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Opening Your Eyes: Diverse Spiritual Awakening Processes

All across the world, there are various processes of spiritual awakening. The phenomenon of opening your eyes to the spiritual reality of world is not limited to a certain group of people in a certain place on Earth. It is everywhere.

Diverse Spiritual Awakening Processes

The journey of spiritual awakening and unfastening your sight to the truth is a deeply personal one. While our destinations may seem similar–to achieve a fuller and deeper connection with the universe and our inner selves–the paths that lead there are as many and as varied as the wonderfully diverse cultures and traditions that have been made by human thought.

Opening Your Eyes According to Eastern Tradition

The philosophies of Asia have long been revered for their emphasis on spiritual development. Unlike here in the West, the spiritual is deeply intertwined with the earthly in the East. As such many of their practices involve establishing connections with the natural world and engaging with the body itself.

• Meditation. This is a cornerstone of many Eastern traditions and basically involves having the mind focus on something specific, whether it is an object, a thought or even a sensation.
• Yoga. While it has more modern connotations today, yoga is actually an ancient practice from the Indian subcontinent which aims to harmonize the body with the mind and the spirit.

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Opening Your Eyes According to Western Mysticism

The mystic traditions of the West are deeply rooted in the Christian and Gnostic traditions. Thus, there is an emphasis on the divine and the more incorporeal aspects of spirituality, especially where it concerns the promise of an afterlife and eternal rewards. As such, many of their practices are centered on having a deep relationship with God.

• Contemplative Prayer. This deeper variation of prayer involves focusing on the nature of God, hopefully to establish a deeper sense of connection with Him and gain spiritual insights.
• Mystical Union. The desire to achieve a direct connection with God can be made through intense meditation. When this happens, it can be transformative and profound.

Opening Your Eyes According to Indigenous Beliefs

The multitudinous cultures of indigenous peoples across the world have rich spiritual traditions that have a very fundamental basis on one’s connection with the natural world and the spirits of the ancestors. As such, many of their practices involve pleasing the spirits of the world and their ancestors.

• Spiritual Connections. Through a variety of methods, drumming, chanting, smoking, people can achieve an altered state of consciousness that allows them to fully communicate with the spirits and pierce through the veil.
• Vision Quest. This is a powerful spiritual journey in the physical world that involves fasting and meditation to reach a profound state of spirituality.

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Opening Your Eyes According to Modern Spiritual Practices

The global age has rendered a world wherein disparate ideas and beliefs can be exchanged over vast distances. This has resulted in new and modern spiritual perspectives that blend elements plucked from many sources, Eastern, Western and everything in-between with modern sensibilities. As such their practices hold personal growth and self-discovery as paramount to reaching spiritual enlightenment.

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. By combining mindful meditation with recent scientific discoveries, this technique involves strict discipline to maintain a meditative state with which to open the spirit to the wider universe.
• New Age Meditation. This is the purposeful melding of the spiritual practices from the East and the West to achieve synthesis and acquire spiritual consciousness.

A Personal Journey

Ultimately, the path to spiritual awakening is a personal one. To say that there is a right way or an incorrect one is missing the point of the journey. There is no proper way. Everyone’s approach to finding meaning in their own lives will, of course, be different from one another’s.

Thus, exploring different practices and traditions and learning more about them can be beneficial.

This open-minded approach helps individuals discover which aspects of spirituality resonate with them–guiding their own unique spiritual journey in the future. Because whether it’s through meditation, prayer, yoga, or other practices, the goal will always remain the same for everyone: to open one’s heart and mind to the infinite possibilities of the human spirit.

Learn more about spiritual awakening from David Tuttle.