Lori Ann Lothian – In the first year after my abrupt awakening, when people asked me to define this crazy enlightenment shift, I had my answer all wrapped up with a pretty bow.
It was sleek and simple, the perfect true response: “It’s the death of the self you thought you were, the knowing of what you really are and as a result, the end of suffering.”
That is more or less still true. Suffering created by believing my thoughts, for instance, has largely been replaced by what I called “The Death of the Narrator.” This simply means that the inner critic and nattering commentator has been dealt a fatal blow.
Add to this mental shift, the new reality of emotional fluidity. Emotions are so mobile that even the difficult feelings are welcome to come and go as they please. Anger, frustration, sadness and fear wander through the house of awareness, mingle a bit, and then leave.
Why? Because post awakening, these reactive emotional states are not offered up a buffet of regrets and angst to feast on. Emotional reactions feed off the past and have little purchase in a now-centric consciousness.
The New Sub Clause
Now, deep in the forest of altered-state living, I’ve got a new addition to the description of awakening. (And let’s face it, a real awakening feels like a cross between a brain-damaging stroke and a psychedelic trip–yep, we’re not in Kansas anymore Toto).