Life is an opportunity for exploration. But not everyone answers the spiritual call to investigate the inner world of consciousness. That’s sad because we have the potential for the journey from awake and aware to enlightened. Some people are awake but not aware. Are you up to this challenge?
Life presents us each with a unique experience and opportunity. 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.
Walking The Path
The journey from awake and aware to enlightened is not straightforward, and it is different for everyone. However, we can use the same tools on this path.
“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 for exploration and growth.
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? How long have you slept? Are you still under the hypnosis of the cultural narrative?
How do We Become Awake and Aware?
“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
You can tell if you are asleep or in a state of hypnosis by what you do and think. We have a list of practical tests to help you determine if you are awake and to what extent. These tests gauge your self-awareness. Sadly, many people choose to be asleep. Their unbelief makes belief possible. Disbelief in science, evidence, and logic are all necessary to keep one a slumbering believer.
Mark Twain says some people believe in absurd and primitive stories of 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.
However, today, we want to focus on the journey once you realize that you no longer slumber spiritually. If this article doesn’t make sense, that’s a clue you may be asleep.
The Journey From Awake and Aware to Enlightened
“Apparently, myths become truth if upheld long enough.” — Eric Chaisson
Osho and many other spiritual teachers tell us you 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 in many ways. Some ideas for benchmark goals include learning Japa meditation, practicing lucid dreaming, and attending Tai Chi classes.
You can measure your growth by your social impact on the lives of others. Do you want to share and teach others? Do you volunteer to help those who need help? Do you minimize your footprint on Earth by recycling?
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 mystical journey. 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.
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 that developed processes for consciousness exploration. The steps of the Hero’s journey revolve around three primary phases: awakening, transforming, and inspiring. Walking the path starts by answering the call to become more aware and engage in exploring consciousness.
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 as well as 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 who can live in a culture obsessed with sectarian division, commercialism, patriotism, and nationalism but find ways to navigate beyond these ideologies.
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 of your own design is discouraged. Organized religion is the primary source of all harmful programming. It takes the form of religious superiority and entitlement and promotes everything from genital mutilation to genocide. Today, people are put to death for not adhering to religious mythology and superstition.
“Some who answer the call 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.
The age of science and reason was supposed to help people understand the absurdities of religion. Early in the 18th century, researchers like Kersey Graves (2) proclaimed that knowledge of the origins of Western Organized 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 what blocks our path, 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.
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 either starting or already on the path. 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