How can you tell you're waking up?
When I was a kid, Peanuts was the preeminent Sunday comic strip, occupying the front page of every Sunday newspaper in the land. And Snoopy was its reigning celebrity beagle. So much so, that somebody actually recorded a song about him which reached the top ten, occupying the airwaves for ages.
It was all about Snoopy’s daydreams of being a World War I flying ace. Recently that dumb song, thoroughly forgotten for decades, has popped back into my mind:
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The bloody Red Baron was running up the score
Eighty men died trying to end that spree
Of the bloody Red Baron of Germany
Eighty men died trying to end that spree. That’s the line that caught my attention. What kind of spree are they talking about? A killing spree, which claimed the lives of eighty brave souls who tried to stop him. A killing spree carried out by a bloodthirsty enemy.
Killing sprees are what psychotic mass murderers do. It’s what serial killers do. Right?
Except...had you been born in Germany instead of the US or Britain at that time in history, you’d have been told that Baron Von Richthofen was a brave and glorious hero: Repeatedly risking life and limb to save civilization from those dreadful “others” who want to destroy it.
It’s also worth noting that, had the baron been fighting for “our side” instead of theirs, he would’ve been seen by us the exact same way: Defender of all that is good and proper. Vanquisher of the evil enemy. There would’ve been parades in his honor. Little boys would’ve wanted to grow up and be just like him.
He only becomes a blood-soaked psychopath, taking far too many precious lives, when he fights for the other side.
So, back to our original question. How can you tell you’re waking up? It’s when the act of “othering” others makes you sit up and take notice.
How can you tell you’re waking up? It’s when the act of “othering” others makes you sit up and take notice.
Loads of us are waking up
That’s the great news about this incredible time period we’re living in. Waking up is no longer a rarified spiritual gift enjoyed by the very special and lucky few. It's for anyone who wants it. But the definition itself is changing. Waking up now means something different for most of us, than it ever used to.
Because all the physical/mental/emotional/spiritual coordinates have shifted: Heaven is no longer “up there.” It’s here-here-here, which means “here” is what we wake up into. Here, as it currently is right now.
So that means, for most people, there isn’t much about the awakening process that’s other-worldly-white-robe-floaty, anymore. (Or peaceful-empty-gateless-gate-pure-voidish-awareness, anymore. Depending on which style of waking up you favor.)
For the vast majority of ordinary folks who are currently waking up, it’s much more a matter of balancing the nitty gritty physical illusion of “here,” with the knowing of what’s really true...and then consistently choosing truth. Not as a mental idea, but as a growing visceral knowing of what’s really what.
Therefore, very little of what we have assumed to be the hallmarks of awakening, are the actual hallmarks of awakening, anymore. Not for most of us, anyway.
So, waking up may or may not bring you bliss or serenity in its wake, in other words. It may or may not signal the imminent release of all your ‘stuff,’ your baggage, your personal hindrances. Nor is it a guarantee your physical health will improve. In fact, you might actually feel pretty much the same (shitty) way you’ve always felt. At least for a while. And yet, you are waking up.
Bummer?
Well no, actually. Because it isn’t about all that. All of that glorious transcendent stuff will surely come. But only after you’ve opened your eyes, here and now, in this incredible masterclass we’re all enrolled in.
The Infinite Divine is the true identity of every human being. Every. Human. Being. Which means we’re all not only equally innocent and equally pure...we’re all equally important. Equally sacred. With the equal right to a happy, fulfilling life. Every precious life matters, to all of us. In truth.
Which is obviously in stark contrast to how the world is currently run. Right?
Taking just one example of many, to illustrate this point:
These days there’s always some kind of unholy war going on someplace, bringing loads of horrifying casualties to the civilian population. Yet some atrocities never even get a mention on the nightly news. Three possible reasons for that:
1. Those people suffering casualties over there in that war we don’t talk about?...They’re not as important as us.
OR
2. We don’t mention it because there’s no geopolitical advantage in whipping up our citizenry’s emotional responses against the aggressors.
OR
3. Our own military are the aggressors.
On the other hand, we’re sometimes shown wall-to-wall nonstop media coverage of other military conflicts. And in those stories, we’re told over and over who the good guys and the bad guys are. The "othering" of those evil others, is virtually nonstop.
If you’re waking up, the dismissal of anyone’s sacred worthiness, for any reason, will give you pause. You will notice. And any media effort to dehumanize or scapegoat an enemy will get the hairs on the back of your neck going all prickly. Because if you’re waking up, you know...you KNOW, from the inside out... what they’re saying doesn’t line up with truth.
Because it’s never about what that enemy is or isn’t doing. It’s about the fact that there’s no such thing as an enemy, in truth. And when you start authentically waking up to that? All the rest of it starts to come down like a flimsy house of cards.
It’s never about what that enemy is or isn’t doing. It’s about the fact that there’s no such thing as an enemy, in truth.
Waking up happens as our dry, conceptual understanding of sacred spiritual truth comes breathtakingly alive, and infuses its brilliance into what we see all around us in this seemingly profane world.
It shines its magnificent eternal light onto “the way things are” until we finally, finally, FINALLY recognize and choose the holy truth that’s always been hiding in plain sight, right here within the profane.
Floaty white robes optional.
PS: I know we've talked about these topics many times before. Thanks for bearing with me. I just thought it was worth mentioning once again, in our current media-saturated, good-guy-bad-guy passion play that's playing out for all the world to see.