Ep 143: Ideas About Awakening

We have talked about spiritual teacher misconduct before from the point of view of what to be wary of and how to choose an integrity teacher(s). In today's episode, as more allegations come forward about yet more spiritual teachers, we're talking about it from the point of view of how ideas about what awakening is can get things into troublesome territory.

In this episode we discuss:

- What awakening is not
- How people use the word "awakening" in many different ways- sometimes to discuss enlightenment, sometimes to discuss realizations about the nature of reality, and sometimes just to discuss the awareness that they are on a spiritual path.
- That spiritual awakening, or enlightenment, and psychological maturity do not go hand in hand. Each is its own process and "waking up" does not create automatic psychological health.
- The troubles that putting other people on a pedestal can create
- The tremendous importance of maturing into a heart-based way of living