That’s a good question.
There do not appear to be a large number of people who have gone through the process and also been aware of it.
As the ancients have said:
Before enlightenment,
chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment,
chop wood, carry water.
Awakened individuals must still tend to their daily activities, but with a changed awareness.
There are strong physical and emotional changes at the onset. Enlightenment is a personal experience. People standing next to the individual may hardly notice. This was certainly true in my case.
I’ve seen awakenings occur twice, the unusual circumstances of my own and when “Pete”* had his.
The event which I emerged from had taken place several years earlier. The weekend I saw Pete, he was clearly on the brink of his awakening. Pete looked a little dazed but otherwise quite normal. I asked him if he wanted to follow me and walked to a corner of the common room where we would be undisturbed. Words were minimal. I was communicating with him more at an emotional level than anything else.
It was what we call a “guided experience.” Each of us was unable to do anything other than the action required for his transition.
This may be difficult to believe, but if asked, I couldn’t have told anyone what was about to happen. It simply would not have been possible to speak; awakenings are not about words.
I asked another friend, “Jean,”* who was standing near us to help. Together we worked on Pete, with me letting intuition guide my actions.
Pete could barely talk when he sat up. He did have the sensation I write about – of eyes everywhere looking at him. Everything he looked at appeared covered with eyes. I could, to a limited degree, sense what he saw and felt.
He was unsettled, acutely aware he was being watched. I assured Pete everything was fine and, not wanting to control this unique experience, I sent him off to wander the grounds on his own.
Jean, dazed, asked, “What did you do to him?”
I answered simply, “I could have done almost anything; it was his time.”
In awakening, the transformation one goes through is immediate and suddenly the person sees and feels more clearly than before. The world has changed for them, literally every thing appears to be alive and in some form of communication.
When I awoke, I went to a late night restaurant and talked my head off.
Pete went for a walk in the woods alone.
This new awareness will alter the way a person lives. It has to. Once accepted, there is no going back to their pre-awakened state. Oh, the initial effects of the awakened state will subside and can be allowed to further atrophy much as the way a child turns off their imagination. I’ll have more to say on that another time.
The beginning phase of Pete’s experience gradually tapered off allowing his return to be gentler compared with mine. As I relate in Unfolding: Awakening, when the body exhausts itself after operating a high levels for weeks, there can be a tremendous letdown.
If you’ve read the post Let’s go back to The Beginning from 18 Feb 2012 and watched the video link Beyond Thought, you’ve heard Pedram Shojai mention “post realization depression.”
The Awakened One is raised as though out of a tar pit and placed on a warm rock. The light of the sun melts the tar covering their eyes and they can see the world in a way known to few others. When it comes time to get down off the rock and move back into the tar – family, friends, co-workers, and everyone else may ask, “What’s wrong?”
We come back, but we’re not the same.
Those of us who have sat in the glow of awakening may try to tell the rest of the population what we saw and some will comprehend, but historically only a few. This may be changing. We’ll have to wait to see if the uptick in interest becomes is part of a larger trend.
We remain human and must tend to our bodies like everyone else, chopping wood for the fire and carrying water. At least for a while, we’ll be more aware of what’s truly going on around us.
Thanks for Listening,
– Jeffrey A. Limpert
__________________
* Not their real names
Updated on 03/04/2012
Image Information:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9769851@N05/5759458197/
Chakra-3
by Jeanette P. ( jp512) on flickr.com
Amazon – Unfolding: Awakening