Adyashanti describes spiritual awakening as waking from the dream of the person you thought you were — a moment of suddenly being outside the constructed self and seeing it clearly. He explains awakening not as an experience but as a permanent shift in what one knows oneself to be.
Transcript
It feels like you woke up from a dream and the dream was the person you thought you were. And all of a sudden you're outside of it and seeing it like holy smokes, that was my reality. That's who I thought I was. That's who I felt I was. What actually is spiritual awakening? So, I want to start there. If you can share your sense, your definition, your working understanding, what is spiritual awakening? Well, first of all, the word awakening I think is an interesting one. You know, it becomes so common common that we can forget like this is a really important word. It's because it's very instructive to what happens. Um in the midst of all sorts of spiritual experiences and all kinds of spirit experiences of all kinds that we can happen that can happen. Strange or they can be drug induced, you know, or all sorts of things. Um most of them aren't don't have an awakening. It's like a shift of consciousness, you know, I go ah, I'm in this different state of consciousness. Where's the awakening? The part for me that makes it awakening because it does in a very concrete way, very literal way. It feels like you woke up from a dream and the dream was the person you thought you were. And all of a sudden you're outside of it and seeing it like holy smokes, that was my reality. That's who I thought I was. That's who I felt I was. That was me. And then all of a sudden it's like I became lucid or something in a dream, you know, and all of a sudden there's this there's this other reality also. It's it's the popping almost in that other reality that cast this first one if that's all we know, that's all we know. And then all of a sudden you're out here. And you're wait, wait a minute. If I'm out here, that's who I thought I was. And I'm now I'm somewhere else. I'm something else. And that that insight, that sort of aha is that's the awakening to me. Now, one of the things I've heard you say, Adya, that really got my attention is that it's a myth that spiritual awakening or traditionally using a term like enlightenment is something that is reserved for just a few rarefied human beings. That you see that the time we're in is a time when spiritual awakening is a lot more accessible to a lot more people and mass even. That's my my I'm adding that in the the in mass language. And I'm curious if you have evidence for that, if this is just an inner uh observation that you're making. Where does this come from and do you think this is really true? Up until very recently, 30, 40 years any notion of enlightenment was linked to almost being a superman or a superwoman. And that it was linked very much within sort of very quite strict religious context. So, I think there's something very powerful about the spiritual impulse breaking free from the sort of religious or doctrinaire impulse. You know, there always going to be that doesn't mean I have that any problem with religion. I think religion has contained that impulse and given, you know, structure and images and all that for centuries, but I think that's a big part of the reason. And in people's minds what I found when you stop thinking like this whole awakening or enlightenment thing is rare and for the few and a lot of it all of a sudden becomes a much more available because we do tend to live out whatever we believe. And if some of those beliefs are self-limiting there's a good likelihood we'll live those beliefs out and then that that living them out will seem to confirm that yes, it is rare. So, I've just watched as a teacher when when I can see in people's eyes they kind of shift out of that this could never happen to me or it's for the rare. When they get when they realize like no, this is part of a natural human experience. It's just it's been happening for centuries and like almost since there was human beings on the face of the planet. It's it's almost a I think of it as almost like one of our like a spiritual instinct. And as soon as people start to be in the presence and see that something's happening for other people you know, they're like I'm I'm like all these other people like and so these unconscious limitations we put on I think are very powerful and to whatever extent they start to be lifted, which I think is part of what's happening now. As chaotic as that is um I'll it just be everything's becomes possible. Yeah, cuz I think it's a very very natural human impulse. And always has been.