Some would say that if the “spiritual experience” goes a bit further, it’s not an experience anymore. It’s what we are noticing itself. It’s a noticing, not an experience. Although, for me, a noticing is a kind of experience. I understand where they are coming from, and appreciate the distinction, but feel it’s a bit idealized.
– from a previous post
I thought I would say a few more words on this.
It is popular, in some circles, to say that awakening is not an experience.
So is awakening an experience? I would say yes and no, neither and both, and it depends.
WHAT IS AWAKENING?
We can say it is noticing what we are, and really what we are noticing itself.
Or that it is to notice our nature, which is capacity for the world as it appears to us, and what the world to us happens within and as.
This can sound very abstract if we don’t have a personal experience or noticing of it. And it can seem simple and obvious when there is that noticing.
IN WHAT WAY IS AWAKENING NOT AN EXPERIENCE?
Awakening is what we are noticing itself as all there is.
To us, the world happens within and as what we are.
Awakening does not happen within the content of our experience. It’s not dependent on any particular content of experience. We can notice what we are whether we experience elation or depression, sadness or joy, or anything else. It’s not dependent on any particular state.
And it can and will be reflected in the content of our experience. It will impact the content of our experience, to some extent. At first, our thoughts and emotions may respond with surprise, elation, fear, or something else. And over time, as we keep noticing what we are, our human self will transform within this noticing and align with it more consciously.
If we look for awakening as an experience and within our content of experience, we are looking in the wrong place. Sometimes, we may need to look in the wrong place for a while. And we may also use structured inquiry to guide our attention so we may more easily notice what we are.
IN WHAT WAY IS AWAKENING AN EXPERIENCE?
We can say that the noticing itself is an experience. Although perhaps a slightly different type of experience than most other experiences.
In a conventional sense, it happens within a timeline. We can often put a time period or even a specific day or minute for when the initial noticing happened. In that sense, it’s an experience.
As mentioned above, it does impact the content of our experience. Our system has a reaction to it. And if the noticing happens over time, our human self will transform within that noticing. In this sense, there is certainly an experience component to awakening.
And to others where this noticing may not be happening right now, it certainly looks like an experience. They (we) don’t have another option but to see it as an experience since that’s all we consciously know and are aware of.
POINTERS
When some say “awakening is not an experience”, it’s a pointer.
It’s meant as medicine for a condition, and the condition is to (mistakenly) assume that awakening is an experience and look for it within the content of experience.
It has a practical function only and is not meant to be any final, full, or absolute truth.
And that’s the same when I nuance it here. It’s meant as a pointer. As a support in unsticking from any one particular idea about awakening being an experience or not.