A Spiritual Awakening won’t Create Happiness- but that’s Okay
A Spiritual Awakening doesn’t get rid of Life’s difficulties and doesn’t ensure that we’re going to be happy all the time now. Mind may be a bit disappointed to hear this- but mind has been the root of all our problems from the very start.
An Awakening makes us Aware of the screen of Consciousness upon which our emotions and experiences are moving. Awakening REVEALS the Spaciousness or Stillness or Formless Awareness in which Life is moving.
Any idea the mind has of what Awakening will be like- it’s not that. The mind cannot conceptualize something that is beyond concept. The more we try to intellectually understand how this Spiritual Awakening should play out, the more lost we become in the mind’s shadowed forest of ignorance.
Silence is critical to a Spiritual Awakening. The words, language, articles, books, numbers, data that we consume is like white noise that lulls us to sleep and ensures that we remain unaware of the Truth of this experiencing. We are mired within inner and outer dialogue, caught in a web of letters that society has spun, and remain completely unaware of how sticky a mess we’re actually caught within.
If a Spiritual Awakening does not ensure that we are now happy all the time- then what is the point?
When we Awaken, we gain only from what we lose. We lose the expectation that Life has to move a certain way. We lose the expectation that we must find happiness. Happiness as a goal is a trap and is the root of unhappiness.
Many of us know people who are perpetually unhappy. They are stuck within a mental bubble of their own making that anticipates what a happy Life will be. For some it’s Love, a great relationship, success, wealth, family, marriage, children, a degree, fancy cars, a perfect painting, nice retirement, traveling the world, Realizing Truth…on and on I could go.
Each mind has been conditioned by society to see Life from a unique point of perception. The mind then judges Life against the expectations that this conditioning has created. There is always a gap between the conditioned mind and What Is.
A Spiritual Awakening lifts the veil of mind’s conditioning and Reveals the underlying Awareness in which all experiencing is moving. When there is Awareness, there is distance or space in which to relax with our emotions. The emotions are no longer so tight and constrictive, as we can see the emotions moving from the vantage point of an Observer. If we can Observe the emotion, then the emotion is not “me”.
We are not so in control of how Life is going to move. We can’t always anticipate the way in which things occur. We can hold the experiencing loosely and remain relaxed without holding expectations, but human nature is about experiencing emotions and being moved by them.
When Life moves and catches us off guard, we may experience a wave of unhappiness or sadness. It’s okay. It’s human nature. A Spiritual Awakening does not deaden our emotions. A Spiritual Awakening does not create some autonomous, unfeeling Formless experiencer. Life still moves. Life still happens. Unhappiness still happens.
But unhappiness no longer stays.
This is what we gain with a Spiritual Awakening. We see Life as the impermanent Unitive flow that It Is. We see the True way Life moves. Nothing stays. There’s just What Is in Its ever-flowing vibrational field.
There’s Awareness of unhappiness arising and the feelings are felt. In the same way, there’s Awareness of unhappiness receding and the Observer of both the emotions coming and going remains relaxed and unaffected by the experience.
Content is a better word than happiness in describing the Awakened experience. Happiness is dependent on a particular type of experience. To be content, is to be relaxed with Whatever Is. Happiness or unhappiness are both just experiences happening within this deep Contentment.
If you expect to be happy after your Awakening is “complete” then the mind still has you within its grasp and you’ll remain caught within mind’s expectations.
Don’t worry about happiness. Don’t worry about unhappiness. Let them both move as they move. Just relax and be Aware of What Is as It Is and know that ALL is just passing upon this Infinite screen of this Loving Formless Awareness.
