What is this idea of spiritual awakening?

Spiritual awakening is a phrase that is tossed around all over the internet, but it is actually most often misunderstood. Life is an illusion of sorts, and people are looking to escape their unhappiness and become something greater, perhaps even supernatural. However, it is the sense of self, driven by thoughts, fears, and hopes, that is always seeking something better, superior, and a promise to solve all of one’s suffering and problems.

Self-enquiry is an ancient way of deeply observing your own sense of self to see what lies beneath the illusion of what we believe we are. Since the earliest age we have been conditioned with thought by our parents, relatives, teachers, religion, and all sorts of other sources of authority. As a result we have formed a sense of self, often called an ego, or “me.”

The self believes it is separated from the rest of reality, including its own proclivities and negative aspects. And this causes all kinds of problems due to the ensuing internal conflict.

Self-enquiry isn’t a belief system. It is a practice of observation without judgment, presumptions, or criticisms. It’s just looking at what you are, how you tend to think, what you tend to think about, and so on.

In the form of a novel, I present many of my own realizations — issues of the self and how to step out of its habituation and conditioning —  in my book  13 Pillars of Enlightenment: how to realize your true nature and end suffering. If you are one of the few people who have always wondered about the fundamental questions about who you really are beyond the persona and the world of problems and suffering, this book may help you.

Plus, you can read my articles on self-enquiry on substack.com.

Do we create reality, or are we reality itself?


Consciousness: The Potentiality of All Existence: Exploring reality and belief as a subjective experience

For many years I had read how we create our own reality. This was a great puzzle to me. Of course, it’s quite easy to repeat what others have said and then convince yourself that it’s true. This is called belief. Belief is not knowing; it is not a realization. You can believe that out-of-body experiences are real, but unless you have had one or a thousand then you don’t really know what it feels, looks, or sounds like. It remains an idea, but not a realization. You can also believe that life has a purpose, but it is only the conditioned mind that tells you this out of belief and not as a fact. And you can believe that you create your own reality, but unless you fully see this then it remains a belief.

Consciousness is the totality of all that is. It is existence at all levels, including all emotions as well as pairs of opposites that we call duality. Consciousness is a field of potentialities pertaining to what may or can happen, as well as the entire range of experiences, phenomena, expressions, and thoughts. The contents of consciousness is consciousness; it’s the whole enchilada, uninterrupted. And this totality is each one of us. It is as much in us as it is us.

Consciousness as the totality
Everything is consciousness; it’s the singular movement of life, and because we are all consciousness then we know of all of the dualities of hot and cold, good and bad, caring and uncaring, smart and stupid, loud and quiet, tall and short, wild and controlled, chaotic and ordered, and so on. It is the brain and mind that makes this possible.

The writer creates reality
As consciousness, we all are the creators of our own reality, each and every waking moment, as well as in every moment of a dream or daydream. When you look into this to see for yourself you can consider that all of the good, bad, and indifferent are within you.