What does it feel like to be Awakened? (2024)

Words cannot describe it. But read between thewords.

I guide those who trust me on their spiritual path.

One of my coachees asked me last week.

“Can you describe it? What does it feel like to be awakened?”

I will do my best to capture in words what can’t be described.

Because words are representations of Thought. How would you describe with thoughts what a thoughtless state feels like? Impossible. Thoughts are the Mind stuff. The state of No-Mind cannot be described.

But here we go.

When you finally wake up:

You are no longer bound by your story.

Everything that used to be your past becomes the life of some person you used to know. Your past is still conditioning you — there are meta-programs in your mind that have been integrated into you decades ago.

Your mother tongue, and all the culture that comes installed with it, you can’t uninstall that. But it no longer defines you. You are aware of those programs and with every year even old conditioning dissolves in you.

You are no longer a Nation. You are no longer a Nationality. You are no longer a Race.

Any kind of differences on these grounds make no sense to you.

You stop using the phrase: “I am the person who….” because you understand and you are grounded in your understanding — you are not the person.

“I am the person who…” is nothing but the narrative of the mind.

Your memories are pulling you back less and less until eventually you can go into the memory intentionally — only when you want to. You are not getting stuck in the mind reminiscing about the days long gone. All the could-have-beens and should-have-beens no longer control you.

You ground yourself in your understanding of the nature of Time. You can see clearly that Time is a Thought. And the Thought is not real. You don’t understand it just conceptually, it is not some form of intellectual knowledge. It is a form of seeing. Constant vigilance. Constant observation of what the mind is doing. Seeing, without having a veil of thought over your eyes.

When you wake up… Most of the time in your day-to-day life you are grounded in your breath. A small fraction of your attention is constantly being channelled into your breathing. You are here. You are now. You rest in the place of breath. Inside your own being.

You are becoming more and more proficient in quieting the mind. It still takes time — the mind is strong and tenacious. But you can stop the thought almost instantly, at command. You can get yourself to Thoughtless State effortlessly. This is how it feels when you have a Disciplined Mind.

Awakening changes everything. You move through the world as a different being. Not bound by the stories of the past. Not bound by the limitations of the future. Not bound by the Concept of Self (your Ego).

You still have the Ego. But now you are no longer associated with it. You don’t think that “I” is what you are. You know that “I” is a Thought, and the I-Thought permeates everything. You can see through the Illusion of I. And the more you integrate, the more your Concept of Self disintegrates — until there is nothing left. There is nothing to associate yourself with.

You are using Ego as a suit, almost. Something you wear to go into the world and interact with other minds. And what you will see is that there are no awakened beings. You will lose interest in people because there is no point in talking to sleepwalkers.

When you wake up, your inner state is changing. Most of the time you will find yourself in the state of Flow.

Just like little children who are not yet dominated by the Mind. You operate in the Joy. From the Joy. Towards Joy.

You can still stretch your mind into the future and use it for planning. But you are not being pulled into the Future against your will. There are no assumptions. There is no premature judgment. There are no expectations. And because there are no expectations there is no disappointment. You eliminate 99% of turmoil — all of which is created by the Mind.

You understand that your ability to intellectualize reality is infinitesimal compared to the actual complexity of Reality.

And at the end of the day, you have developed a new Ability. The way of seeing. That there has never been any Ultimate Reality. That the only Reality you and everyone else are experiencing is the Reality of their own Mind. You don’t experience the reality. You only experience Your Experience.

As an awakened being… You accomplish more. Why? Simply because you become more proficient at using the mind, and you prevent the mind from using you. You constantly watch.

You cannot control what you don’t understand. You don’t understand what you don’t observe.

There is no real control of the Mind. Only observation. Observation is the path to Freedom.

Once you understand the subtle movements of the mind you can no longer be fooled. You can see the “sleight of mind”. And the illusion disappears. You can see through the Illusion of Thought.

That the mind is a mad monkey on cocaine, running around, throwing feces, wreaking havoc. But you always have a choice. To merge with the monkey and become it. Or to remain as awareness, and watch the Monkey from a distance. Watch it going mad. Watch it die away as you divest the energy of your attention from it.

The Mind is a veil. Everything you see goes through the veil of Mind. You look at a sunset, and the Mind generates instant judgment: “Oh so beautiful!” You look at people and the mind is blabbering its instant judgment: “Too fat, too skinny, too ugly, too pretty, too smart, too stupid, etc. etc. etc.”

When you are awakened there is no judgment. You see the sunset and you absorb the whole beauty of it — there is no narrator who interrupts the perception with its constant chatter. You see people and you are quiet inside.

That way of seeing changes your relationship with them. People open their mouths and you see the Ego at work. You see the functioning of the mind. There is no awareness. Everyone is asleep.

They dream the dream of the Personhood.

Everyone thinks that they are The Person. The person has a name. The person has a story. The person has problems, wants, and needs. That person needs to be groomed, fed, and taken care of. And that’s all people do. Operate as a Person. Live as the Mind. And project their Concept of Self into the World. And create that Concept of Self based on what the World tells them.

It is a rare gift to meet someone Awakened in your lifetime. It is an impossible job to become Awakened yourself. Or to be more precise with my words, to awaken from the Dream of Self. But that is the only life worth living. Because when you wake up you will realize — you did not live before that. It wasn’t a life. That the true life starts now. The Life when you are no longer bound by the dream of what is not Real.

People entertain themselves with the Concept of Lucid Dreaming — to wake up inside the dream and regain your awareness. But they don’t even get close to understanding the Concept of Lucid Waking.

Just like when you wake up from slumber, and you can see that whatever visions you had were all just a dream, that it wasn’t real, Lucid Waking is the same.

In the beginning, it can shock you, how you have lived all your life as a sleepwalker, and for the first time you are enabled to see. That everything was a dream. That it wasn’t real. And nothing is real. Every thought is a lie.

At first, you feel bad for how much time of your life you have wasted. Then, instantly, you feel relieved. You understand that your life will be divided into before and after awakening. You understand that you no longer need to live as The Person. You can attain true Freedom — Freedom from Self.

Self can only exist within the context of Time.

But Time itself is a Thought.

You can be in the moment. Or you can be in the thought.

An Unawakened lives in the Thought.

You wake up — you think. You brush your teeth — you think. You shower — you think. You poop — you think. You walk — you think. You are with your partner — you think. There are no breaks in thinking. How exhausting. What people don’t see is that this is the major energy drainer in life — constant, incessant thinking.

An Awakened being thinks only when thinking is needed. He is no longer used by the Tool. He is the Master of the Tool. And because he masters the Tool, the whole Universe complies. He is in full control of his life because the Mind is the Life itself. It is the only tool of Reality creation. And it is the only Reality that one can experience. Notice this.

When you are Awakened… It feels like the world opens up. You are spontaneous. You are playful. You are saying the right things at the right time. Why? Because you have the skill of True Listening. One can truly and fully listen to another only when the Mind is Quiet. You listen to Understand. And because you are quiet inside you do understand. You can see the work of the Mind in another being because you are no longer the Mind.

True Listening. Transcendental Listening. That is the rarest gift every human seeks. To speak, and to be completely understood. That is the Skill that only the awakened possess — the Skill of Transformational Listening.

I guess I need to break another illusion.

Being Awakened does not make you a Superhuman (although what you will discover will be quite the opposite — people around you will start seeing you as a Superhuman). Why? Because of Your Results.

What makes you unstoppable? → Destroying the things that stop you.

What is stopping you at all times? → The Interference of the Mind.

Performance = Potential — Interference.

Remove Interference. Remove the Noise of the Mind. The Potential will flow freely and express itself unhindered in its full form resulting in world-class performance.

World-class performance arises from the Disciplined Mind.

The True Discipline of the Mind can only arise when you understand at your core that You Are Not The Mind.

However, again, being awakened doesn’t make you a Superhuman. You still poop, you still live in the body and will have to develop the discipline of the body. You still have a brain, and you still have neuroplasticity. There are a lot of wonderful things that you can do through the practice of the body. You can self-regulate through the body. You can shape the Mind through the Body.

To facilitate and maintain your awakening you still need to do things for your physical and mental health.

You still need to feed the body and hence find a way to make a living.

And unless you are a farmer, feeding yourself from your own land, and you still choose not to shave your head and go live with the monks, and remain within the system of the city — your mind will still have thoughts about getting money to sustain your life. That implies that the mind will still be preoccupied with the questions of career, business, impact, and life strategy.

And that is all fine.

To be Awakened, doesn’t mean that you have to exit the game. To shave your head, sell all your possessions, divorce your partner, abandon your children, and then go and live in a cave isolating yourself from humanity.

Not at all.

To be Awakened is to see through the Game. And because you can see through it, you are no longer being played.

Only as Awakened, do you become a True Player. Playing but knowing that it is all just a Game. And one day the Game will end.

To be Awakened is to see that everything you do is Unimportant. To see through the Unreality if the One inside you who is constantly trying to raise the Importance.

As an Awakened being you are no longer controlled by these thoughts. That you need to grind, work hard, chase, achieve, attain something to be happy.

The External World Can Give You Nothing.

Close your eyes and see.

When the mind subsides your True Nature will reveal itself.

Calm. Love. Happiness. Peace. Equanimity. Stillness.

This is your True Nature.

Close your eyes and watch.

Thoughts are the waves on the Surface. Divest the energy of your attention from them and let yourself sink back into the Source of your Attention.

You are the Ocean itself.

Deep. Dark. Calm. Peaceful. Limitless.

And you will see.

That everyone is like that.

Once you remove the contamination of thought, once you eliminate the Illusion of Personhood in every Human, this is all that is left.

Emptiness. Nothingness. Isness.

Pure Consciousness.

We are not just the same.

We are One.

We all are Infinite Consciousness.

To be Awakened is to be That.

To see that Consciousness is all it is.

To see that there has never been any Person.

That The Person is just a False Identity Manufactured by the Mind.

You are not the Person.

You are not the Mind.

It is time to wake up.

Everyone can be a Buddha.

Everyone can taste the True Freedom.

Freedom from Self.

🙏