How awakened are you? What stages might you go through on the path
to wakefulness? What are the advantages?
We tend to categorize people in three roles: followers, managers,
and leaders. In fact, the same individual can fulfill each of these functions
under different circumstances: the best leaders can become meek followers in crises,
while the most inhibited followers can emerge into courageous leaders when the
time is right.
Being awakened does not come with position, status, financial or
material prosperity, or celebrity. It is not acquired through higher education
at prominent schools. It does not take effect through generational inheritance.
Wakefulness Is a Process
Wakefulness is a skill you develop by living, thinking, feeling,
observing, experiencing, learning, and unlearning. It is a process—not an
end result—and it is achieved by the shifts that transpire within your mind
and heart over time.
Wakefulness requires the ability to let go—to unlearn or release
those things and thoughts that misguide you. Knowing which those are is truly
an art. For who can tell you what you may need tomorrow that you let go of today?
Releasing requires courage, for you will have to turn away from certain
goods, habits, people, and places sometimes. But it’s crucial for awakening.
And the end result, though not always easily or rapidly achieved, is a great relief!
That is why wakefulness can’t be seen as an overnight accomplishment.
The moment may strike like lightning, but the progression preceding it usually
takes years, if not decades. It takes pain—growing pains. It requires emotional
intelligence, which only gets sharpened by the great losses we suffer in our lives.
In fact, wakefulness is an interesting irony: you win it by losing.
Every time you lose something precious, one of two things can happen
to you: either you become a bit more disillusioned and bitter, or you become more
understanding and sensitive. Usually people first get bitter and disillusioned,
and then start accepting and understanding. The second phase results in a degree
of wakefulness.
The Basic Requirements
So, what are the basic requirements for wakefulness?
- Receptiveness to life: Being amenable toward experiences; knowing they are the only way for you to learn. No books or movies can give you that.
- Understanding of occurrences: After the first shock you need to take a step back and try to see the philosophy behind what happened to you.
- Willpower to emerge: Absorbing your pain takes time. But the will to transcend it needs to be there in order to reach the next level.
- Growth: After each shock, you become wiser. You learn to accept things as they are. You learn to detect patterns without getting paranoid. You see things
in perspective.
- Wakefulness: You learn to be part of your society with a grace that is discernible to others, regardless of your formal position. You find yourself more in balance
with everything around you—connected with everyone, yet detached enough
to release whatever and whenever you need to when the time is ripe; enriched with
inner gratitude for being who you are, and void of petty mentalities such as backstabbing,
badmouthing, envy, and hate. You become your own refuge. You turn inward for solutions,
knowing that this is where the answers lie. PE
