I want to start off by writing a few cautionary words about the idea of your “awakened self.” It creates this duality of awakened and unawakened, and a lot of people beginning this path can get lost in the idea of “getting rid of” the unawakened self to experience the “awakened” self. Linguistically and practically, it sets up all kinds of unnecessary hurdles, and it’s just not how things are. The awakened self is always there, and even the “unawakened” ego is part of it. That is the truth of oneness. But I do know that many of you can tell you aren’t moving from the awakened awareness that is within you. That’s really all that you need to know. Then you can go within and pay attention. Things start to move pretty quickly from that. I know. It’s too simple. And that’s the point.

For those of you settling even further into the space of awakened awareness, I wanted to write to assuage common concerns that somehow you won’t be able to work or earn a living from this space of consciousness. This space of consciousness is not interested in yoking itself to lies, deceit, and things that are not real. Wherever you are most in love with life, you will most easily go, and the universe will support you. It can be into accounting or entrepreneurship as much as it is into music or spiritual healing. You will go where you’ve always known that you should go, and you will be provided for.

The Lie of the Brainless Awakened Self

Let’s take apart some of the confusion around awakening. Many people’s illusory and incorrect ideas about awakening are that it’s like a spiritual high state experience that they had once or that they had at the outset of their great spiritual shift. In that high experience, you feel way expanded. You’ve lost the “I,” and you truly don’t care if you ever get it back. It is that amazing experience of oneness from what I would call a kind of disembodied place. It is almost like you aren’t really in your body anymore. It’s not exactly like that though, and I encourage you to understand that my words cannot explain this experience. I’m just trying to give you a few pointers. But more importantly, I’m encouraging you to see that this particular type of experience is just one type of experience that the awakened self can experience. It is not THE ONLY type of awakened experience, and as you integrate and embody this love that you are, the experience of living from awakened awareness shifts.

However, because so many people only associate this type of experience with awakening, the next ego lie that gets in the way of many of you truly embodying your awakened self is that you can’t function in the world. The lie says you will be a brainless mash of an amoeba with no will of your own lying on a couch for the rest of your life, and that is just not so. Many things may change, but the awakened state is not inherently like this. It is not inherently drifting mindlessly through life. It simply is, and how that manifests to you is up to you and the soul path you are here to travel.

Spiritual Integration Completes and Stepping Into the Workworld

Like all transitions and transformation, the phase of actively embodying spiritual awakening will end. There will still be ups and downs and shifts in your life as you change and embody deeper realizations of truth, but this major transformation will come to a settling point. From that space, you can step back into the world in whatever way you choose. You may even try to go back to your old way of living, and that may or may not work for you. I don’t know of too many people for whom that does work, but all things are possible, especially when done from a space of love.

Love is the big thing, too. When you are following your heart, it is actually very easy to work in the workworld. I am not saying that you will enjoy all aspects of it, but without your ego resistance to how life should or should be, many situations are instantly that much easier to be with. You won’t be antagonizing the world with ideas of this is right or wrong either. For instance, you won’t much care if a business meeting is being run right or wrong. However, you will be very attuned to what is truly right (helping someone in need) or wrong (intentionally inflicting pain on another). You will also be more deeply attuned to when you must witness the pain and struggle of others and when it is time to intervene. This truly isn’t the touchy-feely-do-gooder attitude that also gets confused with spirituality. That attitude is constantly trying to manipulate the world into its vision of how the world should be, and no matter how noble-seeming this attitude may be, it is still coming from a place of ego and imposing a kind of vision onto others.

No. The awakened self is not like this. It comes from a place of true-seeing and spiritual clarity, and this makes it ever so clear what does need changing and what does need allowing.

Doing What Needs to Be Done, Ignoring the Rest

There are so many things that do not have to happen. Many of us learned to fill up our days doing things, but many of the actions we take are nothing more than time-fillers. They serve no real purpose. That includes a lot of the intense energy that goes into making more money. After you cover your means for you and your family’s survival, you don’t really need that much more beyond building a little safety net (which also doesn’t need to be a vast sum of millions of dollars). Many of you will be surprised at how much free time you have, and this brings another adjustment period as you get comfortable with the vastness of space around you. It’s why the little old wise men and women are often depicted as sitting on benches in the park. It’s not because they are old and don’t have energy to do anything–you’d be surprised at how energetic awakened people can be at any age. It’s because they know what they need to do, have probably already done it, and now are simply enjoying being where they are.

The Unfolding of the Divine Plan and Your Life Work

 Many people are obsessed with finding their life’s purpose, but that does not come from the awakened self. That comes from the ego still trying to validate itself. It isn’t even validating you–the real you. The real you needs no validation. It needs no reason to be or to love or anything else. It already is, and as you are resting more deeply in this awareness, it becomes more and more effortless to just allow the unfolding of the divine plan in your life. It becomes clearer and clearer where God is assisting you right now, and it becomes clearer and clearer where you are still resisting. The old ego self tries to attack, change, and fix these parts (even confusing this as a type of healing), but the true you does not do these things. It notices the resistance, and the power of that awareness is so powerful and free-flowing that it will dissolve that remaining resistance. It will do it in its own time and pace and in its own way. It certainly does not operate as the ego mind thinks, but that too is part of getting comfortable with awakened awareness.

Furthermore, from this space, your life work is simply being. That is the truth for all of us. I find it enjoyable to write and to teach. When I no longer find these things enjoyable and true to me, I will stop. I am not actually a spiritual teacher or healer. Those are types of clothes that I wear, and while I am particularly well-equiped to wear them given some of my natural gifts as an energy shifter, intuitive, communicator, and so forth, they are still clothing. I will not always wear them. I do not always wear them in my daily life, but here on this blog, I happen to have them on. That is the truth of the matter for me in this moment. More truthfully, I simply am. And the more I simply sit in that space of being, whatever arises is perfect as it is. That doesn’t mean that every moment meets with my personal preference because I still have an ego–a set of ideas and personality traits distinctive to me. But I can accept that what has arisen is what is and address it accordingly if it needs addressing.

Life Goes On

And life goes on. Some people like you. Some people don’t. There’s peace in some parts of the world. There’s war in other parts. If you feel called to help bring more peace into the world in a specific way, you will do it, but being and presence is the surest way to teach this lesson to others. Being awake allows others to experience this state by being around you, and usually, the most vital change that needs to come in the world is in the life closest to you. You don’t proselytize this. You simply are in peace. You are in love, and that’s how you work in the world.

The idea of work metamorphosizes as well. It’s not that things won’t require effort. They do. This world requires all kinds of effort if you want to build a house, an organization, or a family. This also is part of breaking down the misunderstandings people have about effortlessness. They confuse that term with meaning that life is all easy and luxurious and everyone will like them after awakening. That won’t happen. It’s not how this plane of existence operates. But as you simply accept everything as it is, your internal space is much more easy and free. And that’s an amazing thing to feel and to live from in every moment.

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I'm a spiritual teacher who helps people find freedom from suffering.

9 Comments

  1. I woke up this morning with the intent of emailing you asking about these very things. Thank you for somehow knowing my questions and giving me answers. Look forward to learning more from you!

  2. You're very welcome, Phin. I am glad that you can find wisdom here, but ultimately, the wisdom you are finding is your own. The wisdom in you is what you've found here. My words are just mirrors. If a person comes with a closed mind, they find nothing. With an open mind, they see what is within them–good, bad, and indifferent. If you like the reflection, don't thank the mirror. Thank and honor yourself. 🙂

  3. Hi Jim,
    You wrote: "You've lost the "I," and you truly don't care if you ever get it back. It is that amazing experience of oneness from what I would call a kind of disembodied place.It is almost like you aren't really in your body anymore."
    Then later you said: "Love is the big thing, too. When you are following your heart, it is actually very easy to work in the work world."
    I and others I have been meeting experienced spirtual "identities" that seemed to be split off from our human "selves." For me it's been a matter of following my heart and this has become my constant awareness, and my spiritual practice, so to speak. Also after 1 year off to immerse in what I think of as the final leg on my spiritual journey, I've started back to the old work, but it seems the energy is fresher there. My first thought was "everybody is waking up!" But I realize I have a new way of seeing them, and it is in following my heart that I receive this gift. Thanks for your wisdom, and giving clarity to what we are experiencing on this amazing journey.
    All the best for the mysteries to come,
    Joel

  4. Thank you very much for sharing, Joel. It is amazing how fresh life becomes the more grounded we are in our own eternal awareness. There is no where to go and nothing to do beyond what brings true joy and love into our lives. May there only be more true love and joy growing in your life, dear friend.

  5. wow- I had the same questions as you and like you these got answered in this article…thanks Jim!

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