The Awakening

An "awakening" is a moment of clarity in which a new insight or understanding is gained. With this new awareness the experience of life is seen differently, and new possibilities are opened. Changes in patterns of thought, emotions, and behavior occur. An awakening allows the possibility of growth to new levels of psychological and spiritual maturity.

Grumbling about your present reality does not help. You must be open to every moment. You never know what it will bring.

Picture yourself in the prison of your own construction. Your social security number is stencilled across your prison uniform. You are securely locked into your own dark imaginings. There is seemingly no escape from your sentence. What is your crime? You have believed the lies that have been told to you since birth. One group of liars has told you that you can find happiness only through consumerism. Another has told you that you must obey and submit to the status quo. Still another tells you that you will be rewarded for all the good things you do, and the bad, after you die. You are confined because you are naive, and because your leaders are liars, criminals and hypocrites.

One day a man enters your cell. Some sort of chaplain you suppose. He asks if there is anything he can do for you... and you converse for awhile about mundane subjects. Suddenly, he grabs you by the shoulders and looks you right in the eye.

"None of this is real," he says; "You are sleeping and need to wake the fuck up!"

A bad dream? What a strange idea. And then, in the blink of an eye, he vanishes. You ask the guard where the stranger went and he looks at you like you are crazy.

"There was no one else here," he says.