Twelve Significant Realities Concerning Spiritual Awakening
In a world where personal history often serves as a hypnotic spell, questioning its truth can lead to a profound spiritual awakening. This is the central theme of Frank M. Wanderer's book, "3 Stages in the Evolution of the Human Spirit: EGO - ALERTNESS - CONSCIOUSNESS".
Wanderer, a professor of psychology, consciousness researcher, and writer, outlines a three-stage progression in the development of the human spirit. This evolutionary journey, he suggests, moves from self-centeredness (ego), through relational awareness (alertness), to a profound spiritual realization (consciousness).
The initial stage, Ego, represents the formation of the self as a distinct identity, often centered around personal desires, fears, and a sense of separateness from the world. As we move into the second stage, Alertness, our awareness expands, and we begin to perceive beyond the confines of our ego. This heightened state of wakefulness is characterized by a growing sensitivity to inner and outer realities.
The final stage, Consciousness, is a fully realized state of awareness where one transcends ego and alertness to experience a unified, all-encompassing consciousness. It is a state of being where the individual recognizes their true nature, beyond mere thoughts, feelings, and identities.
In this state of alert Consciousness, thoughts no longer keep our attention captive. Instead, our attention is directed towards our inner self, the free space of Consciousness, not identical with the shapes and forms appearing in this space. In the alert silence, we may experience a truth: thoughts and emotions are not our true inner nature.
Real self-control, Wanderer suggests, is not born out of suppression but out of recognition and understanding of the meaning of Life. Enlightenment, he asserts, is not a future state but the heart of our nature, permanently present in our lives but often disregarded.
Wanderer's framework emphasizes an inward journey, a quest for self-discovery that invites us to abandon desires and ambitions in favour of inner freedom. This freedom, in turn, enables us to say yes with pleasure to the things that are happening to us, rooted in unhappiness. For Wanderer, happiness is not a destination but a byproduct of this inner journey, a testament to our ability to find ourselves, what we are looking for.
In the end, the search for enlightenment is a personal one, a journey that each of us must embark upon to discover our true inner nature. As Wanderer so eloquently puts it, "Enlightenment is us, we ourselves."
In Wanderer's narrative, the third stage of human spirit evolution, Consciousness, transcends ego and alertness, offering a unified, all-encompassing awareness of one's true nature that goes beyond thoughts, feelings, and identities. This awareness, he implies, is crucial for achieving real self-control, not born out of suppression but out of recognition and understanding of life's meaning. Moreover, Wanderer sees happiness not as a destination but as a byproduct of this inner journey, a testament to our ability to find ourselves, what we've been searching for, often reflected in education-and-self-development and personal-growth endeavors.
