Don’t forget Rip Van Winkle? Those of us in the American English speaking aspect of the planet who passed our higher college years in the 1950s to 1970s do try to remember him. He was the man who slept for 20 years in a hollow in New York. We knew him in our English Literature class.
For the younger generation who know absolutely nothing about Rip Van Winkle, here is a incredibly brief summary. He was the principal character in Washington Irving’s story “Rip Van Winkle.” He was a Dutch American who did not want to perform for a fee. He just wanted to play. A single day he was lost in the mountains of New York as it was then before the American Revolution and got into the corporation of the ghosts of Henry Hudson and his crew. He drank their drink and fell asleep. He woke up only after 20 years, with a lengthy beard and an aged man. He goes back to his village only to find out it was no longer the same as he left it. America was now independent from Great Britain. Just after some browsing he found his family.
The explanation why I started with the story of Rip Van Winkle is mainly because he illustrates the person who sleeps for quite a few years, who is awakened only immediately after sleeping those numerous years, that is, in his physique, the physical life.
In the spiritual life, like Rip Van Winkle most men and women are asleep and unless somebody wakes them up they will continue on sleeping spiritually, probably for the rest of their life. Some of them will wake up only in eternity.
Here are 3 ways to know you’ve had a spiritual awakening. If you have not gone via these 3 strategies, this signifies that you are still asleep, that is, spiritually, like Rip Van Winkle physically, and it really is time for you to wake up.
And that is the distinction among spiritual awakening and physical awakening. You can not know that you are physically awake if you are asleep. You can not know that you are awake though you are nevertheless sleeping. But you can know that you have not but awakened spiritually. How? By reflecting on your life, irrespective of whether any of these ways are present in your life. If they are not yet present, then it means that you have not but awakened spiritually. Recognizing this you can now wish to awaken spiritually. And desiring to awaken spiritually is the step just before basically awakening spiritually.
Luckily, the approaches to know we’ve had a spiritual awakening are equivalent to the strategies to know we’ve had a physical awakening.
The very first way to know that you are physically awake is by becoming aware of your surrounding, at very first indistinctly, then little by small, more distinctly.
Even prior to you open your eyes you can know that you are currently awake, that you are still in bed, that it is late in the night or early in the morning, and so forth.
Even so in spiritual awakening you are conscious of the spiritual realities around you. You are conscious that you are in a planet of spiritual as effectively as physical realities. Once more, as in physical awakening, this awareness is at initially 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 about you could outcome as a consequence of a dissatisfaction with your present job, of a failure in small business, of a loss of a loved a single, of a joyful encounter with a beloved. Whatever it is that triggers this awareness, you are made conscious that not only physical, visible factors surround you but also spiritual, non-visible factors, like really like or worry, inner peace or turmoil, joy or confusion.
Have you had this practical experience? If you have, then you have begun to awaken spiritually.
In physical awakening, just after being conscious of your surrounding the natural factor to do is 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 door, and so forth.
So also in spiritual awakening you open your spiritual eyes and perceive the spiritual realities about you: the strivings of human beings to strengthen their lives and seek ultimate happiness, the crimes committed in the search for some type of satisfaction, the exultation and joys of these who succeed in their endeavors, the struggle in between superior and evil occurring before your quite eyes.
Do you perceive these spiritual realities about you? Beneath the stories of sordid crimes and wars, of all-natural and man-made calamities, do you see the mighty spiritual forces claiming for your attention? Do you see the ever growing hordes of human beings who are digging deeper into poverty and homelessness? Do you see the handful of elite masters of this planet earth who continue to obtain sources beyond their consumption and just waste them away? And do you see these events as part of a spiritual battle among the invisible superior and evil forces of the universe, beyond psychological, sociological, economic and political things? Do you see the forces behind our planet leaders which push them to dominate peoples and exploit them? If you do, you’ve had a spiritual awakening.
Thirdly, in physical awakening soon after you are conscious of your surrounding and after you open your eyes, you act. You get out of bed, go to the wash room, and so on., preparing yourself for the perform of the day.
So also in spiritual awakening, immediately after you are conscious of your spiritual surrounding and after you see what is happening spiritually about you and all over the world, you act. You prepare for the spiritual work ahead of you. You do not sink into hopeless resignation, pondering you can do absolutely nothing since of the enormity of the spiritual forces about you. You act mainly because you are convinced that the Spirit in you is mightier than the thousands of challenges around you.
You act but you do not do so rashly. You do not go into battle unprepared. So also in energy healing place on the shield and weapons of a spiritual nature, fully ready to vanquish the enemies.
Are you struggling with spirit energy to make this globe a improved location for you to live in, even just in your corner of the globe? If you say, Yes, then you are acting and you are spiritually awake.
The 3 ways to know irrespective of whether you’ve had a spiritual awakening is by 1) getting conscious of the spiritual realities about you 2) opening your spiritual eyes to the events of spiritual forces around you 3) acting spiritually in your corner of the globe to make it a much better location to reside in. If this has occurred to you, you know that you are spiritually awake and you can now support other people to wake up spiritually.