37 - Waking Up Isn't So Easy!

My first awakening was as a teenager. I opened a book after having a psychological break (you know, the world ends with everything when you're young), and I read the sentence out loud: "We are all One". With that sentence, I lost my sense of self completely. Tears ran down my face, and I became one with the universe and all my pain and suffering was relieved. Long story short -- ever since, I have searched for God beyond conventional reality. Why? Because that experience was isolated and did not carry itself until final liberation. This is a very common pitfall: temporary enlightenment. Spiritual bypassing is another trap. What else? As an adult, the ego becomes solidified and strong. I even remember standing in my kitchen (again, as a moody teenager) while listening to the radio. A scientist on the broadcast mentioned that "by age 30, 99% of thoughts are no longer creative but are programmed and mechanical." I remember thinking, "I can't even think for myself when I grow up? I hope that never, ever happens to me!" Well, I've breached the barrier and became 31. As an avid painter and musician, at least some creative thought still belongs to me. And psychedelics have helped me realise that society doesn't actually exist, so there's that! But for many adults and people my age, awakening isn't easy. Adulting comes with baggage: childhood baggage, mortgage baggage, relationship baggage, job expectation baggage, socialising baggage, and anti-creative mind programming to top off the entire 30+ cake. Western culture teaches us that we are going somewhere, and we can't stop to breathe until we get there. It's covered up in bank balances, responsibilities, and social prestige/conditioning. But really, we are all just looking for ourselves! The "real me". Reality. The truth of what it means to be human. Love: real, unconditional love for ourselves and each other. So, we have to essentially unravel all the conditioning from the time we were born until this very moment to have any sort of epiphany and take all these layers off to become naked. What adult feels comfortable standing in a crowd naked? As a child, we did it, and we were damn proud of ourselves! But, awakening takes courage. This episode is about why it's difficult and what traps we can run into along the way. Sneaky ego! Send me a voice message - make it easy, @ https://anchor.fm/curiousbodhi/message