So why wake up?

Spiritual Awakening
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was having the beginnings of what many people would call a “Spiritual Awakening”. I grew up with Christian teaching that required a faith that made no sense to me. Discovering Ram Dass led me to realize that my religious training was a bridge to spirituality, but that there were many other bridges that led to the same awareness. And I learned that for me, the values that guide my life must ultimately come from deep inside me. Defining Spiritual Awakening can be complicated and lead to a slippery slope, so I will address that more deeply in some other writings. For the moment, I will simply suggest that I was connecting to my own divine essence and beginning to see that same essence in everyone around me. I was becoming more conscious. Interestingly, seeing this essence in others requires that I not judge them. In the many years since then, I have continued my awakening process. It has been a bumpy road and many times, I have gone through deep depressions; but the overall arc of my life has changed who I am as a man, as a husband and father and as a human being. It has been hard work, but the work itself has been a huge reward. And I believe that good teachers and well-structured teachings can radically accelerate this process. So just what is a Spiritual Awakening? Because you are still reading this page, you may already be undergoing an awakening process. If you want to check that out, take the survey on this page. So now what? Where do you go from here? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but if you would like to begin your own waking up process, here are some steps you can take:- Seek beginner’s mind. In the expert’s mind, there are few possibilities, but in the beginner’s mind, there are many. Embrace the mystery.
- Notice your judgments of yourself and others and be willing to be curious about how those judgments serve you. Be especially curious about how you feel when you judge somebody else or are judged by someone else.
- Be courageous in your life. Adopt the principle that, “What I fear, I must face.”
- Seek to deepen your relationships with people who inspire and support you and make yourself available to inspire and support others.
- Cultivate compassion for yourself and others. You cannot be truly compassionate with others until you are honestly and authentically compassionate with yourself. This means accepting yourself exactly as you are, warts and all.
- Meditate instead of medicate. Learn to sit silently and look inward.
- Notice what is happening in the moment. Notice the small coincidences and synchronicities that cross your path. Hold them lightly, and be curious.
- Slow down and begin to smell the roses. They are all around you and take many forms.
- Focus more on substance and less on form. Become clear about the substance of what you want and let go of how it is wrapped.
- Cultivate acceptance. The gifts you receive may come in very unexpected packages.