Ask Amy: Is Awakening a Feeling?

Q:  Is awakening a feeling? Having suffered from depression most of my life, I always envy people who appear to be having blissful experiences (like a girl in my yoga class who remains in meditation longer than the rest of us). I’m looking forward to having a direct experience in this lifetime, although I don’t think it’s guaranteed. I want it very much and know I’ll never be the same afterward. I bet there are no words, but I hope I could pick up on the feeling.

A: You are not alone in envying that girl in your yoga class – the ego loves for us to believe that only others are capable of having blissful spiritual experiences. Despite the  persuasiveness of the ego, Jesus assures us in ACIM, “God indeed can be reached directly, for there is no distance between Him and His Son.” (M-26) 

If there is no distance between God and His Son, not only is direct experience guaranteed, it is your Reality right now!

Let’s go slowly because there is a huge opportunity here. The reason you are unaware of your formless Self is because you believe you are the physical body. Yet, you wouldn’t be studying A Course in Miracles unless your inner wisdom was surfacing. Take a breath and allow a click of recognition to confirm that you know, deep down, you are not the body-person.

DIRECT EXPERIENCE

Take a moment, this instant, to be the Formless Space in which the sky and cosmos reside. Without knowing how, drop all your beliefs. Don’t think. Just let your Mind’s Eye open like an infinite telescope….

NEVER BE THE SAME

Your question, “Is awakening a feeling?” may seem unnecessary now. It is true that once you see through the previously uncontested belief that you are a body-person, you are never the same. More accurately, you stop pretending to be different and separate from God. For it becomes clear that it is not the person who awakens; it is the changeless Spirit that has believed Itself to be a contracted form called “person,” which is now emerging from a self-imposed dream state.

THE ONE WHO AWAKENS

The one who awakens is not the “you” you take yourself to be. Awakening to your God-Self is simpler than waking up in the morning. Sometimes, when you’re sleepy, you feel groggy upon awakening, but eventually your head clears and you know you’re awake. You don’t have to keep pinching yourself to believe this.

Similarly, spiritual awakening is completely natural. Lesson 109 supports the idea of effortlessness. It says that the thought “I rest in God” has the power “to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and everything there is.”

Awakening is not a feeling; awakening is a recognition which occurs in the Mind. This recognition may be felt in the body as physical sensations such as vibrating, shaking, tears flowing, etc. Mental effects may include expansiveness, relaxation, and clarity. Emotions such as love, generosity, peace, joy and freedom are also common. Sanity prevails, and along with it, contentment, assurance, fearlessness, and inspiration.

THERE ARE NO WORDS

As you said, there are no words. “Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say ‘God is’ and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is.” (W-169)

This Q&A appears in the Ask Amy column from the Jan-Feb 2016 issue of Miracles magazine. Miracles is a well-loved staple in the ACIM community. For a subscription, email [email protected] or call 845-496-9089.  Click here to purchase digital copies.  To ask Amy a question, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com