CHAPTER 1
Awakening Knowledge
Awaken knowledge to that which you already know. Realign with its truth, and open the doors to an uplifting way of relating and experiencing life.
Our True Nature
This life is about seeking to understand the deepest realities of your existence. Ask yourself questions and then pursue the answers with passion so the knowledge can be transformed into inner freedom. Doubts are replaced with understanding, which is replaced with knowingness, which transforms into inner contentment, joy, and peace.
What do we have in common with everyone else living on this planet? We are here together living through the experience of life. Each human being with free will chooses what belief system best suits him or her on his or her journey. Some believe there is a God; others refuse such an existence. Some believe there is life after death; others can't accept the fact without verifiable proof. We can accept that everyone is on his or her own path and all we can really do is focus on the direction we take in our lives.
People who are sincere about discovering the nature of their existence keep an open mind, allowing us to learn new things about the world we live in and ourselves. We can acknowledge that maybe we don't know everything and keep an open mind to learning.
Now more than ever with the material available on the Internet, one can research just about anything that piques his or her interest. A common interest is to understand more about life. Many searches each month are typed into search engines on the Internet for keywords like "What is the meaning of life?" People are wondering why we are here on earth, what's the point, and what we can do to live our lives to their greatest potential. Basically, it comes down to the question of "Who or What am I?" This is the ultimate question one can ask and, when prompted with sincerity, can lead to doorways of discovery.
When someone begins to ask the deepest questions about life, he or she can take various informative paths. A general approach of looking at all the pieces of the puzzle and then putting the pieces together for oneself is the most reinforcing route to take because it looks at all possibilities before coming to a conclusion. When this is done through simple life research, it becomes obvious that all the leading edges of discovery lead to the same path.
For example, if we look at what our ancestors were saying as far back as we can see in history, combined with the most advanced sciences in today's world, and then look at the core of religions, spirituality, and the basic underlying message in them all, we see it all leads to the same core reality. We are spiritual beings living a human experience.
After reading this, some people choose to shrug it off as meaningless. Others follow with the question, "So what does that mean?" Either way, the statement needs validation in order to be accepted as a reality.
The majority of the world has heard before that they are made of mind, body, and spirit. We know we have a mind. Else, we couldn't think. We know we have a body. Else, we couldn't move. It should be just as normal to also say we know we have a spirit. Else, we couldn't be aware. But this statement loses a lot of the population. People need proof. We can prove the mind and body. How can the spirit be proved to each and every person without a doubt? The answer is at the moment of death. The moment you pass away, the word "spirit" has never been so real. The good news is that we don't have to wait until then to understand the spirit and its meaning.
Countless books and videos available are related to near-death experiences that validate what we call "physical death" as merely a change of state of being. Nurses who work with dying patients in the hospital witness numerous occasions where patients are overstruck with awe as they experience something miraculous just before their passing.
After public speaking, the greatest fear in the world is death. Some individuals get uncomfortable talking about this and avoid the subject, but it is important to understand it for our long-term spiritual growth and know it is nothing to be afraid of. When we pass, our spirits effortlessly leave the body, where awareness remains.
We can compare death to water changing states into vapor. No one has ever died in the history of humanity; one simply changes states and lives on in another realm. It is of great relief to know that, if you live now, you will exist forever. This is not new knowledge. It has been said for thousands of years. When accepted, it can bring about a better understanding of the purpose of this life. It also helps to bring comfort to those grieving the passing of a loved one. Your special friend is safe and at peace, and you can be reunited when the time is right.
For further validation and reading, Embraced by the Light by Betty J. Eadie contains detailed firsthand explanations of what she experienced at the moment of leaving the body and her insights into the afterlife. This is just one-life changing story; you can discover a multitude of others by typing "near-death experience" on YouTube or a search engine.
So what does this mean? Why are we living a human experience right now when our true natures are as spiritual beings? We are here to learn. The question will be elaborated in detail to better understand what we are here to learn, what the nature of consciousness is, and what it means to exist and grow as a spirit. The material will further break down the restrictions that prevent our growth and help awaken the feeling of freedom from within to create self-sustained happiness and well-being.
Introduction to Consciousness
Consciousness means to be conscious. To be conscious means to know you exist. The term itself is defined as the state of being aware. Therefore, various degrees of consciousness can be said to be varying degrees of awareness. All living things have consciousness.
Bacteria show the beginning of the evolution process with the lowest calibrated consciousness levels on earth. As you move up the consciousness scale, you start to see insects and fish. Then as consciousness rises, predatory mammals come into play, such as lions and snakes, and we move up in expression to the bird and wolves. Finally, we reach vegetarian grazers such as the zebra, deer, pigs, monkeys, and so forth.
This information is not to be taken that humans evolve from animals, but it simply outlines everything that exists has a level of consciousness that contributes to the overall expression and experience of its reality. Truth vs. Falsehood: How to Tell the Difference by Dr. David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD clearly outlines the map of the scale of consciousness and detailed explanations on this subject.
A human is a conscious being and individually calibrates at a specific consciousness level based on the degree of awareness he or she is experiencing. Each individual human relates to the world a little different based on where he or she is aligned with consciousness.
Consciousness is beyond the body, feelings, and thoughts. It is beyond beliefs, attitudes, names, gender, family, and socioeconomic status. It is your core inner being and the essence of life. Consciousness is always looking to grow and expand. A very unique characteristic of a human with the mind and intelligence working in conjunction with consciousness is the ability and potential to learn to grow consciousness. Human consciousness evolves through learning. This is why it is a blessing to be born a human and elaborates on the question, "Why are we living a human experience as spiritual beings?" We are to learn to grow our inner consciousness because, after this life, the consciousness and level of awareness we have become remains.
That is, with the higher levels of consciousness, the more aware of the core reality of our existence, the more identified you are with your true nature. The more aware we are of our core reality, the better the experience becomes. So, the goal of earthly life is to clearly raise levels of awareness to ultimately find our true natures so we can experience that cognizance when we leave the body.
Spiritual University on Earth
We can see the world as a spiritual university or playground. We chose to come to earth and learn. This truth puts a very different perspective on life. Living as the victim of life means we are wasting our own time. It is like you really wanted to be a star player on the national football team, and when granted your wish to be a player, instead of embracing the opportunity, you decided to sit on the ground with your arms crossed, refusing to have fun playing. We wanted to be here and experience the happenings of our lives for our own karmic and spiritual growth. It is our responsibility to live this truth for its own sake. We don't point fingers in the game of life.
The way we choose to live our lives now that we are here determines if we are using this life for the benefit of our spiritual growth.
On earth, we are separated from one another with the appearance of individuality. It is purposely set up this way so each and every person is responsible for his or her own choices coming from within him or her. Blessed with the power of free will and choice, we choose how we live, act, and react to the world and what we feel toward others. This is why carnation into this world is the quickest avenue for spiritual growth. Here on earth, we have complete free will to create our own destinies. What better place to grow where we actually have free will to choose between "positive" and "negative" in each instance. Based on our intention toward all aspects of life determine if one is expanding his or her consciousness or limiting growth. Expanding one's consciousness is the process of becoming more like the source. The source of life is the highest consciousness possible.
Learning to Love
A commonality arises in each one of the near-death experiences that tells us something very important about life. An overwhelming sense of unconditional love and joy is present in the realms of heaven. Each person who has travelled to the afterlife and reconnected with the source of existence says, "There is nothing but unconditional love, joy, and peace."
This gives us very useful knowledge that we can use for our own inner growth. All the negative judgmental versions and depictions of what people see God as can be surrendered as falsehood. God, as the source, is incapable of judgment. Only humans do that.
The term "unconditional" means unwavering and absolute. So to believe in God is to believe in unconditional love, not some man sitting in a chair eating pretzels while judging the acts of his creations and punishing them for wrongdoings. This knowledge that God is unconditional, all-encompassing, joyous love paints a very different picture about the purpose of our individual lives. God is the source of all life, and love is our true nature.
The purpose of life on earth is to therefore to learn how to love unconditionally. When we do so, consciousness finds its way back to source energy. In other words, here on earth, we are on the path to become unconditionally loving beings.
Negativity and judging toward others and ourselves can be relinquished for it has no purpose and takes us away from reality. Instead, we exhibit love for all we can and ourselves. All love we exhibit here comes back to us in this life and for eternity.
What Is Love
Love is the infinite governing power. This energy stems from creation and sustains all life. If there were no love, there would be chaos, and life would destroy itself. Just using one simple example, if a mother did not love her children, she would abandon them. Without love, there is war and disaster. With love, there is unity and harmony.
The term "love" appears throughout this book, so we should start with a clear explanation of what kind of love we are discussing. The love talked about in this book is not a relationship love per se. It is more of a lighthearted way of being in the world. You could call it a spiritual or compassionate love.
Spiritual love is an inner love that radiates from within us to all of life. It is a way of expanding love to the world so the joyous experience can be maintained at all times. Its effects are uplifting, healing, fulfilling, and self-rewarding and filled with compassion and forgiveness. This type of love is not an emotional love or affection toward something. Emotional love is based on the misconception that something has to be "mine" in order to for us love it. She is my wife, so I love her. That is my dog, so I love it.
Spiritual love is not restricted to a relationship or set under conditions. Spiritual love is a way of expressing oneself in the world, and it is not selective. All encompassing, it isn't taken away if conditions aren't favorable. We release love for the sake of spreading positive and healing energy.
The payoff to lovingness is self-rewarding and fulfilling. When we radiate love, we feel a positive change in our inner experience.
Most humans believe that love is something that you get, that it is an emotion, that it has to be deserved, and that the more they give away, the less they will have. The opposite is the truth. Lovingness is an attitude that transforms one's experience of the world. We become grateful for what we have instead of prideful. We express our lovingness when we acknowledge others and their contributions to life and to our convenience. Love is not an emotion but a way of being and relating to the world. Love is misunderstood to be an emotion; actually it is a state of awareness, a way of being in the world, a way of seeing oneself and others. Love for God or nature or even one's pets open the doors to spiritual inspiration. The desire to make others happy overrides selfishness. The more we give love, the greater our capacity to do so becomes. It is a good beginning practice to merely mentally wish others well throughout the course of the day. Love blossoms into lovingness, which becomes progressively more intense, nonselective and joyful. (Hawkins 2011, 120)
This information gives us a new outlook on what real love is. If our purpose is to learn love, we can use this lifetime as a stepping stone to speed up the process and once again be reunited with the energy that sustains life.
God
A false depicted version of God is spread through the world. The term itself has been so misleading that when someone thinks of God, he or she may fear being judged for past actions. This is maybe why the Buddha did not use the word in his teachings. This fear-based version of God is a major hindrance to one's spiritual growth. It is falsehood and should be treated as such. Because the word God has been so abused, other terms are beneficial to use to describe the same universal energy, such as Allness, Oneness, Source, Creation, Holy Spirit, Divinity, or even just Life.
So what is God anyway? God is infinite love. To believe in love is to believe in God. All great things are simple. Divinity is the all-loving energy of creation. It is the underlying source of existence that is the unconditional love that gifts the freedom to be breathe, experience, exist, and be aware that we are cognizant.
Without Divinity, there would be oblivion — no awareness, no life source, and no love. With Divinity, there is beautiful life and the ability to experience, be alive, and feel love and joy.
The very core of all existence is Divinity, and it is the same in all of us, the light of love, the gift of life, and the everlasting moment of awareness that is experienced. The source of life is the highest reality of consciousness and always expanding its consciousness at the speed of light. This is why we have life. We are units of consciousness, learning and evolving to find our way back "home" to reconnect with source. The journey to God is like a reader wanting to meet the author or a person watching a movie and wanting to meet the producer. It is just that. You come to appreciate and respect life to the extent you seek to live with the energy that created life by becoming one with its nature.
God is not something out there that is separate from you. To exist is to be in the presence of God. All forms of existence therefore carry the presence of God within. God is eternal within the spirit — always present, always aware, and always loving. To awaken its presence, we align with its love. We become channels of God's unconditional love.
The core essence of God is formless. When we put structure on God, it creates limitations, but its infinite energy has no restrictions. Any term used to describe "God" itself can be surrendered because that which it truly is has no label. But let's not get too technical. All we really need to acknowledge is God as source is infinite love, joy and peace.
We can let go of the illusion of being separate from God that restricts the experience of its glory. God is not somewhere up in the sky. It is within you. Love the created as the creator.
Spiritual Path
All creation comes from the same source. Nothing that exists can create itself. Did you create yourself? This means a life source exists that is far greater than our understanding.
