|
Bit late to the party, but here it goes...
I started meditating at age 13, not really knowing what I was doing, trying to learn from books and such, spent almost all of my awake time reading and thinking about spiritual subjects. At 14 I started attending Hatha Yoga classes, but I only did it for a year. Still, it taught me self-control and the basics of proper meditation. Later in college, I practiced Tai-Chi and Kung-Fu, but I did not meditate nearly as often as I should have, doing it more like on and off. I always noticed incredible benefits after periods of intense meditation, like increased luck and focus, synchronicities and just overall happiness.
Later in life, I got disillusioned in spirituality and focussed more on travelling, hanging out with friends and enjoying myself. I even became an atheist for a while, but deep down I always knew that wasn't right for me.
In my late twenties, I rediscovered spirituality, started meditating regularly again and reconnected with my higher self and higher purpose. In 2012, at age 33 I finally achieved a breakthrough and experienced what most people would refer to as "Enlightenment". I only use that word, because the experience was literally like being flooded with higher-dimensional light, an incredible experience. My own efforts contributed to this only to a point, the real breakthrough was given to me through divine grace, as a gift of the Goddess.
There is nothing in this life that comes even close to experiencing this. Some call it liberation, which is apt, because you are freed from the illusions of the material world, the veil of Maya is lifted, even if only for a short while. Once you peak behind the veil, you can never go back to pretending that any of this, our illusory material lives and the sad little selves we have built around this identity, matters. Awakening is also an apt description of the process, it's like waking up from a dream and drinking a double shot of espresso. You're suddenly wide awake and see the world in a completely different light. You are a new person, unable to be the person you once were, just as you can't go back to being a 6-year old child any more. For this reason, people often call this an ego-death, a second birth or a rebirth.
|