Awakening to Spiritual Plane Reality

awakening Sep 27, 2023

Understanding the Bigger Picture (Part 2): The Spaceship View.

What does it really mean to 'wake up'?

“Humanity has created and accumulated numerous problems, and some of them have become serious crises which are almost beyond the usual means human beings are able to deal with them. This path that we have taken is no longer able to provide the security and order we are after. Where is a path that can promote the continual development of civilization? The only answer I can see is the immediate awakening of humanity”. Yuan Tze

In part one of this ‘Bigger Picture’ article (ed. 20 of VFF Top of the South Newsletter, July 2023) we looked at the subject of ‘waking up’ in terms of understanding the truth of what is going on in the world in physical plane reality. We called this the ‘bird’s eye view’.

In part two of this article, we’re going to dive into the true meaning of ‘waking up’, and why understanding and actioning authentic awakening is THE most important (and currently most absent) key to solving our world problems.

I call this the ‘spaceship overview’ effect.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Awakening to 'Physical Plane Reality'

As we discussed previously, the first level of waking up refers to the recognition of previously unseen corruption and deliberately hidden agendas in sectors or industries such as big pharma, the military, the environment, world governments, the media, food industry, big agriculture, big banking, big tech, drug cartels, human trafficking, the world elite, and more. In short, the level of corruption on our planet is off the charts, and has been for centuries, although few of us realized it until recently. [see references below for more info].

As we come to learn the suppressed and hidden history of humanity, we start to see what Neo did as he ‘red-pilled’:

For example, as we explore the establishment of mainstream medicine, we discover how from its inception how much of it was deliberately designed to keep people sick.

Or when we study the origins of banking, we discover it was founded by an elite group of powerful men with a deliberate hidden agenda to keep the masses poor and enslaved.

As we join the proverbial dots, we start to see how nearly 8 billion world people are controlled by a minority of powerful, elite oligarchs, driven by narcissistic personal agendas of greed, selfishness and egotistical desires, the end-results of which are causing serious harm to humanity, nature and the world.

Digging Deep and Viewing the Bigger Picture

This new understanding of how the world really works has been hidden ‘in plain sight’ from most of us for centuries, and whilst what is being fast revealed these past few years is shocking and overwhelming, it’s only the superficial layer of the plot.

If we want to effect authentic change, we’re going to have to dig deeper and see the bigger picture.

To use a useful analogy, we can say the events we are experiencing in the world (corruption chaos etc) are the leaves and stems of a plant, whilst the deeper truths and causes of why this is going on are in the roots and soil. Unless we can effect change at the root cause level, by pulling the roots out to stop the weeds growing, we will not be able to grow a world garden of peace, truth and true holistic living.

So in this instalment we’re going to look at the deeper level of what is driving the seeming chaos and corruption in the world today, and it’s not an easy topic to address, for the following reasons:

The truth is vast, complex and multi-faceted, requiring deep wisdom and knowledge to accurately comprehend, and whilst I have been exploring this subject matter for half my life, I’m still a Kindergartener. So all I can give you is my best shot, with errors and omissions accepted.
The awareness of the receiver of the information needs to be ready to assimilate deeper truths which may up until now have been outside one’s current awareness.
Everyone has their own understanding of ‘God’, ‘higher power’, religion etc, and sometimes if certain ideas sit outside one’s beliefs, this can create roadblocks to assimilating different or seemingly conflicting philosophies.

'All truth passes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed, secondly it is opposed, and thirdly it is accepted as self-evident'. Arthur Schopenhauer

So what are the real roots of our problems and how can we weed them out?

Whilst it may seem it’s the various organizations (the WHO, WEF, big pharma, banking, governments, corporations, the media etc) who are to blame for the corruption and deception in the world (and on one level this is absolutely true), the deeper truth is there is a bigger picture going on behind the scenes of this Punch and Judy show. To see who is really pulling the strings and even making the puppets, we need to understand life in a bigger cosmological context.

According to many ancient cultures, humans have been around for millions of years (rather than just a few thousand as taught in school history classes), encompassing civilizations which have come and gone over massive epochs of time (see reference below to Phillip Lindsay's site).

According to Hindu philosophy, time is divided into 4 ‘yugas’ which we cycle through over millions of years, each cycle lasting over 4 million years and encompassing 4 different stages: Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. We are currently nearing the end of the ‘Kali’ yuga, (the ‘dark’ ages).

As humanity spirals up and down through these yugas, our consciousness evolves and devolves in a process called ‘evolution and involution’.

As we ‘involute’, we descend further from Spirit into matter. Once we have reached the extremes of matter (‘materialism’), we start the return journey back to Spirit by ‘evolving’. The concept of evolution is a familiar term for most people, but perhaps this description gives new meaning.

According to certain ancient wisdom teachings, the process of evolution includes all living beings within the ‘5 kingdoms of nature’: animal, mineral, plant, human and Soul. Currently we are ‘evolving’ upwards through the Kali Yuga towards Dvapara Yuga. Beyond these 5 kingdoms of nature, other entities in the universe are also devolving and evolving: solar systems evolve… the whole universe is evolving… and the process goes on ad infinitum. In the context of what is going on in the world right now, this is the story of the evolution and devolution of human consciousness.

At the recent NZDSOS conference Dr Matt Shelton made reference to those who are ‘long-awakened, just awakening, and still fast asleep’. I presume he was referring to the level of ‘awakeness’ of people to what is happening in terms of the corruption which is coming to light.

'Waking Up' in a Spiritual Context

The analogy of being asleep, waking up, and being awake also applies to the meaning of awakening in a spiritual context. When we are ‘asleep’ we are pretty much unaware of our higher self or true nature – we see and experience life predominantly in terms of material reality. At this level of consciousness we are also likely also to be relatively unaware of the truth of what is going on behind the scenes in world affairs, and may have bought into the ‘mainstream’ narrative, because we have not yet cultivated ‘spiritual discernment’.

As we begin to wake up spiritually, we see we are more than just physical body and mind. We begin to learn about higher divine aspects of ourselves, and a desire grows within us to re-unite with our Divine Self. Most people are unaware that the real meaning of ‘yoga’ means ‘union with the Divine’ – to yoke yourself with the Divine.

Being ‘awake’ spiritually means we are well on the path of recognizing we are on a journey back to merge with our Divine Self. Truly spiritually awakened people are self-realized in the fullest sense of the word (‘enlightened’), an experience which cannot be described, only known from first-hand experience.

According to enlightened teacher Yuan Tze, awakening has two meanings:

“One is awakening to the reality that life is run by all kinds of unhealthy patterns (thoughts, behaviours, emotions) and one is lost in the confusion and problems caused by them. When these unhealthy patterns are transformed, and the problems are cleared, one will gain clarity. In his words, this experience can feel like ‘waking up from a long sleep and life starting anew’.

The other layer of meaning refers to the state after the True Self (Divine Self) manifests. Being in a state of pure awareness is awakening in a true sense".

Before I continue, I need to reiterate: this is an immensely complex topic which can only be touched upon in an article like this, but further resources are available in the links at the end if you wish to learn more.

So, to continue our understanding of the ‘Bigger Picture’…

In ancient Taoist philosophy, the universe is described in terms of ‘yin and yang’. Yin is stillness, darkness, feminine… yang is brightness, activity, masculine. The universe constantly seeks harmony through balancing these two aspects. When an extreme on either side is reached, it will return towards its opposite, in alignment with the universal principle of ‘there is no absolute’.

As we devolve from Spirit into matter (materialism), we experience ourselves more and more out of touch and disconnected from our Divine Self (True Self / God Self). This is the process of separation. Whilst we can never fully become separate from our higher self, because it is who we innately are, the illusion of separation is very real. When we talk about separation in its spiritual sense, we are talking about being separate from our Divine Self. So what are we waking up to? What does ‘waking up’ really mean? In its truest sense, we are waking up to the recognition of our own Divinity.

The further we move into separation from our Divine nature, the more we will experience polarity (us and them, black and white, right and wrong, good and bad…). Polarized thinking is one of the fundamental unhealthy patterns of human consciousness. The more we become disconnected from our Divine Self, the more we will experience the world ‘out there’ as separate – including people, nature, everything...

Charles Eisenstein’s summarizes why this is causing so many problems in the world:

“All that we see today that troubles us, is the expression of a story or mythology that I call separation. It has a dimension of humans seeing ourselves as separate from nature, and also seeing ourselves as individuals, rather than as relational interconnected beings. And when we conceive of ourselves as alone and separate, we enter into the mindset of control, because it's ‘other’: everything out there is other, and it's either a competitor or a threat. So your wellbeing and the progress of humanity comes through domination”.

I think it’s quite clear to see the current state of affairs in the world is reflecting an extreme state of polarity, separation and control, but it’s important to remember this is all part of the bigger picture of evolution in the universe.

The Ultimate Disconnection

This polarization has become so intense that we are now truly seeing and experiencing what most people would call ‘good and evil’.

From a deeper esoteric level, it is this extreme separation and descent into darkness (materialism, ‘matter’) which is driving the ignorant, harmful and unjust behaviours of those in power (aka the ‘global powers that be’).

For example, you may be familiar with the prophecies of Rudolf Steiner over 100 years ago:

“In the future, we will eliminate the Soul with medicine. Under the pretext of a 'healthy point of view', there will be a vaccine by which the human body will be treated as soon as possible directly at birth, so that the human being cannot develop the thought of the existence of Soul and Spirit. To materialistic doctors, will be entrusted the task of removing the soul of humanity”…

As we devolve further into materialism, our focus becomes more and more ‘external’ rather than ‘internal’, which further disconnects us from our Divine Self, which is accessed from within through practices such as meditation and yoga. We also become more disconnected from external ‘nature’, losing our sense of respect, love and awe for the plant, animal and mineral kingdoms. This is what has led to the harming of fellow humans and plundering of earth’s resources.

So yes, there really is evil or darkness in the world, but we must remember that darkness is the absence of light, and that at our essential core, we are the Light, the Divine Self - our current challenge is to find our way back to consciously merge with it. This is the fundamental solution to our problems, and unfortunately, due to the stripping of spirituality from culture, very little time is devoted to teaching people how to do this in tangible, practical ways.

- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022)Charles explains how our collective crises are opportunities for us to grow and evolve spiritually:

“Every innovation, every technological revolution - all of these were a step into greater separation. Every time it gets uglier, every time there's a new crisis, we are offered a choice. Consciousness constructed this realm - with all of its hellish attributes - in order for us to grow. Now, the return journey begins to de-program from that way of thinking. This return journey home, it's going to take many, many generations. Thousands of years from now our descendants are going to be giving thanks to their ancestors. But there's no guarantee we're going in the right direction. We have to make a choice”

As mentioned previously, we are on an upward spiral through the Kali (dark ages) Yuga as we evolve our consciousness. We are on the return home, but this is no easy journey.

He continues:

“I came to understand this whole journey of separation as part of a much larger process; a process of exploration and return, a process of plunging into all of the dramas and all of the stories that this world with all its troubles makes possible; incredible stories and incredible ways to develop yourself. To really develop, you have to face adversity to develop the muscles of love. To develop the muscles of love - to develop the heart - you need to face situations where it's hard to love, where it's hard to be generous, where your ability to be patient and kind is challenged. And that's how you grow the Soul. So on a metaphysical level, consciousness constructed this realm with all of its hellish attributes in order for us to grow, and in order for all of these stories to play out. And now the return journey begins. We've reached the extremes of separation and the crises that separation causes”.

So can you see there is a deeper reason and meaning for our world troubles? Can you see it’s more than just ‘us and them’, ‘right and wrong’, ‘good and bad’?

Whilst from our unenlightened human perspective we might think that what is going on in the world today is a mistake, in Hindu philosophy it’s all part of the grand ‘Leela’. Leela (Lila Sanskrit: लीला līlā) is a word which cannot easily be translated into English and describes the Divine Absolute's creative play or ‘Divine Play’. We could say it’s the universe’s grand joke, although it doesn’t really feel like that for most of us in our daily lives.

The journey of self-realization as consciousness evolves through the 5 kingdoms of nature and beyond is mankind’s true destiny and purpose. The first major rung on the ladder of self-realization is spiritual ‘enlightenment’, where we are yoked with the Divine and no longer perceive ourselves as separate from anything outside us. In this state we can do no harm, because harming others is harming ourselves, and harming ourselves harms totality. The more humans who reach this level of consciousness, the better, because our actions and behaviour change as we reach higher levels of self-realization and wisdom. This is in Yuan Tze’s words the result of society transitioning from an ordinary culture to a ‘wisdom’ culture.

So now we are at a choice point.

We can continue to view the world from a dualistic ‘right-wrong, them-us’ perspective, keeping ourselves stuck in the never-ending dramas and chaos of life, or we can consciously choose to rise above and focus on our journey of unification with our Divine Self. It’s a choice, and it takes work, because we have to look within to understand ourselves in a profoundly differently way, through dissolving the old filters through which we have been perceiving the world.

In Charles’ words, the good news is “There are other very mysterious principles of change at work and this inconceivable, orchestrating intelligence will deploy each of us in the right place at the right moment with the right gifts and with the right instructions to do what needs to be done”.

Whilst it may seem that things are grim, as one comes to understand the ‘Bigger Picture’ of what life is about, the craziness starts to make more sense. We also understand there is much hope for a better future, as long as we each do the necessary work on a personal level to change ourselves from the inside out, so that the outside world mirrors the new inner collective.

To conclude, in Yuan Tze’s words:

“Humanity is at a crossroads and the direction we take determines the future for all. This is the choice between continuing down the same direction and opening to a way out. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every human being lived their full potential, manifesting the true qualities of a human life? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all species could live together in a way that is all-enhancing? All of this is possible but will require every one of us to make a genuine effort to learn and do the real work. Let’s start with working on ourselves and use this opportunity to encourage everyone to do the same”.

To celebrate the planetary need for awakening in its truest sense, Yuan Tze instigated 'Global Awakening Day' in 2019.