There’s a kind of cosmic joke embedded in spiritual awakening—and it’s not one the ego finds funny.
When I began my own journey, I was brimming with curiosity, yearning for union, and ready to taste the bliss of oneness that so many teachers spoke about. I thought I would become more peaceful, more loving, more enlightened—perhaps even more “me,” but in some perfected spiritual form.
I wish someone had sat me down and told me the truth, plain and unvarnished: awakening is not about becoming a better version of yourself. It’s about discovering there was never a separate self to begin with.
This deep message reverberated through every word of the powerful video I recently watched—8 Things I Wish I Knew Before My Spiritual Awakening. If you’re walking the path of non-duality, you’ll feel the truth in your bones. And if you're just starting out, consider this a lantern in the dark.
Awakening isn’t about gaining light. It’s about losing shadows you thought were solid. It’s the ego’s slow, terrifying unraveling—and the soul’s return to what it never truly left.
I remember when I first read Nisargadatta Maharaj saying, “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two, my life flows.” I was moved, but I didn’t yet understand. Now I see: he wasn’t describing a philosophy. He was describing the death of identity and the birth of being.
Nobody warns you how painful it is to let go of everything you’ve used to define yourself. Your job, your goals, your relationships, even your cherished spiritual practices—these can all fall away. As the video so wisely says, “You’re not improving the ego. You’re watching it fall apart.” And fall apart it does.
There were times I thought I was going crazy. I’d lose interest in things that used to thrill me. I’d forget why I was doing anything. And there were moments of searing emotional pain that I couldn’t attribute to any one cause. This is what mystics call the dark night of the soul—and it’s not a setback. It’s the purifying fire.
Lalleshwari, the mystic poet of Kashmir Shaivism, once wrote: “The soul, like the moon, is new, and always new again.” In the middle of my disorientation, I held on to that image. What felt like destruction was actually a new cycle beginning—one rooted not in illusion, but in clarity.
One of the most humbling lessons I learned—echoed again in this video—is that you cannot think your way into awakening. The mind, in its relentless obsession with improvement and meaning, is the very thing that obscures the real. I used to devour books and teachings like a spiritual glutton, thinking they would feed my enlightenment.
And then I stumbled upon Adi Shankara’s radical simplicity: “You are already That.” Not in some future moment. Not after another meditation retreat. Now. Always.
Silence became my best teacher. Stillness, my true home.
Few understand what it means to wake up. To say “I don’t feel like myself” is accurate—because the “self” that once claimed you is being seen through. This awakening is not a shared group activity. It is, in the beginning, a profoundly isolating experience. But that isolation breaks open into unity.
Ramana Maharshi gently pointed the way when he said: “There is no greater mystery than this—that we keep seeking the Self, though in fact we are the Self.” This paradox is the essence of awakening: the seeker dissolves, and in their place, awareness remains.
Even after the ego dissolves, it tries to sneak back in through the back door: “Ah, I’m awakened now. Look at all those poor unenlightened souls.” It’s a cunning trap. The truth is, as the video reminds us, you’re not special for awakening—but you’re also not separate.
We are all threads of the same infinite weave.
Yogananda taught that true spiritual progress is not measured by visions or bliss, but by our ability to remain even-minded and cheerful under all circumstances. The temptation to hold on to moments of awakening, to cling to the high, is just another form of grasping. Everything comes and goes. What stays is the awareness behind it all.
When you stop trying to maintain an awakened state, you realize that you are the awareness in which all states rise and fall.
It can feel like devastation—but what it really is, is the gentle, fierce hand of truth brushing away the dust of illusion. You might lose much, yes. But you will gain what no circumstance can touch: the quiet, unstoppable recognition of what you are.
As the video beautifully states, “You're not becoming spiritual. You're remembering what you already are.”
And as I’ve come to see, awakening is not about reaching somewhere. It is the falling away of everything that believed it needed to reach.
If you're navigating this path now, trust the unraveling. Let go. Let it hurt. Let it heal. You are not broken. You are waking up.
Watch the full video here: 8 Things I Wish I Knew Before My Spiritual Awakening
Call
to Action:
If this message resonates, I invite you to share it with someone who's
walking their own mysterious and sacred path. And I’d love to hear from
you: What part of your spiritual awakening surprised you the most? What
have you lost—and what has emerged in its place? Comment below or reach
out. Let’s walk this unwalkable path together.
Did this post resonate with you? Please let me know.