Mystical Awakening

Dear Friend

Welcome.

Here and now you begin your great journey through the Mysteries™.

Be true to yourself and you will have a magnificent adventure. Likely, you will discover so much more than you expect. Each Mystery you personally experience will become a high point in your life, which you will treasure always. May you find what you seek.

Shall we begin?

You become a mystic by waking up. You awaken from normal day-to-day awareness into the mystical.

Mysticism is more a series of progressive spiritual awakenings than it is a study or philosophy. The educational and philosophical aspects of mysticism are important and fascinating, of course, but their purpose is to assist and facilitate the wondrous awakenings of mystical life. The chief value of mystical study is not how many years you have studied but what you have spiritually realized and the person you’ve become.

You become a mystic through awakening. Just as you find release from a dream by opening your eyes and shifting consciousness from sleep to the world around you, you become mystical by shifting from the normal waking state to a higher level of awareness.

Example

For example, you may be having the nightmare that a shark is attacking you. The shark seems very real and terrifying to you. You may, in your dream state, try to swim as fast as you can, kicking your legs and flailing your arms in panic. As the jaws snap closed on your torso, do you die? No. You wake up; you shift your awareness to your quiet, safe bedroom. Immensely relieved, you happily realize, “It was just a dream.” You dismiss the shark’s jaws and the terror which filled you only a minute before.

In another dream, you are showing your great masterpieces to the leaders of the world, presidents and celebrities. All of them give you awards and want to hear your opinions. But suddenly, the clock radio sounds and you let go your eminent companions to shower quickly, drink coffee, and drive to your job. Here again, you wake up. You switch awareness from a dream state, which seemed so real, back to your daily life and its circumstances. As you proceed along the freeway to your office, you may reflect, “That was a great experience. Too bad I was only dreaming.”

Every time you waken from a dream, you are using your amazing ability to shift consciousness from one state to another: dream to wakefulness to dream to wakefulness to dream…. We go on doing this for a lifetime.

What the Mystics Say

But mystics say there is one more major state of consciousness: Spiritual Awareness. Just as you can wake up from a dream and recognize that you were “only dreaming,” consider too that this normal state of awareness you’re living in may be a kind of sleep also! Oh, the normal waking state is real enough and it’s important to move about in an able and fulfilling manner — rents need to be paid, cars must be driven vigilantly, etc. The normal waking state is truly wondrous and worthwhile.

But, in the view of the mystic, there’s even more to be experienced: wake up from this! This normal waking state is not the full reality at all. A richer, finer, freer life will be yours if you will only shift your awareness upward one more level.

Wake up from your present views of yourself, of others, and of life itself. These are just a higher level of dreams — too often inaccurate, ignorant, and tragically self-destructive.

No wonder mystics have had such a difficult time being understood through the ages. They maintain normal awareness is a kind of sleep, a devastating ignorance. As mystics tell beginning students: Ignorant of Spirit, man (woman) misperceives everything.

We Don’t Know Who We Are

In normal human awareness, mystics suggest: we don’t (can’t) know who we are; we can’t know others very well at all; and we don’t know our true natures, talents, possibilities, or higher faculties. We know so little about love, compassion, and how to get along with others. We don’t understand Nature and our relationship with it. Nor do we realize the purposes and possibilities of life. And in this stupor, we, of course, don’t know our mystical calling or our mystical nature.

So, the first mystical teaching is: Wake up! Arise, awake.

Fortunately, people awaken and rise from sleep every morning. Shifting your awareness from dreams to daily life is routine. The project here is just one more shift — to Mystical Awakening. Mystical awareness can come in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, or it can take years of preparation before you let go your intense grip on normal day-to-day awareness.

The Time Factor

It may take time to find and trust your own mystical faculties. Intellectuals usually take the longest period before they dare temporarily set aside their normal thinking and enter spiritual consciousness. And, people who are dominantly emotional too often float on intense feelings into realms of fantasy rather than actually arising in spiritual awareness. However, when you are prepared — as soon as you are prepared — you will awaken. You will experience a heavenly awareness which is, in many ways, superior to your normal way of thinking and feeling. You will enjoy Mystical Awareness immensely. You’ll find it very natural.

Just as you can dismiss the terrors of a nightmare shark attack by saying, “That was only a dream,” you will be able to look back from mystical awareness to your old mental/emotional state and say, “My thoughts and feelings were so limited and ignorant then.” With a mystical awakening you will make a smooth transition into becoming a new person — the person you’ve always intuitively wanted to be. The light of your true nature will shine in your heart, mind, and actions. You’ll feel that, despite the chaos and pain of the world, you’re delighting in heaven on earth.

How can you awaken and arise? How can you start your personal realization of the Mysteries?

Practice of the First Mystery

Many times a day, whisper to yourself, “Wake up!”

Look at the world around you and whisper, “Wake up!” Lovingly, look at your family seated around the table; mentally say, “Wake up!” Look at yourself in the mirror and whisper, “Wake up!”

As you say, “Wake up!” increase your attention, appreciation, and feeling of love. Wake up! Of course, in your early practices you are heightening normal awareness — not experiencing mystical consciousness at all. However, this simple technique stimulates the awakening of your mystical faculties and improves your quality of life in the meantime. You see the world anew.

After two weeks of devoted practice during free moments throughout the day, you’ll begin to notice that the world — and you, too — are more beautiful and more enjoyable. Learn to whisper, “Wake up!” Don’t strain yourself or try to imagine what mystical awareness might be. Just whisper or mentally exhort yourself in a cheerful, loving way to “Wake up!”

We’ll review the Key Points and Contemplation of awakening next week. Then, in our next Mystery, you’ll learn how to practice and enjoy the Mystic Gaze which greatly stimulates mystical awakening.

Greetings, Friend

How are you doing with your new experiences of the mystical? Can you sense your higher mind as it calmly watches all the antics of the world? Can you see the underlying harmony and beauty of life? Do you feel your inner power to make positive changes?

In these meetings we’ll go more deeply into the Mysteries Revealed™ teaching which was discussed the previous week. We’ll explore it, review it, expand on it, and go more deeply into it through contemplation.

These Key Points and Contemplations will significantly help you to better understand and realize each Mystery.

Also, these get-togethers give you a chance to more fully apply each Mystery in your daily life and to watch it enrich your part of the world.

You have probably already experienced glimpses and tastes of mystical awareness.

Think back and recall those special times in your life when your awareness was lifted up into a beautiful and memorable delight. Or, when you knew something not easily predictable would happen before it actually happened.

Here is a small list of some mystical experiences which may help your contemplation of your own past mystical moments:

We could go on for hours with these examples. In each instance a “wakening” occurred, a brief mystical awakening.

Hopefully these examples jog your memory. Now it’s your turn to recall your own previous mystical awakenings.

How to Contemplate

When you remember each mystical experience, contemplate it. Hold it in your awareness. Bring to mind the details of the circumstances and people involved. Then hold the experience in your mind and patiently try to re-experience that beautiful shift of your awareness into a higher state of being: from not knowing to knowing; from sorrow or loneliness to inexpressible love; from normal awareness to heightened realization.

May your contemplations be sweet.