The journey to Awakening

The journey to Awakening

Life is beautiful. Life is undulating in how it unfolds. There are amazing highs and crushing lows. The sole reason we are here on this earth and in human form, is to experience all of it fully. That is the journey of consciousness and awakening. Through all of your experiences, your role is to observe what is happening inside of you. And then from observing from this silent place, you can formulate your response. This response will be the highest, and most conscious response possible.

My teacher, Jo Dunning, has explained this journey as one that starts from victim, and then moves to victor, and ultimately to vehicle. I will try to explain this more fully. I see each of these stages as filters through which we view our life and its experiences. Most people are in the victim stage. They view their experiences as someone else’s fault. Staying in this mode is disempowering for the individual. One feels as though one has no control over what happened, and over how to move forward. While you are still stuck in this way of thinking, life can feel challenging.

The victor is one who has stopped blaming an external circumstance or person for where they are in life. The victor has done deep inner work and has realized the true purpose of any challenges they have faced. That purpose is always, spiritual growth. They have taken their pain and have grown in positive ways. A divorce may lead you to find an inner strength and ability to live independently. Childhood abuse may lead you to develop a compassion and desire to help others in the same situation. The person may not have otherwise have developed this level of compassion, had they not faced the challenge they did.

Yes, people go through horrible, unspeakable things through the hands of others. But ultimately, they emerge from that experience as victors – with more compassion, and more understanding and a desire to assist others through what they have learned and how they have navigated their path out of it. The victor has understood the throughout their experience, there was a strong and silent part of their being, which stood firm. Their experience may have led them through pain, suffering, abuse, guilt, shame or a whole range of emotions. But through it all, there is a spark that always survived. Life may have brought you to your knees, but you are still here.

When you realize that you can now use what your learned from your experience to help others, is when you become a vehicle. You desire to serve others with the growth that you have achieved. You are now a vehicle for the transformation of human consciousness.

The journey to awakening is a beautiful one. You realize that any challenge brings with it, a gift. You stay firmly grounded in your core. The core that is ever present, silently witnessing life. You navigate your challenges from this core, which is your true Self. You are ever connected with it. Life becomes easier to navigate from this still point. You realize that by being connected to this still place, you can manifest the life of your dreams, because you have now learned the secret to navigating life.