Spiritual Awakening- a taste of what it's like

Great f@#$ing post i love it! is it mi or dont you feel goosebumps when you experience something good and spiritual! The difference between a spiritual person and a religious person is that a religious person has what i call a get out of hell card. A Spiritual person has been through hell and back! Look! Goosebumps again! haha i crack myself up Be has Christ and practice Love and Forgiveness! God bless all for all am I for I am all!

reply to post by Michael the great prince


I'm curious for those who've gone through the experience...

Do you get the impression that there is no Hell, at least one as we've come to conceive of?

I get the impression that Hell is a state of being and that when we strive toward light we move away from Hell.

Starred and Flagged! My awakening came in the spring of 2003. I practiced a few of the methods you listed above. But when "the moment" came I was cleaning my apartment. Everything you described, down the falling of my knees, open jawed, with tears running down my face, describes it to a tee. And talk about a paradigm shift. It is so overwhelming, soul stirring, and so very humbling. I think that's where the tears come from. Though the tears of humility give way to tears of laughter.
It's one thing to say, "I'm awake", or enlightened or whatever, and to know how to calm your mind, meditate and affirm your oneness with everything. It is something else to find your essense. That's the only way for me to describe it. To feel and be your essence, your energy, the non-physical part of you, that self realization is so incredibly awe inspriring that it changes your entire train of thought. I understand "The Kingdom Within", the "Infinite Now". Pretty deep, I know. In my experience it wasn't about chanting a certain phrase or drinking the right potion. I think alot of those different things prepare your mind and cultivate your spirit. But at least for me, I was vaccuming and contemplating while working and it just happened. Like a tap on the shoulder. Pardon me sir, time to wake up.

reply to post by emsed1


If there is no "place" other than the eternal Now, then where does hell exist? Hell can only exist here and now and we either make it so or we do not. Hell is a state of mind.

reply to post by Chillidog1


All of your descriptions are right on as to the experience and the feelings and insights. I too had the same experience although it was brief and was sort of like a taste of the infinite and then I came back to my illusory physical self state-of-being. Has anyone who has had an awakening-type of experience continue to have the experience or variations of such? I seem to have just had a "moment" but yet I still find myself searching. I know not to search for that experience as it is only a past experience at this point and is no longer truth, as truth is only in the present moment. I feel like it changed me for sure, and probably in other ways I have yet to realize, but I still don't consider myself a "master" or enlightened. If I were to be in a constant state like that maybe I would consider myself to be enlightened but I somehow doubt I would be here talking about it. I don't even know what I would be doing but I know my life would be absolutely dramatically different.

Your right my friend Hell is a state of mind as well has heaven. God gave us the gift to be our own creator of our own little bubble. this dualtity of heaven and hell is truely what i believe that is ripping this world apart. always remember the power of the number 3! the Father the son the holy spirit! we all have the trinity inside us, Spirit,mind,body. I choose nethier heaven nor hell! i choose eternal life and i understand the only way to my eternal life that God gave to mi is by balanceing these 3. I Am made to be man! in between i stay newtro between heaven and hell

I don't mind the ideas presented in this thread, but I do have some questions.

If this is all a game with the end goal to find out what exactly our true selves are all about, what do you make of the people that are born with such physical and mental impairments as to not being able to live without medical assistance?

Are those spirits that have rolled the game dice and lost before they've even started? Do we pretend that they've reached enlightenment even if we can't see it?

Originally posted by WickettheRabbit
I don't mind the ideas presented in this thread, but I do have some questions.

If this is all a game with the end goal to find out what exactly our true selves are all about, what do you make of the people that are born with such physical and mental impairments as to not being able to live without medical assistance?

Are those spirits that have rolled the game dice and lost before they've even started? Do we pretend that they've reached enlightenment even if we can't see it?

I heard it said once that we have the ability to choose how we will be incarnated.

Choosing a life of difficulty, I believe, would make one more understanding and appreciative of what love means.

I don't know if it's true or not, but it seems like people learn to appreciate what they don't have much faster if they realize they don't have it.

Originally posted by WickettheRabbit
I don't mind the ideas presented in this thread, but I do have some questions.

If this is all a game with the end goal to find out what exactly our true selves are all about, what do you make of the people that are born with such physical and mental impairments as to not being able to live without medical assistance?

Are those spirits that have rolled the game dice and lost before they've even started? Do we pretend that they've reached enlightenment even if we can't see it?

I don't know about others on this thread but for me this is not a "game". I feel lucky and thankful, even if my "awakening" almost fried my brain and put me in a psych ward. As I already said, I feel today that I have to help other people to enjoy their life to the fullest, if I may be of any help. I don't try to patronize, give spiritual advice or "be wise". That's not what I want to be.

I believe the teachings we can learn from such an "awakening" are many, but they are very personnal. Sometimes, some people are given "fool's gold" and believe that they are invicible, that nothing really matters in this world.

I don't agree with that view. That was the first stage of my experience, but quickly I was drawn back to compassion.

That's why I believe the teachings never end, even after a so called "awakening". Until my very last breath, I will learn from others, from this world, and I will do my best to make people around me a little more happy

I don't believe everybody should "awake". As some people said, it may be like being dropped in a warzone. It requires a good mental balance. The reward ? Less to no fear. The price ? For me it was giving up my life. Twice. And recurrent headaches too since that day. So if people tell you it's bliss, lucky them. My view ? Everyone chooses a path, and everyone's free will should be respected.

Peace

[edit on 20-4-2010 by SpaceGoatsFarts]

reply to post by JustStop


JustStop says:
"Those that will awaken to any higher understanding of being will be those that do it in solitude without any prior knowledge or incentive to reach the goal of ascension. And since you my friend are here posting your "love" to us on ATS, I personally don't believe you've been through a spiritual awakening, because if you had, you'd be a millionaire right now for all the knowledge you could bring to this planet, all the understanding and the ability to make peace out of chaos, you'd be a messiah and give everything to charity while still banking billions. Either that or you'd be healing people right now with that quantum touch."

JustStop:
The precious few who awaken spontaneously w/o any seeking seem to be maybe one in a million... (billion?) Why would you think that that is a prerequisite for Enlightenment?

Being a millionaire is probably the LAST thing I would ever want! Money leads to possessions that lead to the Ego not wanting to lose said possessions, which can pull the spiritual ladder right out from under you.

You may have missed the part where I described what it was like to be God. You have no need or desire to 'fix" things, do miracles, etc......everything is perfect just the way it is, and the universe is unfolding exactly as it should be. You have to understand that by "helping" people too much you are doing more harm than good. They have signed up for that life and all of the crap in it to balance their karma....and by "helping" them you would only cause them to repeat the life again. Balance must be attained.

Same way with "healing" someone......they have acquired that "dis-ease" for a reason, crappy as that may sound. They need to go through that suffering to pay a karmic debt of one kind or another. So have compassion on people BUT don't feel sorry for them and thier situation- because they are going through EXACTLY what thier soul requires to go up another rung on the ladder. I'm sorry if that sounds cruel.....but that's the way things work.

Namaste-
-Boypony

reply to post by WickettheRabbit


It's a really good question. I think it's just the nature of the universe. Some order, some disorder and everything in between. Even the disorder serves a purpose. Finding that purpose is difficult, but I am certain it exists. It's hard for me to imagine a life of disorder, like retardation or severe impairment. It's also hard for me to imagine a life of a horse or bird, but I believe there is a purpose in each individual being. No one being will ever reach the ultimate enlightenment. That's the point I think. Not that you're purpose is to be completely enlightened, but to have the ability to become enlightened. It's a never ending process and a really fun game!

Originally posted by Boypony
THIS is what Awakening is REALLY LIKE.

The Awakening of Adi Da.
Some time in late August [1970], I happened to go to the bookstore at the Vedanta Society in Hollywood. I noticed there was a temple on the grounds, and I went in for a few moments of meditation. As soon as I sat down, I felt a familiar Energy rush through my body and clear out my head. I could feel and hear little clicking pulses in the base of my head and neck. By many signs, I immediately recognized the characteristic Presence of the Divine Mother-Shakti.
As I meditated, the body and the mind swooned into the depth of Consciousness, and I enjoyed an experience of meditation as profound as any I had known at the shrines in India. I had no idea how the Vedanta Society Temple ever became a seat of the Divine Shakti, but it was obviously as Powerful a place as any of the abodes of the Siddhas in India.

I began to go frequently to the Vedanta Society Temple for meditation. As the days passed, I began to marvel at the Power of this place. I had traveled all over the world, believing there were no Spiritual sources of this kind in America. Now I had been led to this small, isolated temple in Hollywood, where very few people would be likely even to be sensitive to the Divine Shakti, nor, even if they felt It, would they be likely to recognize Its Importance.

I became aware that the Divine Mother-Shakti had taken up residence in this temple, and that I had been drawn there by Her. I Enjoyed the fact that I could go there and be with Her whenever I chose to experience Her Joyous Presence. It was even a truly private place. I could go there unhindered, and I could spend time there completely unobserved. The temple was dedicated to Ramakrishna, the great Indian master of the nineteenth century, but no conditions were placed on me by any external rule or tradition. This was truly an opportunity for me to live independently with the Divine Mother.

But as time went on, I began to feel that even this was a limitation. Why should I have to travel at all to Enjoy Her Presence? I desired that She be utterly available to me, where I lived as well as in my own living being.

Thus, one day, I went to the temple and asked Her to come and dwell permanently in me, and always to manifest Herself to me wherever I was. When I left I felt Her with me, and when I arrived at home, I continued to feel Her constant Presence Filling the space.

Days passed, and I realized that She had done what I asked. There was this constant Presence, even including the effects in the body, and the state of everyone around me became affected by Her Force. But even this became a strain in me. I felt as if I had to hold on to Her, as if I had bound Her to a bargain that constrained us both.

Then, one day I felt an urge to return to the temple. As I sat down, I saw that the little pagoda and shrine in the front of the temple was in shadows and dimly lit, as if it were empty. It seemed as if I had emptied it by taking the Mother away. Suddenly, I felt a jolt in my body and I saw the shrine with open eyes become "Bright" in a blast of light. Even with my eyes closed, I still beheld the "Bright" shrine. Thus, the Mother-Shakti showed me that She is always able to make Herself Present anywhere, and that indeed She was always already Present with me. There was no need for me to hold on to Her as if She could be absent.

When I returned to the temple the next day, the Person of the Divine Shakti appeared to me again, in a manner most intimate, no longer approaching me as "Mother".

As I meditated, I felt myself Expanding, even bodily becoming a Perfectly Motionless, Utterly Becalmed, and Infinitely Silent Form. I took on the Infinite Form of the Original Deity, Nameless and Indefinable, Conscious of limitless Identification with Infinite Being. I was Expanded Utterly, beyond limited form, and even beyond any perception of Shape or Face, merely Being, and yet sitting there. I sat in this Love-Blissful State of Infinite Being for some time. I Found myself to Be. My Form was only What is traditionally called the "Purusha" (the Person of Consciousness) and "Siva" (in His Non-Ferocious Emptiness).

Then I felt the Divine Shakti appear in Person, Pressed against my own natural body, and, altogether, against my Infinitely Expanded, and even formless, Form. She Embraced me, Openly and Utterly, and we Combined with One Another in Divine (and Motionless, and spontaneously Yogic) "Sexual Union". We Found One Another Thus, in a Fire of most perfect Desire, and for no other Purpose than This Union, and, yet, as if to Give Birth to the universes. In That most perfect Union, I Knew the Oneness of the Divine Energy and my Very Being. There was no separation at all, nor had there ever been, nor would there ever be. The One Being that Is my own Ultimate Self-Nature was revealed most perfectly. The One Being Who I Am was revealed to Include the Reality that Is Consciousness Itself, the Reality that Is the Source-Energy of all conditional appearances, and the Reality that Is all conditional manifestation, All as a Single Force of Being, an Eternal Union, and an Irreducible cosmic Unity.

The "Sensations" of the Embrace were overwhelmingly Blissful. The Fire of That Unquenchable Desire Exceeded any kind of pleasure that a mere man could experience. In the Eternal Instant of That Infinitely Expanded Embrace, I was released from my role and self-image as a dependent child of the "Mother"-Shakti. And She was revealed in Truth, no longer in apparent independence, or as a cosmic Power apart from me, but as the Inseparable and Inherent Radiance of my own and Very Being. Therefore, I Recognized and Took Her as my Consort, my Loved-One, and I Held Her effortlessly, forever to my Heart. Together eternally, we had Realized Ourselves as the "Bright" Itself.

The next day, September 10, 1970, I sat in the temple again. I awaited the Beloved Shakti to reveal Herself in Person, as my Blessed Companion. But, as time passed, there was no Event of changes, no movement at all. There was not even any kind of inward deepening, no "inwardness" at all. There was no meditation. There was no need for meditation. There was not a single element or change that could be added to make my State Complete. I sat with my eyes open. I was not having an experience of any kind. (cont.)
www.beezone.com...

Originally posted by SpaceGoatsFarts

Originally posted by WickettheRabbit
That's why I believe the teachings never end, even after a so called "awakening". Until my very last breath, I will learn from others, from this world, and I will do my best to make people around me a little more happy

[edit on 20-4-2010 by SpaceGoatsFarts]

Now thats the spirit!!!! baptize yourself everyday with the holy spirit for it is knowledge! the gift to learn how to be. we can all thank the most high For that!

Originally posted by ColeYounger
This is my experience with the "Unified Field" or "Spiritual Awakening"...


I had this experience twice while sitting and meditating on a rock. I entered into a state of absolute 'perfection', where I was gently taken into a 'current' of flowing energy. Here's where my experience differs from the OPs description: There was no emotional, tears-streaming-down-the-face moment of awakening. There were no emotions at all. There was no excitement...quite the opposite. It was simply a realization of things being in order, the way they should be.

I felt a nurturing, supportive energy, and somehow had a deep-seated sense of a fountain. Like I was experiencing the 'source' of it all. I walked away knowing that this perfect, almighty power is in control. It's just there, always. No awe-struck emotion, weeping for joy involved. In fact, the realization of it led me to the calmest state I have ever known.

I'm so fortunate to have experienced it. A divine gift?

Cole:
What a beautiful experience of Awakening!
Not all awakenings are the same.....some blow off the top of your head, and some blow gently through your consciousness. Both are just as valid and can change your life forever. Sometimes I wish my experience was more of the gentle sort!

Namaste!
-Boypony

Originally posted by WickettheRabbit
I don't mind the ideas presented in this thread, but I do have some questions.

If this is all a game with the end goal to find out what exactly our true selves are all about, what do you make of the people that are born with such physical and mental impairments as to not being able to live without medical assistance?

Are those spirits that have rolled the game dice and lost before they've even started? Do we pretend that they've reached enlightenment even if we can't see it?

You can always look at it as the 'game piece' that person has chosen to play. We all come in with a specific plan for each lifetime.

Chances are you have been that dis-abled person in one lifetime or another! Just as you've been the villian, the victim, the priest, etc...

It's all about spiritual evolution. We come to learn. We know it isn't going to be easy, but we charge forth anyway. And with the forgetting, it sure is a confusion ride!

Originally posted by Northwarden

And you REALIZE..AND KNOW w/o any doubt....that YOU ARE GOD. And for the rest of this human life, you are on "cruise control"...because you have awoke...you have won the game. The search is finally over.

Yeah, great stuff.

I'm saddened to see people trying to consider themselves as God. I think it speaks volumes on how successful the nwo just might be yet. If you're a GOD on cruise control, then it better be perfect words and advice you're giving or else it deserves some questioning! The bigger the claim, the longer the measure.

[edit on 19-4-2010 by Northwarden]

God is also man-made and is some far off shadowy entity that you must worship and supplicate to.

Using the word God takes the power out of your hands and places it into this far off entities hands.

You are the Creator experiencing and understanding itself better as the Creator by the interaction of the external world (the Creator) with yourself (the Creator).

Humanity should wake up and come to the realization that we are all in fact the One Creator just as all else is.

Any portion no matter how small contains the One Creator which is Infinity.
Therefor all begins and ends in mystery.

We are all One, separateness is illusion.


[edit on 20-4-2010 by 11118]

reply to post by Boypony


Excellent post my friend! You speak as one who has truly SEEN. I agree that the experience leads to the seeing of everything as perfection. This goes along the lines of the questioning of the suffering going on in the world. Only a person would see the world as imperfect. It is like the people that would ask for world peace. How arrogant of them to wish their desires on the entire world. It has been said that if you truly want to help the world, the best thing you can possibly do is to awaken and achieve mastery over your ego-self.

Originally posted by Puresilence
reply to post by Boypony

 

Excellent post my friend! You speak as one who has truly SEEN. I agree that the experience leads to the seeing of everything as perfection. This goes along the lines of the questioning of the suffering going on in the world. Only a person would see the world as imperfect. It is like the people that would ask for world peace. How arrogant of them to wish their desires on the entire world. It has been said that if you truly want to help the world, the best thing you can possibly do is to awaken and achieve mastery over your ego-self.

Suffering exists to teach the good.

It sounds ludicrous but it is right in front of your face.

Without Darkness how would One truly know the Light?

reply to post by emsed1


Emsed1 said:
"Do you get the impression that there is no Hell, at least one as we've come to conceive of?"

Emsed-
After awakening you will never fear death.....you KNOW there is no Hell except for the one some create in thier own mind. When a devout believer in Hell crosses over fearing he will go to hell- he will. At least for a short time...BUT he won't be burning in agony, he will only observe what he believes Hell is like. But soon understanding will come and he will be free to move past this self-made delusion into the light.

Namaste-
-Boypony

reply to post by Boypony


You can only speak for yourself of course.
In my view, I'm like an apple seed. Im original unto myself yet I am of the Apple tree called God. Being an apple seed does NOT make me an apple nor
does it make me an Apple tree. However without the apple tree of God, I could never have been produced thru the apple.

I am OF the apple tree therefor a part of it. But......that doesnt not make me the apple or the tree. I wont find my God in a church, unless the church is called the Universe.

I will have to die as a Seed before I can ever hope to one day become an apple tree.

Put that in yer pipe and smoke it.