Spiritual Awakening

Spiritual awakening /Ego Death

We as human beings spend our entire lives running away from, avoiding and denying the fact that we will someday physically die and associate death with darkness, mourning, and decay. During a Spiritual awakening, we go through what is commonly called an “Ego Death “.

WHAT IS THE EGO?

The ego is our sense of self or our identity. The ego is a biological and spiritual tool that was created by and defends the belief that, we are all separate “individual” entities. The ego perceives life through the lens of duality creating the illusion of opposing forces such as love/hate, good/bad, right/wrong and holy/sinful. The duelling ego is full of judgment, hatred, condemnation, and alienation. We separate our lives into “acceptable” and “unacceptable” experiences, people, beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. Any thought, feeling, sensation, experience or belief we have that is judged to be “bad,” “unacceptable” or “wrong” we suppress, avoid and deny. The result of living through the ego can be freely observed and experienced in our modern society.The depression, anxiety, mental illness, murder, hatred, greed, poverty, war and environmental destruction we experience is all an unconscious reflection of our internal suffering.

WHAT IS EGO DEATH?

The truth is that the ego can never really “die”; instead, it can be transcended and made conscious so that it’s no longer running and controlling our lives.The experience of transcendence is the most mind-bending, awe-inspiring, painful, peaceful, terrifying and loving experience you could ever have as you start to embody your True Nature. Those who report ego death/spiritual awakening generally fall into two camps: those who found the experience illuminating, and those who found the experience tormenting, experiencing bouts of pure ecstasy and pure horror. Ego death is the ultimate threat to the ego: complete loss of “self,” if only for a minute and if defended against by anxiety, confusion, and intense fear.

7 STAGES OF EGO DEATH

Ego death happens in stages, and if courageously pursued, results in the experience of Nirvana, Oneness or Enlightenment.

STAGE 1 — SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

The process of a spiritual awakening might be triggered by a life crisis, a tragedy, a chronic illness, or simply the natural process of soulful maturing as we start to search for more depth in life and meaning  We realise something is missing in life and may be  accompanied by the 5 stages of grief  of losing a false identity,

STAGE 2 — THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

As we experience the dark night of the soul we become extremely conscious of our separation from ourselves, other people and the Divine. We may feel periods when we feel utterly lost, lonely and isolated from others with increased suffering. Deep down, we know something has to drastically change in our life.

STAGE 3 — THE SPIRITUAL SEEKER

We start experimenting with different spiritual practices and find that some alleviate our suffering and others don’t as we look at new avenues of energy healing, Zen, yoga, astrology, and mysticism.

STAGE 4 — SATORI

Satori is a small glimpse into your True Nature, or Consciousness itself; a moment when your ego is completely shed which is deeply life-changing as spiritual growth continues.

STAGE 5 — THE ELDER SOUL

Eventually we develop spiritual discernment as we uncover the spiritual bypassing practices that keep us trapped in the cycle of pain, fear, and separation, and learn practices that open us to the Divine. We learn the virtues of self-discipline, patience, and focus.

STAGE 6 — DISSOLUTION AND DECONSTRUCTION

we begin to surrender all that we are not as we identify our destructive and limiting beliefs and behaviour patterns. We develop Grace, discipline, trust, courage; non-attachment and love all play an important role in this process.

STAGE 7 — THE END OF THE SEARCH

We see through the illusion of looking for truth, joy, peace and love as we transcend duality and the grip of the ego, we develop unconditional love and acceptance for all things. This is the state of ultimate peace, freedom and a feeling of “enlightenment,” Ego death is a serious, purging, profound, and shattering experience. It is so deep and so beyond anything we have experienced in this life, that it changes your perception of existence in a single moment.

Read More About Ego Death and Stages of Ego Death