What does Awakening mean (in your opinion)?

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I only use the word Awaken or Awakening...'She had an Awakening.'
'To Awaken is the bomb!'
Using 'Awakened' is tricky cuz you can fall back asleep!!!
Having an Awakening usually means one has been graced with
Cosmic Consciousness for 'awhile', their eyes have been opened to Reality....or to
what this place really is....hahaha, 'Not What It Seems' ...LOL!!!
The Doors of Perception were opened for them for a time...long enough to change them forever.

In the tradition and spirit of Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass,)Terence McKenna, Alan Watts and the Naga Sects of India.

I have only ever taken psychedelics once, but I was already fully awakened before I did. All I could do was sit there and watch all the pretty artistic swirls of colour in my head which distorted my external perceptions of what I knew wasn't even "reality" in the first place with "oh that's cool".

I had lost my self years ago, playing with laser lights between two large mirrors...and if you are on the Autism spectrum...Well, a portal gets created (I may try it with obsidian scrying mirrors one day).

Anyway, what I had experienced not taking psychedelics, was more profound and more lasting than something that 4caps of bright blue 'shrooms was obviously doing...

Oh by the way, I was sitting right on the summit of Borubudur Temple in Central Java, Next to a statue of the Buddha, watching the sun go down over the rice terraces and a smouldering volcano at the time..

I thought to myself "if that wasn't setting the mood for this, what would it take"? ..but nope. Me going into total ecstatic trance so I am not even aware of what I am doing or seeing beats psychedelics hands down".

As for the experience itself. First there is a Dark Ocean With energetic "waves" and I lovingly call it "The Endless Abyss" but there's nowhere to "fall" to and nowhere to go, even though the whole experience is quite oppressive.

Then, a tiny, tiny point of light appears...So I focus on that until my forehead hurts and I notice the pain, but I bring my focus back to the point of Light and the pain in my forehead and head, turns into a very warm and pleasurable feeling.

After the light comes closer and closer and I can see "visions" of dimensional beings, Hindu Devas and entities that have been called a thousand different names through the millennia of Humankind's existence..

Then there is just pure love and bliss...There IS no "I" present to experience it and all I can ever get is "second hand info" AFTER the fact...like Cosmic Hearsay.

All I know is the next 5 hours goes like 5 minutes and when I "return_, it takes me ages to move. I doubt I would be able to stay that way and interact with this world on a more "grounded level" but that is a "work in progress".

My interpretation of spiritual awakening is a total 360 shift in mindset,life as you know it,changes.

Imo,I don't believe that you have to experience a hard ship and be at your lowest point,suicidal,near death,mid life crisis,touched spiritually physically etc etc to experience a shift in thinking.

I think when it's time and when your ready,a shift in mindet will happen.

Everything is timed and happens for a reason.

Life changes,you make changes,you deprogram what you've been taught to believe,you live by your new found beliefs .

You accept that nature is the law.

Thanks everyone, does anyone have an experience or version that correlates to any spiritual tradition's teachings?

I understand that many have had very lofty experiences - and appreciate the sharing - but is this enlightenment? And if so, is this something you believed individually?....

JL

Originally Posted by IndigoGeminiWolf

It could mean you have realized your true self. Or it could mean that you're aware of duality of existence.

Who and how?

i.e. Do you know your true self and how have you realized the "duality of existence"

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I only use the word Awaken or Awakening...'She had an Awakening.'
'To Awaken is the bomb!'
Using 'Awakened' is tricky cuz you can fall back asleep!!!
Having an Awakening usually means one has been graced with
Cosmic Consciousness for 'awhile', their eyes have been opened to Reality....or to
what this place really is....hahaha, 'Not What It Seems' ...LOL!!!
The Doors of Perception were opened for them for a time...long enough to change them forever.



Next episode: We may talk about what was perceived when the Doors were opened! LOL!!!!

Isn't that just a memory you have, Miss Hepburn? Not saying it doesn't change you forever by the way..

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by janielee

Thanks everyone, does anyone have an experience or version that correlates to any spiritual tradition's teachings?

I understand that many have had very lofty experiences - and appreciate the sharing - but is this enlightenment? And if so, is this something you believed individually?....

JL

What I realised, is that after it happens, whatever anybody ELSE says in regards to it is totally irrelevant, so it doesn't matter if anybody else says that I am "not enlightened' or even says that I am "delusional" because if I am delusional and believing in a "false reality" then I am not alone because the whole WORLD is doing that anyway..and they aren't consciously aware of doing it EITHER.

Just look at your typical Narcissist...

No matter what another may say, they are always "right" isn't it?
What is the worst thing that can happen to a narcissist? People would consider them to be overbearing and obnoxious. They will totally avoid them, ignore them and leave them to rot in their own "ignorance", right?

However, the narcissist will not even care because they are all simply "not good enough" to hang out with anyway! All the narcissist will say is "their loss" and move on towards "self-righteous heaven".

Even if everybody abandons them, it is because everyone ELSE is ignorant and they are the ONLY one who is not..am I right?

So if a narcissist believes they are enlightened because they only have themselves to measure up against, all they can do is wait for GOD to judge it because human beings have not evolved enough to earn that right yet.

Shivani,aren't you concerning yourself and occupying your mind with an argument thought and buying into a negative by your reply ?^

No offence,it seems like your reasoning.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

As for the experience itself. First there is a Dark Ocean With energetic "waves" and I lovingly call it "The Endless Abyss" but there's nowhere to "fall" to and nowhere to go, even though the whole experience is quite oppressive.

Then, a tiny, tiny point of light appears...So I focus on that until my forehead hurts and I notice the pain, but I bring my focus back to the point of Light and the pain in my forehead and head, turns into a very warm and pleasurable feeling.

After the light comes closer and closer and I can see "visions" of dimensional beings, Hindu Devas and entities that have been called a thousand different names through the millennia of Humankind's existence..

Then there is just pure love and bliss...There IS no "I" present to experience it and all I can ever get is "second hand info" AFTER the fact...like Cosmic Hearsay.

All I know is the next 5 hours goes like 5 minutes and when I "return_, it takes me ages to move. I doubt I would be able to stay that way and interact with this world on a more "grounded level" but that is a "work in progress".

***

Amazing Shivani!

Yes, that’s as good a depiction as any, minus I’d say the initial darkness being as vibrant completeness aliveness as one with Oneness ... no oppressive feeling at all. The visions of adepts or beings is if we wish to, request to see them in form. The lights appear as involuntary manifestation and has varied from engagement to engagement with the recent being a shining white star but all of this without any pain or discomfort ... in fact, quite to the contrary, an ineffable blissful joyousness and of course the playful but veiled secret dialogue with the Creator as well which I’m sure would be unique for each consciousness.

As for the time duration, it probably varies but on an average mine was for say 3 hours which seemed like 10 minutes.

It’s true that no validations are needed and no comparisons may be pertinent, while when back to form, the magnetic resonation stays for a day or two.

The matter about a) permanence and b) enabeability to choose to engage ... are perhaps, as you say, ‘work in progress’ which we may leave to the Universe.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful experience

***

I don't understand why people can't be direct and lay it out in layman terms.

Why be long winded with riddles?

No one wants a fork in the road with many signs,be direct.

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by Elabr8Aspie

Shivani,aren't you concerning yourself and occupying your mind with an argument thought and buying into a negative by your reply ?^

No offence,it seems like your reasoning.

Well, that depends on how much I buy into your line of reasoning when I have already been fully convinced by my own.

So, we shall progress from the narcissist to the proselytizing "hell fire and damnation" Christian preacher...

As far as he is concerned, the Bible is the "Word of God" and anybody who doesn't think so, or who isn't even a Christian, is "possessed by Satan" and "going to Hell".

So even if ANYBODY else says "you are full of (sh) it" - all the preacher has to say is " begone Satan! stop using the lips of this human being to speak against the Lord's Word"..see, they have created a scenario in which nobody else can EVER win with any alternative philosophy... isn't it cool?

Do you think the preacher cares about personal reputation? Of COURSE not, because it is ALL about God...even if the whole world was against him, he could turn around and say " the whole world was against Noah too...and look what happened to THEM".

That being said, it is only HUMILITY that stops people from admitting Enlightenment.

Many old sayings abound.. "those who know don't say and those who say don't know".

However, when faced with the decision... Humility vs Truth and the choice needs to be made, which side of the fence do you find yourself on?

Oh..I am also an Aspie by the way.