Source: Bonne Greenwell, The Awakening Guide: A Companion for the Inward Journey
The meaning of spiritual awakening, as it has been known classically in eastern traditions, and even in early Gnostic and Christian teachings, is the waking up of consciousness to the rememberance of its original nature. It is a movement of the psyche where the individual sense of self-identification has fallen away, and awareness stands with nothing to identify itself, and yet it knows itself as being aware. Perception is shifted. Division is dissolved. It is like a moving from being a noun to a verb. Instead of being some one, we know we are aware-ing, sensing, thinking, feeling, or being whatever movement is happening in this onemoment.
At the same time the physical body/mind has become irrelevant. It is there in a relative sense, perhaps still and empty, or perhaps blissful, but one is no longer identified as this. Waking up to our true nature is the very first step toward liberation. This is the definition of spiritual awakening that is used in this book.
Because many varieties of mystical or spiritual experiences have come to be described as spiritual awakening, spiritual aspirants who have experienced a significant event can become confused, knowing something has shifted or awakened, but realizing that they do not feel finished or enlightened. They tend to think the solution must lie in a frequent repetition of their experience, which they have no conscious capacity to repeat. They believe that some big overwhelming experience just beyond their grasp will be the final awakening, or perhaps, that at some point in time the great spiritual intensity they have felt will become a permanent condition. While all of these other forms of experience are definitely great movements that might be given this label, there would be more clarity in the understanding of spiritual process if we could limit the term to its classical meaning, and definte other events more precisely.
Examples of spiritual experiences that have been called awakening include:
Samadhi:: A union of the meditator with the object of meditation, with various levels leading to a deep absorption in a transcendent state where thought is dissolved but an illumined awareness is present. There is not an awareness of being a separate individual while in this state, because all throught is stopped, but rememberance of the sensation or understanding arises afterward. The mind is free of all modifications and consciousness sinks into deeper anddeeper levels, sometimes called planes of existence. Advanced meditators who fall into this state may appear to be asleep or barely breathing, and can stay in that condition for long periods of time, a rare few for days. Samadhi is the end goal in most yoga or Vedanta systems, but the emphasis is on lifelongpractices before it can be experienced.
Satori: In Buddhism satori is equated with enlightenment and is a deep awakening or realization of existence beyond dualism or any personal sense of self. This triggers a profound change in one's perspective, personality, and character. An initial flash of seeing one's true nature and recognizing this to be the nature of existence is called kensho, but this first glance is usually temporary and has been called shallow. Satori is an awakening toone's true nature and this is an ultimate goal of Zen and other Buddhist schools of practice. It is not transcendent in the way of samadhi, but can happen while doing an ordinary task, sitting briefly, even walking down the street. It is an in-the-momentexperience where everything else but clear recognition of reality falls away.
Kundalini Awakening: An activation of energy, usually beginning from the base of the spint and flowing upward, which brings about significant changes in consciousness and cellular patterns overa period of time, and facilitates a clearing of the former identifications. It may happen in response to yoga or Qigong training, during meditation or energy practices, before or following an awakening or realization experience, during a trauma, drug or near-death experience, and even spontaneously.
Heart Opening: A deepsense of opening in the chest, often with an overwhelming sense of unconditional love for all beings, which brings about a significant change in the psycholoical orientation, increasing sensitivity, compassion, and appreciation for life. Some people believe this is kundalini awakening in the heart, but often it is not accompanied by other signs of kundalini activation.
Psychic Opening: An erution of an image appearing in the mind, or an inner knowing about people , events, and other lives. This may include hearing celestial music, seeing auras or experience other paranormal, visionary or auditory experiences. These moments may change perception as well as the sense of personal capacity in the world, bringing a person out of mainstream consensus thinking and opening him or her to spiritual explorations.
Initial Mystical Experience: Consciousness breaks through its boundaries of a personal self, and experiences a vast expanse of being or presence, great light, a spritual vision or the presence of a spiritual entity, or a sense of cosmic connectedness for a brief period of time, occasnally lasting for a few days. A new understanding about the nature of reality, which might be labeled insight, or a felt infusion of wisdom orlov, may be part of this opening.
Initial Response to a guru or teacher that stimulates one to follow a spiritual path. Shaktipat is the Sanscrit term for the transmission of energy or consciousness sometimes received in the presence of an awakened teacher, and is usually felt as a charge or rush of energy or ecstasy, or perhaps a stopping of the mind for a efw seconds. one is impacted in such a way that they directly feel how consciousnesss and physicality are intimately related to spiritual experience. This often inspires a person to follow spiritual teachers or practices, and begins a process of reorganizing the energy system in new patterns. An experience called Diksha is an energy transmission given by people who have training in moving energy into others, which sometimes appears to activate kundalini and can trigger an intense clearing process, as well as move a person into an expanded state of awareness.
Descent of Grace: A feeling of being flooded from above with intense love, light or ecstatic energy which enters the body through the crown and triggersa sense of swooning or surrendering into it for a while. This is often a life-altering event, creating a sense of personal connection with God. In the Integral Yoga School founded by Aurobindo it is the focus of practice. In Christianity it may lead to what is called a conversion experience.
Drug experiences: During a drug-induced high some people report aspects of the above experiences, see visions, or perceive the world of form as made of energy or light. These tend to be temporary openings, not readily accessible once the high has passed, and not able to bereplicated either with or without the drug. But they can open a person up to a genuine search, so that other awakenings can occur in a way that is more sustainable. I hav known many people who have enterd a serious spiritual path following a mind-altering LSD or mushroom experience. An awakening triggered by drugs can have difficult side effects and many traditional teachers would say such awakenings are without value.