Remember Rip Van Winkle? Those people in the American English
speaking part of the world who passed our high school years in the 1950s
to 1970s do remember him. He was the man who slept for 20 years in an
empty in New York. We knew him in our English Literature class.
For
the younger generation who know nothing about Rip Van Winkle, listed
here is a very brief summary. He was the principal character in
Washington Irving's story "Rip Van Winkle." He was a Dutch American who
did not wish to work for a fee. He just wanted to play. One day he was
lost in the mountains of New York because it was then before the
American Revolution and experienced the business of the ghosts of Henry
Hudson and his crew. He drank their drink and fell asleep. He woke up
only after 20 years, with an extended beard and an aged man. He extends
back to his village only to discover it absolutely was no further the
same as he left it. America was now independent from Great Britain.
After some searching he discovered his family.
The reason why I
began with the story of Rip Van Winkle is really because he illustrates
the person who sleeps for many years, who is awakened only after
sleeping those many years, that is, in his body, the physical life. In
the spiritual life, like Rip Van Winkle most folks are asleep and unless
somebody wakes them up they will continue on sleeping spiritually,
perhaps for the rest of their life. Some of them will awaken only in
eternity. Listed here are 3 ways to know you've had a spiritual
awakening. When you have not gone through these 3 ways, this means that
you are still asleep, that is, spiritually, like Rip Van Winkle
physically, and it's time for you yourself to wake up.
And that
is the difference between spiritual awakening and physical awakening.
You can't know that you are physically awake if you should be asleep.
You can't know that you are awake while you are still sleeping. https://www.amazon.com/Vuoto-Infernale-Italian-Severino-Cirillo-ebook/dp/B0798MLCWF/ But you
can realize that you've not even awakened spiritually. How? By
reflecting on your lifetime, whether some of these ways are present in
your life. If they're not even present, then it means that you've not
even awakened spiritually. Knowing this now you can want to awaken
spiritually. And desiring to awaken spiritually may be the step before
actually awakening spiritually.
Fortunately, the ways to know
we've had a spiritual awakening are similar to the ways to know we've
had a real awakening. The first way to know that you are physically
awake is by being aware of one's surrounding, in the beginning
indistinctly, then over time, more distinctly. Even when you open your
eyes you can know that you are already awake, that you are still during
sex, it is late in the night time or early in the morning, etc.
Nevertheless
in spiritual awakening you're conscious of the spiritual realities
around you. You're aware that you are in a world of spiritual in
addition to physical realities. Again, as in physical awakening, this
awareness is in the beginning indistinct, but as time goes on and as you
proceed in our spiritual journey this awareness becomes clearer and
clearer.
This awareness of spiritual realities around you might
result as a consequence of a dissatisfaction along with your present
job, of a failure in business, of a lack of a loved one, of a joyful
encounter with a beloved. Whatever it's that triggers this awareness,
you're made aware that not just physical, visible things surround you
but also spiritual, non-visible things, like love or fear, inner peace
or turmoil, joy or confusion.
Have you had this experience? When
you have, you then have begun to awaken spiritually. In physical
awakening, after being aware of one's surrounding the natural thing to
do would be to open your eyes and you see things around: the fading
darkness or the onrush of sunlight, the furniture around the space, the
light switch, the doorway, etc.
So also in spiritual awakening
you open your spiritual eyes and perceive the spiritual realities around
you: the strivings of human beings to boost their lives and seek
ultimate happiness, the crimes committed in the seek out some sort of
satisfaction, the exultation and joys of people who succeed in their
endeavors, the struggle between good and evil occurring before your very
eyes.
Would you perceive these spiritual realities around you?
Underneath the stories of sordid crimes and wars, of natural and
man-made calamities, would you start to see the mighty spiritual forces
claiming for the attention? Would you start to see the ever increasing
hordes of human beings that are digging deeper into poverty and
homelessness? Would you start to see the few elite masters with this
planet earth who continue to obtain resources beyond their consumption
and just waste them away? And would you see these events as part of a
spiritual battle involving the invisible good and evil forces of the
universe, beyond psychological, sociological, economic and political
factors? Would you start to see the forces behind our world leaders
which push them to dominate peoples and exploit them? Should you choose,
you've had a spiritual awakening.
Thirdly, in physical awakening
after you're aware of one's surrounding and once you open your eyes,
you act. You get out of bed, head to the wash room, etc., preparing
yourself for the work of the day. So also in spiritual awakening, after
you're aware of one's spiritual surrounding and once you see what is
happening spiritually around you and throughout the world, you act. You
prepare for the spiritual work ahead of you. You don't sink into
hopeless resignation, thinking you are able to do nothing due to the
enormity of the spiritual forces around you. You act because you're
convinced that the Spirit in you is mightier compared to tens of
thousands of problems around you.
You act but you don't achieve
this rashly. You don't go into battle unprepared. So also in spiritual
warfare you put on the shield and weapons of a spiritual nature,
completely willing to vanquish the enemies. Are you experiencing spirit
power to produce this world a better place for you yourself to are now
living in, even just in your corner of the planet? In the event that you
say, Yes, you then are acting and you're spiritually awake.
The
three ways to know whether you've had a spiritual awakening is by 1)
being conscious of the spiritual realities around you; 2) opening your
spiritual eyes to the events of spiritual forces around you; 3) acting
spiritually in your corner of the planet to produce it a better place to
call home in. If it's happened for you, you know that you are
spiritually awake and now you can help others to awaken spiritually. You
can find millions of spiritual Rip Van Winkles around you who've been
spiritually sleeping for years, for many years even. It is your task as
an awakened spiritual person to greatly help them awaken spiritually.
