[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Now before we start, you might want to check out our other podcasts covering topics like personal
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[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_00]: just search for Optimal Living Daily in your podcast app. Now onto the show.
[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Relationships Daily, episode 2259, Spiritual Awareness, A Curse Or A Blessing
[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_00]: by Richard Paterson of Think Less and Grow Rich dot com.
[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Hello everybody and welcome back to ORD, the show that's all about helping you develop
[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_00]: better relationships. I am your host and narrator Greg Audino, happy to be here with you,
[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and happy to be sharing a post today from Richard Paterson of Think Less and Grow Rich dot com.
[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be exploring the idea of Spiritual Awareness and the degree to which it actually
[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_00]: helps us. I think you're going to find this post to be pretty enlightening, so let's get right
[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: into it and optimize your life. Spiritual Awareness, A Curse Or A Blessing by Richard Paterson of
[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Think Less and Grow Rich dot com. I was chatting with someone the other day,
[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and the conversation went something like this. I feel I don't know who I am anymore or where
[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_00]: my life is going. The things that used to be important, my career, self-image, earnings,
[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_00]: social status, feel increasingly empty and meaningless. I've grown apart from my friends.
[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I used to love socializing on the weekends, but now I prefer staying home and being quiet.
[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I have no one to talk to about what's happening inside me. It feels lonely,
[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and not if you know what I mean. I also feel a growing sense of peace inside,
[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: a sense that all these things don't really matter. What's going on? I feel I don't know
[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: anything about anything anymore. A Message from an Old Monk When she said that last sentence,
[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought of a conversation I'd had with an old monk many years ago, whilst on a meditation retreat.
[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: He asked me, how are you? And I answered, I'm not sure. I have no idea about anything anymore.
[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I have no idea who I am or what's going on. He smiled and said, neither do I. Isn't it
[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: marvelous? I was fortunate to be in an environment where recognizing that you know nothing was
[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: regarded as highly positive. In fact, as we'll see later, it's a necessary step in dissolving the
[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: old, souled sense of I that keeps us imprisoned in a limited sense of self. To the average person,
[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: however, having these experiences, often unwanted and unasked for, and without the guidance
[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and reassurance of a teacher, can seem anything but marvelous. It can be downright unsettling
[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and scary when you feel that everything you thought was familiar and reliable in your life,
[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: everything that gives you a solid sense of identity and security, is crumbling away,
[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: and you're moving further and further into uncharted territory with nothing to hold on to.
[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_00]: A bit like the old Buddhist quote, the bad news, you're falling off a cliff without a parachute.
[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: The good news, there's no ground. Compared with the comfort and security of your old
[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: identity, this knowing nothing landscape can be a challenging place to find yourself in.
[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_00]: It can easily be seen as a curse rather than a blessing. Like having to get up from a warm,
[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: comfortable bed, spiritual awakening can be uncomfortable and irritating.
[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Spiritual awareness, a curse or a blessing. I love the story about the father who knocks
[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: on his son's door in the morning and shouts, Get up, you have to go to school.
[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: The son says, I don't want to go to school. Why not? asks the father.
[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Three reasons, says the son. First, because it's so dull. Second, the kids tease me.
[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And third, I hate school. And the father says, well, I'm going to give you three reasons why
[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: you must go to school. First, because it's your duty. Second, because you're 45 years old.
[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And third, because you are the principal. Waking up is unpleasant. You're lying in bed,
[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: nice and comfortable. Then life comes along and knocks on your door to tell you it's time to wake
[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: up. Like the caterpillar, you've outgrown the limitations of the cocoon and it's time to move
[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_00]: on and find your wings. I must say from my own experience and knowing what I know now,
[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: there's no way I would choose to go back to bed even if it were possible.
[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Just like the caterpillar emerges from the warmth and safety of the cocoon in precisely the right
[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: moment, so the gift of spiritual awareness is bestowed upon each of us exactly when the time
[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: is right. If it's meant for you, there's no avoiding it. I want to talk now about the
[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: three distinct stages of spiritual awareness. The three stages of spiritual awareness.
[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: The first stage is where the vast majority of the population find themselves.
[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the state of being spiritually asleep, characterized more by a lack of spiritual awareness.
[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_00]: In this state, the individual is causally tucked up in the blanket of Maya, ignorance,
[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: with little or no awareness of their true unlimited self. Identification with the mind
[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and body is strong. Security, seeking sensory pleasure and resisting unpleasant experiences are
[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: the main drivers. Happiness is sought on the outside through the pursuit of happy experiences.
[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Unhappy ones are seen as obstacles to overcome, rather than spiritual opportunities.
[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_00]: At this stage, there's a strong sense of personal identity or ego,
[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: a strong sense of me and the world. Spiritual No Man's Land
[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: The second stage, which I'll call spiritual no man's land, is in many ways the most
[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: challenging and potentially uncomfortable place to find yourself. On one hand,
[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: you've left the relative safety and security of the old you behind,
[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: but you've yet to reach the gains of the new direction you're heading in. The peace,
[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: contentment, ease, fulfillment of your true self. You start to feel different from the people around
[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: you. You lose interest in the things your friends do and talk about. You lose your worldly ambition,
[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: your desire to be successful. Or maybe your definition of successful changes to contentment
[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and peace rather than getting the promotion or earning more money. You're not so
[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: bothered about being right anymore or what people think. Insights about your true nature start to
[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: hit you with increased frequency, epiphanies arise, synchronicities increase, teachers appear,
[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: you start to live in the magic zone. You can feel like one moment you're in the depths of despair
[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and the next you're feeling euphoric and joyful. Your emotions are all over the place.
[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most common features of this stage, however, is the recognition that
[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: everything you took yourself to be may not be the truth of who you are. The belief that you know
[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_00]: who you are, what you're doing, where you're going, that you have or ever had had any idea about any
[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: of these things can fall away. This realization can either be hugely unsettling or a source of
[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: great freedom and liberation. The third stage of spiritual awareness, arriving. Before continuing,
[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I must say that I am not claiming for a moment to have arrived in this place.
[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Just the odd glimpse here and there. But having said that, I feel there are a few things I can
[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_00]: share from my own experience. As the sense of personal identity dissolves more and more,
[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: the sense of knowing nothing becomes the default state. With this comes humility and
[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: compassion. Through the three stages, there is a general movement towards living from the
[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: heart as opposed to the head. I sometimes describe this as living life in the passenger
[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: seat. Rather than planning things using your mind, you find yourself being moved by life itself.
[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Above all, there arises from within a great sense of trust, a sense of all being well
[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and exactly as it's meant to be. This knowingness greatly decreases the amount of
[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: inner resistance to life's experiences, the main cause of our suffering. You just
[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: listened to the post titled, Spiritual Awareness, A Curse or a Blessing, by Richard Patterson
[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: of Thinkless and GrowRich.com. And many thanks to Richard for this insightful post,
[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: insightful yet frightening as he alluded to. This sure can be a tough concept for many of us
[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: to wrap our minds around. Tough first to identify with our spiritual side and understand
[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: who we truly are. And even tougher to then be removed from that. So if you're having a
[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: difficult time grappling with a loss of self and it's maybe affecting your relationship
[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: with yourself and others, I would encourage you to at least start questioning the idea of self and
[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: how you define it. So one first challenging thought to explore might be that while having an established
[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_00]: sense of identity does provide a sense of comfort, it also provides an innate limitation,
[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: doesn't it? The more we see ourselves in one light, the more averse we may become to exploring
[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: different parts of ourselves, different ideas, different parts of the world and so on.
[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And while this drive can be helpful, the flip side of it is that we've subconsciously pigeon-holed
[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00]: ourselves a little bit. And it's more layered than that of course, but it's not to suggest that
[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_00]: one direction is right and one is wrong. But maybe it introduces us to the idea that everything
[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_00]: has a flip side, the good and the bad. And that might slowly and healthfully deconstruct
[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: the idea of knowing too much and ultimately falling into that I don't know state of mind
[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_00]: which Richard is really championing and I myself am quite fond of as well.
[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_00]: So some stuff to think about friends, have fun with that, it's a lot. Time to get out of here,
[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_00]: but I thank you always for listening and sharing this with someone, and I will see you tomorrow
[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_00]: for another episode where your optimal life awaits.