What Is A Spiritual Awakening?

Confusions, Doubts & The True Nature Of Awakening

Did you have a Spiritual Awakening?

That’s probably not a question someone asks you every day … on the other hand:

Has anyone ever asked you that?

Maybe you have told someone about your “awakening”, maybe you haven’t. Speaking from experience, I know that those experiences usually come with a bit of doubt:

Doubt about what they are, what effects they have and whether or not they have really happened.

“Am I maybe just making this all up?”

If you search the internet for information or validation you will stumble upon very interesting claims and signs of spiritual awakenings. Here are a few:

• You are more sensitive to the people around you 🥹
• You can no longer be with your friends and family 🫥
• Your third eye has opened 🪬
• You become more spiritual ✨

Depending on where you come from, this might sound somewhere between vague or average all the way to:

“What is that even supposed to mean?”

That is exactly the topic of the upcoming mico retreat I will be hosting in Javea, Spain, on November 23. For all of you who cannot participate, I will share a few personal experiences and insights in this article.

If you happen to be close by, I encourage you to join us so we can explore, exchange around, and maybe experience awakening together.

**Sign Up For The Retreat (Free)**

Clearing The Confusion

A few years ago I went through a series of events that first excited, then confused, and eventually destabilized me until it eventually smoothed out with an unexpected conclusion:

This will keep happening.

Awakening is an ongoing process.

To my delight, I was just starting to understand how deep this experience goes and how much more there was to learn.

What disappointed me, was how few resources I could find online to help me understand and navigate this process … namely: close to none.

Now that I am more familiar with different lineages, traditions, terms, and practices, useful and helpful resources are much easier to find and recognize. But if you give “spiritual awakening” a quick search without much context, chances are you will end up with an article like: “17 Signs You Are Spiritualy Awakening”.

The article will be filled with points similar to the ones I cited above.

• Some of them are harmless 😌
• Some of them are empty (and not in the Buddhist sense, although … 🤔)
• Some of them are fantasies (probably, you never know for sure 🤷‍♂️)
• Some of them are misinterpreted and misattributed ancient metaphors (like the third eye 🪬🔜🤦🏻).
• And some of them are harmful at best …

But all of them have one thing in common:

If you had a spiritual awakening they are completely useless.

Accidental Awakenings & False Conclusions

Most of the resources I found made only clear to me that people either did not know what they were talking about or they and I had very different experiences.

In many cases, I believe the motives are quite innocent since there is a real danger of confusing our imagination with our actual experience.

I’ve fallen and sometimes still fall victim to this myself ⤵️

Instead of meditating, we imagine how blissful, calm, and absorbed we are. The only thing we miss? That we just make this up.

This is Thinking Mind. Monkey mind. Ego. 🐒

The same can happen for awakening experiences.

You might have had a powerful, maybe even paradigm-shifting experience. So the next time you meditate you remember that experience and you might relive it.

And as you keep remembering it again and again it slowly turns into a distant memory, from a memory into a story and from a story into a fantasy.

That’s where most people stop meditating.

“Since I’ve awakened I don’t need to meditate anymore.”, or so it goes.

One experience can lead you to believe that this is all there is, but in reality, you might have simply gotten a glimpse of something much, much bigger. And once you stop meditating the chances of having another awakening experience plummet, which leads a lot of people to believe:

“That was it. There is nothing more to learn.”

Whereas the real thing will lead you down a path that makes it evidently clear:

There is no end to this.

What Is A Spiritual Awakening Like?

And How Does It Happen?

Neither one article nor one video is really enough to explain what an awakening is and how it feels like. Which is why I host events like the upcoming micro retreat.

You are an essential part to the experience. Understanding or opening to a spiritual awakening makes little to no sense without including the unique condition of your being.

Or in more simple words:

The way you experience the world is crucial to the way you experience an awakening.

Take my case: I did not experience unity, bliss, or love (metta) the first few times, but rather the absence of a self or an ego that held me chained to the self-image and personality I’ve built up over the years.

At other times I felt myself melting with space, my edges dissolving and releasing me into life as it unfolds.

Sometimes those experiences were induced by meditation, sometimes by coincidence.

They often happened during practice, but sometimes also randomly — inside a busy airport in the middle of the day.

There were periods where I went on for months without any major experience and then there were weeks where one experience followed the next.

All of those experiences had one thing in common:

I was actively practicing, every day and challenging myself to learn more.

It was not that one experience, in particular, changed my perspective, but it is rather that the accumulation of all those moments keeps changing the way I engage with myself and the world.

This is an ongoing process: awakening in progress.

What You Can Expect From The Retreat

Sorry, I’d love to, but that’s not up to me. As I mentioned you play a crucial role in the unfolding of it.

Instead, I will be fully honest and transparent with you about my personal experiences, while inviting you to not only share the space but also your stories, questions, and doubts with me.

I will guide you through meditations, perception experiments, and sharing moments in which we will together explore topics like:

• Spiritual Myths & Misunderstandings
• The Role of Suffering & Ego
• The Relevance of Guidance & Teachers
• The Goal of Meditation

To ensure that everybody feels welcome, safe, and at ease, the experience will be limited to ten people. Newcomers and experienced practitioners are all welcome alike.

I am confident that we will create a space during the retreat (and in the long run online) where we can speak freely, openly, and securely about the true meaning of spirituality.

I see you.

Maybe soon in person.

**Sign Up For The Retreat (Free)**