On Spiritual Awakening
Spiritual awakening is the waking up in you of that which is inspired.
Inspiration and happiness go together, because the breath of inspiration gives birth to the freedom of happiness.
Spiritual awakening is just like physical awakening.
Waking up is not caused by an alarm clock or by someone shaking you gently; it is caused by your having had enough sleep. The kind of awakening that comes from externals waking you up is unreliable - that is, if you depend only on the alarm clock, you generally end up sleeping in. The kind of awakening that comes from being ready to stop sleeping is stable and happy.
Just as waking up the body naturally is reliable, so waking up the spiritual naturally is best. In other words, it is best to avoid occult gyrations and mystifications which might just as well be dreams (or nightmares) as genuine presagers of awakening.
When it has had enough sleep, the body wakes. When they have had enough drama, the emotions become habitually stoic. When it has had enough thinking, the mind becomes silent.
Why make this a matter right or wrong when it is clearly a matter of ready or unready?
But the spirit becomes awake when it knows it is free. Freedom is the nature of the spirit, just as meat is the nature of the body and energy the nature of the emotions. The spirit that knows itself as free is happy. And being happy, it is awake.
Do spirits go back to sleep? Yes and no. A spiritual awakening is a personal quality which awakens in a specific person. That awake quality may be enhanced thoughtfulness and kindness; it may be a heightened dedication to a code of conduct; it may be a deepened sense of instutional or collective commitment; or it may take on the various mystical facets of selfless service, devotional feeling, or meditative solitude. But each awake quality is not better or worse than another. They are all awake to the person who experiences that quality. So, to answer the question of whether spirits go back to sleep: no, because there are different kinds of awakening suitable to different types of people, therefore what to one person is a state of sleep is to another a glorious awakening; but yes, because kinds of awakening are different in degree, and while one is not better than another, some kinds of awakenings are more complete and rich, as judged by their results, than others.
Inspiration and happiness go together, because the breath of inspiration gives birth to the freedom of happiness.
Spiritual awakening is just like physical awakening.
Waking up is not caused by an alarm clock or by someone shaking you gently; it is caused by your having had enough sleep. The kind of awakening that comes from externals waking you up is unreliable - that is, if you depend only on the alarm clock, you generally end up sleeping in. The kind of awakening that comes from being ready to stop sleeping is stable and happy.
Just as waking up the body naturally is reliable, so waking up the spiritual naturally is best. In other words, it is best to avoid occult gyrations and mystifications which might just as well be dreams (or nightmares) as genuine presagers of awakening.
When it has had enough sleep, the body wakes. When they have had enough drama, the emotions become habitually stoic. When it has had enough thinking, the mind becomes silent.
Why make this a matter right or wrong when it is clearly a matter of ready or unready?
But the spirit becomes awake when it knows it is free. Freedom is the nature of the spirit, just as meat is the nature of the body and energy the nature of the emotions. The spirit that knows itself as free is happy. And being happy, it is awake.
Do spirits go back to sleep? Yes and no. A spiritual awakening is a personal quality which awakens in a specific person. That awake quality may be enhanced thoughtfulness and kindness; it may be a heightened dedication to a code of conduct; it may be a deepened sense of instutional or collective commitment; or it may take on the various mystical facets of selfless service, devotional feeling, or meditative solitude. But each awake quality is not better or worse than another. They are all awake to the person who experiences that quality. So, to answer the question of whether spirits go back to sleep: no, because there are different kinds of awakening suitable to different types of people, therefore what to one person is a state of sleep is to another a glorious awakening; but yes, because kinds of awakening are different in degree, and while one is not better than another, some kinds of awakenings are more complete and rich, as judged by their results, than others.
Labels: awakening, body, devotion, ethics, faith, happiness, love, mind, religion, service, spiritual awakening, spirituality
posted by gaiawriter at Saturday, April 04, 2009
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