If the lights have not come on, the full joy of Self-Realization has not yet arrived.
The principal awakening in Self-Realization is the awakening to one’s true identity as infinite Pure Conscious Being — that Conscious Being in which all experience, indeed existence, arises. Putting aside all the discussion about what happens to the ego or personal self at the moment of Awakening, Self-Realization includes the profound recognition of our soul that it derives from and is inseparable from Pure Conscious Being, and that Pure Conscious Being is everywhere present in all souls.
We recognize this from the point of view of the unique soul that we are, and at the fundamental level of identity, Pure Conscious Being. This is very abstract to our minds, but essentially we live multi-dimensionally from our essential basis as universal, infinite Pure Conscious Being, through our soul’s perspective in the living of existence. In other words, we retain the unique view of our soul, while living both from our infinite nature and from our soul.
There is much one can say about the experience of living from this perspective of the recognition of our true nature. Something for another post. But here I wish to make the point that Self-Realization can, or it seems often does, occur in its “basic” form. It may just be a simple shift of identity — from being trapped within or being shackled to the body-mind-ego-personal self — to the recognition of our true nature as Pure Conscious Being. And now we find our sense of self is infinite. And other than the freedom and spaciousness, and the resulting peace, serenity and joy we may feel there may not be much to say about it.
Of course Self-Realization has its awesomeness. But, we may not yet know the mystical light, The Eternal Light of Pure Conscious Being. That’s some more awesomeness.
When the Eternal Light of Pure Conscious Being turns on in our experience, we enjoy the persistent illumination of consciousness. Consciousness shines from within. And one begins to discover the mechanics of perception. I don’t mean our human sensory organs and how they function. One begins to discover how Pure Conscious Being illuminates Itself and existence arising within it. We find that the Eternal Light of Pure Conscious Being reveals what we ordinarily consider our perceptions of the world. We find it is this light that makes perception possible.
The moment of Self-Realization does not necessarily reveal this light, or reveal it clearly, even though The Eternal Light of Pure Conscious Being is always there. Some further clarification of our Awakening may be needed. But when we awaken to it, it prepares us to discover the door to the Divine Heart of Being. And that’s even more awesomeness!
– Joel