Spiritual awakening as a trap
About the Possible Traps on Our Way to spiritual awakening
Almost daily I notice manifestations of a strange form of ego based on the rush for spiritual awakening and spiritual growth.
Today I will talk about this subject, by trying to underline some aspects without the intent of judging.
I only want to signal the main spiritual traps I went through, that cost me a lot of suffering in the early years of my spiritual awakening.
Spiritual awakening and feeling superior
Firstly, I’ve had the temptation to consider that after graduating some courses in the personal development and spiritual evolution area, I am much better and smarter than people who are close to me.
I used to consider I was totally misunderstood. And the others could not reach the height of my perception and the superior way from each I was looking at the world and spiritual realities.
This stance of the “superior loner” is very tempting. But isolation and the incapacity of connecting to concrete life situations (like enjoying a cup of coffee with friends that did not attend the same courses as you did) became very painful at some point.
It is important to notice ourselves when we do things like this. Because, sometimes, out of the intention of creating spiritual communion in a wrong way, we create bunkers in which we bury ourselves alive.
At the same time, there are relationships that must end when the time comes. And when the two have different paths in the soul. But not because we are better or special or because we are “spiritually awakened” and the others are not.
The separation trap
Then, I tried to model to model people after my own image. Because it seemed to me that the road I was on was the only correct one. The only lasting one and the only one that can offer you satisfactions in this world.
It was mandatory for those around me to go to the same courses as I did. And also to have the same concerns like me, in order for them to be worthy of my attention and of my time.
Another step in raising the inner barrier that leads to unnecessary suffering and separation.
What is surprising is that we go to courses that speak about unity and then we create more separation in our life.
Because somebody will always be there to show us that unity does not mean we all must do the same thing and to follow the same path.
It means to respect each other so much to find a common thread between us as simple people, even though our ways are opposite.
The spiritual mentorship trap
Of course, I also fell into the trap of putting mentors on a pedestal. I also created heroes out of those who contributed to my inner discoveries and to my spiritual awakening
The higher I ranked them, the more painfully they fell with the first occasion. In the end I started to see they are only people that have their own processes and destiny, who are fighting the same inner monsters as I do and project the same shadows onto others as I did. Now I thank all and I look at them like wonderful road companions and like loyal mirrors for me.
The “not being here” trap
Then I tried to live my life with my head in the clouds, in other dimensions, better and brighter than Earth.
I used to give people around me the feeling that I was not “at home” when they were talking to me. And that actually I am not available for them because I have something better to do.
In this way I was running away from the pain in my soul and I was creating the illusion that life on Earth is a prison which I need to escape from to higher spheres.
I wasn’t able to enjoy life because I was excluding experiences that I thought were of “low vibration”. I maintained the continuous fight between the part of me that wanted to escape going towards higher spheres and the earthly part in me who wanted to feel life as it was.
Then I had the surprise to discover that attachment to a certain spiritual path or another, for a master or another is also a way of attachment, like any other.
The way in which we invest certain spiritual techniques with a value of absolute truth takes away our personal power.We also give our power away every day in which we refuse to claim the greatness of the simple fact of being human.
But I don’t deny the fact that, from time to time, in our path we might need our hand to be held by somebody who went there before. But raising a spiritual technique to a higher rank than life seems to be absurd to me in this moment.
Spiritual awakening as a connection with life
But I thank all these stages and all people who were part of them. Because all turned my face towards real life.
In this process, I discovered that a person who attended all courses and believes about oneself that they reached spiritual enlightenment is not necessarily spiritual.
And that, from certain point of view, my father, who worked for 40 years in 3 shifts to have money for raising three daughters, can be the most spiritual person in the world. And that my mother, who gave up everything in order to put the best she had in our souls, is also a very advanced soul.
When we plan to truly connect with those around us we will have the surprise to discover authentic feelings and the simple beauty of human interaction in any discussion or meeting. And like when spiritual stubbornness stops, we are only left with living.
We can discover the greatness of life in simple things like my neighbour’s daily road to the market, a 80 year old lady who cooks every day for her husband.
So then yes… we can start living life and we can also integrate spiritual experiences in a different way. Not like an unconscious occasion of separating from others, but like a possibility in opening up our souls even more, so we can receive even more from life.