If you can go beyond the restless foreground of human life, you will realise that there is only the oneness of creation that is beyond human imagination and any attempt to limit it by attaching a name. To know for certain that you are part of this eternal and infinite oneness and cannot be separated from it and to feel the love that radiates through creation because it is the essence of the creator is what is meant by becoming spiritually aware.
There are several ways in which this state that is beyond the limits of our human being is first glimpsed and that people have tried to use to achieve release from the constraints of human senses. Sometimes a temporary condition is created by illness or stress placed on the body. This category includes so called ‘near death’ experiences and the effect that some drugs can have on some people on some occasions. However, attempts to recreate the state of spiritual awareness by extremes of bodily stress or the use of drugs are unlikely to succeed and are much more likely to have negative effects. Overwhelming the senses by repetitive sounds and/or actions (such as the use of a mantra) is usually less damaging to the body but can result in an addictive emotional ‘high’ rather than a spiritual one. Reading or listening to the spiritual experiences of others (for example, through ancient or contemporary literature) can create a state of spiritual resonance. Unfortunately, it can also lead to attachment to historic and modern forms of discrimination that are a bye-product of the context of the words.
Everybody is a small part of creation. Everybody is affected positively by becoming spiritually aware. However, nobody is capable of creating this state because it is insight of the greater whole. Therefore, it is something to expect in bodily quiet.
Paul Newman
October 2012