The Process of Awakening

Of course the process of awakening is multifaceted and unique for everyone. However, there are some commonalities that can be used as a guide home. Let's consider the following three steps; Recognition, Identification, and Surrender.

1. Recognize Your True Nature

If there is a moment of awakening it is when an individual recognizes his or her true nature. In a moment of self inquiry you recognize what is always present throughout life. You recognize what gives rise to the body, the emotions and thoughts. You recognize the source of your life and all of existence. The recognition may be subtle, like the dawn before the day, but the recognition is still the essential experience in awakening.

Once you have recognized this eternal presence, you can now pay attention to it. The more attention that is put on source, the faster it will permeate your life. Your attention on source fans the flames of consciousness which free your life from over-identification of your story and allows you to identify more with the absolute.

2. Identify Yourself as Your True Nature

As more time is spent consciously aware of your source, you identify more and more with the source and less and less with an individual life which has a story and a certain body. There is a loosening of the mind’s hold over a life. There is an opening to life without needing to veil it with a story created by the mind based on past experiences. You begin to identify with the permanent presence emanating from all life as your true nature.

3. Surrender to Your True Nature

In knowing your true nature you learn that it is the vastness of infinite freshness, love, peace, and beauty. You realize that the life you had was guided by the mind’s pushing and pulling based on fear and desire. So you consciously choose to allow the source to be the impetus for your life. This is a surrendering to God on a very intimate level. It is surrendering to the peace and love you have come to know and count on at the core of your being. A life that was driven by the mind’s whims is now offered to the infinite knowledge and wisdom of the divine. Awakening has taken root and now flourishes through another life.

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