The Many Ways People Experience Awakening
Words by Rabindranath Tagore Many people claim to have achieved a degree of awakening, however that state is understood, or other people claim it on their behalf. One of the most striking things about the way such people describe their subjective experiences is its enormous variety. These descriptions are interesting in themselves and they also have interesting implications. For example: • If the experiences vary so much, are they talking about the same thing? Might it be that there are several different phenomena that are given the name ‘awakening,’ ‘theosis,’ ‘divine union’ or some such, rather than one phenomenon being described in different ways? • If they are talking about the same thing and you are also experiencing some of these things, does that mean that you are awake or enlightened but simply hadn’t considered that possibility? I thought it might be both useful and interesting to pull together some of these many experi...