I wrote the following for the 208th issue of The Culture of Awareness Weekly Newsletter, a paid weekly newsletter I offer for $11.11 a month.
To begin for this week – I’d like to share some thoughts on two concepts relevant in the spiritual community: image worship and the flow you can tap into when you leave behind the need to focus on an image.
Image worship can hold you back if you focus more on the image than the divinity it’s intended to lead you to, but for some, it’s necessary during the first stages of awakening.
Source Provides Inspiration
Without some kind of image of the Source we strive to reunite with, how could we find inspiration at the start of our awakening?
It helps us to know there’s more to existence than what is in front of us, and it’s especially helpful to envision an omnipotent creator that guides us through life.
You may even wish to praise this Source for the blessings it provides or, depending on your experiences in life, lash out at it for the troubles you’ve endured.
A common theme among the newly awakened is praise and worship of the image of this Source they’ve constructed in their minds. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this – especially if they’ve just begun to walk the enlightenment path.
The image can inhibit them or help them grow, and it depends on whether they cling to it when they no longer need it.
Enlightenment is Uncomfortable
At a certain point, the enlightenment path becomes uncomfortable.
There comes a time when you’re forced to give up what you thought you knew and step blindly into the abyss with no perception to grasp onto and nothing to keep you in your comfort zone.
While it may seem like a curse at the time, it is actually the blessing you’ve always wanted.
It’s difficult to be open and accepting of it when you realize you’ve had it all along if you still grasp your previous beginner-level ideas of what it’s like.
This is because your thoughts, judgments, labels, identifications, etc. fade when you shift into an enlightened state.
You enter completely ‘new’ territory (you’ve been there before but you’ve forgotten), and it’s wild, unfamiliar and I’d imagine unsettling.
If one attempts to reach this place by way of psychedelic drugs but isn’t ready to be propelled out of their comfort zone, they could suffer a bad trip.
This is why I highly recommend doing your research and scrupulously preparing before attempting to induce a spiritual experience through psychedelics. This includes emotional and spiritual preparation.
Approach Kundalini Meditation Preparedly
Perhaps the same could be said for more potent forms of meditation. Dedicated kundalini meditation, for instance, could induce enlightenment in the long run if one successfully brings their kundalini energy up to the crown chakra.
This is a powerful, transformative experience that could lead to a complete breakdown if one isn’t careful.
This has reportedly happened to a select number of spiritual seekers throughout history, and it’s apparently caused when the kundalini energy retreats back down to the lower chakras after having reached the higher.
If you can keep the energy flowing through each chakra after kundalini enlightenment and prevent it from going back down to the base of your spine, then you have nothing to worry about. Enjoy your newfound awareness, because it’s a gift from your creator.
Praise Comes Naturally
By this point you’ll hopefully be long past the need to experience, worship or express your spirituality in the form of an image.
There’s still nothing wrong with giving devotion and praise to God, but the difference is that you’ll do it out of a sense of love and the desire to do it rather than out of necessity.
In the beginning you may think it’s necessary to worship a God you can’t sense or perceive, but by the time you’re near enlightenment, your voluntary praise will be for something real you can sense; not something unperceivable you give love and faith in hopes of witnessing.
In your early stages when you’re convinced higher consciousness can’t be perceived, the images imprinted with true divinity will help raise your awareness in a similar way to certain psychedelics in light doses that get you there temporarily.
Fixation on the image or anything that helps you perceive Source becomes a hindrance if it isn’t paired with genuine awareness, and especially when it comes to spirituality, levelheadedness goes a long way.
Discernment and the understanding that what you seek can be attained without an external validation will help you get the most out of signs and symbols without being consumed by them.
Fortunately, there’s a way out even if you are consumed by them and it comes down to your willingness to release your grip on them. If you can learn to let go of them as easily as you embrace them, you’ll begin to understand the nature of Zen.
(Continued in this week’s planetary healing)
Featured image credit: thebeausejourpulpit.wordpress.com
By Wes Annac, Culture of Awareness, July 31, 2016 – https://tinyurl.com/h3fpj6u