When you might hear about someone experiencing a spiritual awakening you may not think about the word pain. Mostly you would probably think about happiness and breakthroughs. I have found that it is not always the case.
I would say that a spiritual awakening is when someone is having the veil lifted from their eyes. It isn't always the same for everyone. Different things lift the veil, and different circumstances come afterward.
This isn't just someone that was in a religious institution and now they are not....this is about someone's eyes being opened. If someone was involved with any sort of belief system..any type...and now they see things differently...and through growth and experiences they are not the same.
I understand the term enlightenment to mean that you are living your own experience. Where with religion you are living someone else's. This enlightenment is personal and is incredibly difficult to share.
When your eyes are being opened for the first time it is liberating, but then what. You are super excited about all of the possibilities but now what do you do. When you look around, things are not the same as they used to be. You don't see things the same way. Your place of worship seems different. Your family seems different. You interactions with others seems different.
It isn't so much that any of those things have actually changed, but more the way that you see them has changed. The very fabric of your reality changes. The way you perceive the universe, the world, and your place in it all.
The overwhelming feeling of disconnect is where the pain part comes in. The loneliness of thinking or feeling differently than everyone you know and not being able to talk with them about it, because they don't really understand.
Imagine knowing what you know. Then imagine you are filled so much information that you don't know what to do with it. There is a period of sorting. This time I would refer to as the journey. Some sort quickly while others take some time.
There are also different personalities that go with this. Some people, like myself, only see things as black and white. I have little to no room for grey area. While others may have tons of grey area and no need for a clear black and white. This adds the challenge of sorting the new information into distinct categories before moving forward.
While most would think that people who are experience some sort of awakening are just running away from things that they have always known...I don't think it is the case. I believe that it is more like running toward what they don't know.
I have high hopes of this process for everyone that is experiencing it. I think the world needs more people waking up to the reality of what they believe is real. It feels like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Through the process and into the beauty.
Be well
~The Yeti
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