple way to categorize these tools, though some might fit into more than one category:
1. Logical Reasoning: Start with basic logical reasoning, then move on to identifying logical fallacies and axioms. These mental tools help sharpen your ability to distinguish fact from fiction.
2. The Enneagram Personality Profile: This analytical tool provides insight into our psyche, helping us understand the mechanisms of ego, personality, and instinct.
3. Seated Meditation: The core of spiritual practice, ranging from basic mindfulness meditation to Japa meditation and the advanced Siddhis of Patanjali.
4. Moving Meditation: Strengthens the mind-body connection and is key to health and wellness. Methods include Forest Bathing, Qigong, and Tai Chi.
5. Awareness Expansion: These are ways to expand your awareness. They include lucid dreaming, shamanic journey, third eye awakening, and creating a Memory Palace.
6. Healing Practices: Includes various healing modalities such as Pe Jet, Reiki, and Shiatsu.
It’s also good to have other like-minded people venturing on this quest. You’ll also benefit from practical advice on how to find the resources and teachers to provide these tools. You’ll find this information in several articles we’ve published. Here’s a short list to get you started:
1) How to Start Your Spiritual Journey ― A Spiritual Explorers Guidebook
2) Do You Know The Psychology Of Religion And Spirituality?
3) Beware the False Light ― What is the False Light in Spirituality
4) The Hypnotic Power of Self-Hypnosis Scripts
5) Freedom Starts when You Begin Questioning the Cultural Narrative
6) Strategies for a Better Life ― What to Stop and What to Start
7) You’ll Love this Beginning Meditation Script
8) The Mind is Like a Wild Horse ― Meditation Troubleshooting Guide
9) Yoga Means Union ― The Eight Limbs of Yoga
10) Learn Why You Need to Practice Samadhi
11) The Best Mind Hack for Mindfulness Meditation
12) Tips for Finding a Good Spiritual Teacher ― Your Learner Guide
In Conclusion
If you are reading this, it’s a sign you are starting or already on the path from awareness to enlightenment. The journey from awake to aware is a lifelong adventure. We recommend using as many tools as possible. Several tools on our website will assist you in your inner quest. If you have questions, you can always contact us.
References
(1) Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Wikipedia
(2) Kersey Graves, The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors 1881. Wikipedia