[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/spiritual-awakening-2\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/spiritual-awakening-2\/","headline":"Spiritual Awakening  – What Spiritual Awakening Feels Like","name":"Spiritual Awakening  – What Spiritual Awakening Feels Like","description":"See also Being Yoga with James Traverse Spiritual Awakening – the Experience of Emptiness with James Traverse for a SOUND BODY and SILENT MIND. Be Still and Know: I AM THAT I AM Awareness Two things that are not-two: The way things truly are The way they appear This site is about discriminating between The… ","datePublished":"2021-11-10","dateModified":"2025-11-26","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/author\/nisarga\/#Person","name":"James Traverse","url":"https:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/author\/nisarga\/","identifier":1,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f1e0086ed42b81670a182a5490491bbf33dafeaba04c52c40dcf094664140a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f1e0086ed42b81670a182a5490491bbf33dafeaba04c52c40dcf094664140a6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Person","name":"James Traverse","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Om222small-2.png","url":"http:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Om222small-2.png","width":207,"height":195}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Logo-James-Traverse-1.png","url":"http:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Logo-James-Traverse-1.png","height":"229","width":"305"},"url":"https:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/spiritual-awakening-2\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI","name":"Spiritual Awakening - What Spiritual Awakening Feels Like and the Journey Om","description":"https:\/\/yoganidrayoga.com\nWhat is Consciousness?\nConsciousness is that which knows itself by being itself.\n\nSpiritual Awakening - What Spiritual Awakening Feels Like and the Journey Om\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI\nWhat is Spiritual Awakening?\n\nSpriritual Awakening is not a journey in space and time. It is the journey of awakening to who you truly are.\n\nSpiritual Awakening is the realization that you are Fully Human and Fully Spiritual. \nSpiritual Awakening is your everyday experience seen correctly, which is why it is called an awakening.\nHi and welcome to this video on Spiritual Awakening. I\u2019m James Traverse.\nThe true nature of your being is not within the realm of knowledge as that which is known or that which can be known through something like book-learning, and yet it is not unknowable.\nSince the true nature of your being is not within the realm of knowledge, it cannot be objectified and spoken about, and yet we can speak of objects and appearances in a certain way, such that they are seen in a new light.\nFor Example: We can speak of the true nature of your being in the same way that we speak of Love, as Love, like your true nature, is not something that can be objectified within the realm of knowledge, and yet we know via experience that Love is not unknowable. And we also know that it is the nature of Love to Love as it is what it does.\nNow what I just said is extremely important; so, let me say it again in a slightly different way\u2026\nHow is Love known? It is the nature of Love to Love. Thus, Love is known via what it does, how it appears. In this way, how it appears is how Love is objectified and thereby how it is known.\nAnother great pointer is how we understand what is called energy. How would Albert Einstein respond when we ask him, \u201cWhat is Energy?\u201d Since he was a pure scientist Einstein would answer, \u201cWe don\u2019t know what energy is; we understand it via what it does.\u201d History shows us that Einstein went even further by showing that energy and matter are related, as he literally defined their relationship via his famous equation E = mc2\n\nThe masters of many ancient wisdom traditions, like ones from India, China, Greece, and others help us understand how the vibrational nature of essential elements appear in objective form. For example: when you see an iceberg at sea on a partially cloudy day, what is seen is water in distinct degrees of vibration as: the ionosphere, which is the ionized part of Earth's upper atmosphere, is what scientists call the Plasma Form of Matter \u2013 this is the Fire Element; the clouds, which are water vapour, are what scientists call the Gas Form of Matter \u2013 this is the Air Element; the water of the ocean is what scientists call the Liquid Form of Matter \u2013 this is the Water Element; and the ice is what scientists call the Solid Form of Matter - this is the Earth Element. And we know that we can cause the change from one form of matter to the other by adding or removing energy as heat.\nIn a similar light we see that ancient sages took the approach of speaking of how the true nature of your being appears, rather than trying to define it. Thus, they depicted how it appears as what it does. And, the most accurate description of how the true nature of your being appears is the Om Symbol as illustrated in the Mandukya Upanishad.\nThe Mandukya Upanishad is the shortest Upanishad and its content is pure wisdom. The word Mandukya means frog, and it represents a kind-of jump from one state of consciousness to another.\n\nThe first appearance is a dot, called Turiya in Sanskrit, which means the Fourth relative to the other three more dense states of consciousness [although it is called the fourth relative to the others, it is truly the first]. The dot is a point in space that has location yet no dimension. This is the \u2018I am\u2019, or more accurately, simply \u2018Am\u2019 as the knowing quality that you exist.\nThe next form that appears is a crescent, which is called Maya in Sanskrit and it represents super-imposition as the veil of separation. This super-imposition solidifies via the densest degree of manifestation, and as will be shown later, it is the reason behind the mistaken conclusion that you are separate.\nThe next degree of density is the upper wave, which represents Deep Sleep, or Sushupti in Sanskrit. At this level there is being, yet still no dimension as Deep Sleep is experienced as a blankness. This is the Causal Level of being, as although it is experienced as a blankness, the seed of your current manifestation, which includes the mistaken conclusion of separation, is present such that you remember what you appear as on waking.\n\n\nFull Video here:\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RdvoYyUvVAI\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RdvoYyUvVAI\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RdvoYyUvVAI\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RdvoYyUvVAI\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RdvoYyUvVAI\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2021-08-22T15:57:33+00:00","duration":"PT18M34S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RdvoYyUvVAI","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC-iZ5bovU9pY9Lss_ckRTDQ#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC-iZ5bovU9pY9Lss_ckRTDQ","name":"James Traverse","description":"Spiritual Awakening the Journey Om - What Spiritual Awakening Feels Like with James Traverse\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI\n\nSince this channel is about Spiritual Awakening it is important to understand that Spirituality cannot be understood via things like book-learning and thinking and yet it is not unknowable. In this light, this channel is about another way of knowing, whereby the true nature of your being is grokked.\n\nJames has been involved with Spirituality, Spiritual Awakening, Yoga and Nonduality for over 40 years. His inspiration for Spiritual Awakening was the outcome of his studies with Jean Klein.\n\nJames shares insights of the Spiritual Journey and Spiritual Awakening on websites like: https:\/\/afternonduality.com \n https:\/\/jamestraverse.co and  https:\/\/beingyoga.com\n\nAdvaita is rendered as Nonduality in English. Other terms like Enlightenment, Awakening, Consciousness, Awareness and Source, etc. are some of the words used by sages to represent true being.","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/ytc\/AIdro_kUhfbVEy2metsVMbqjmg1nDU9x_6vaM3N2xXek5n5BCUQ=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":466}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdvoYyUvVAI#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}]},"about":["Spirituality"],"wordCount":2071,"keywords":["awakening spiritually","best spiritual awakening","higher spirituality","spiritual","Spiritual Awakening","spirituality"],"articleBody":"See also Being Yoga with James TraverseSpiritual Awakening – the Experience of Emptiness with James Traverse for aSOUND BODY and SILENT MIND.Be Still and Know: I AM THAT I AMAwarenessTwo things that are not-two:The way things truly areThe way they appearThis site is about discriminating between The Way Things Truly Are and How They Appear.Silence = a Portal to the Infinite.An important note on Yoga Nidra – Yoga Nidra is the Waking Experience of Absence; this is the Insight that lets you clearly see Your True Nature. Yoga Nidra is a means for you to Be Awake in Deep Sleep and See via the Third Eye!What is Enlightenment?Enlightenment is a release from limited, localized, ego-bound identity to the limitlessness that you are. Enlightenment is not freedom for the person, it is freedom from the person.How is Enlightenment attained?The practice of Yoga Nidra is a time-tested means of attaining Enlightenment.What is Spiritual Awakening?Spiritual Awakening is the realization that you are Fully Human and Fully Spiritual.Spiritual Awakening is your everyday experience seen correctly, which is why it is called an awakening. Hi and welcome to this video on Spiritual Awakening. I\u2019m James Traverse. The true nature of your being is not within the realm of knowledge as that which is known or that which can be known through something like book-learning, and yet it is not unknowable.Since the true nature of your being is not within the realm of knowledge, it cannot be objectified and spoken about, and yet we can speak of objects and appearances in a certain way, such that they are seen in a new light.For Example: We can speak of the true nature of your being in the same way that we speak of Love, as Love, like your true nature, is not something that can be objectified within the realm of knowledge, and yet we know via experience that Love is not unknowable. And we also know that it is the nature of Love to Love as it is what it does.Now what I just said is extremely important; so, let me say it again in a slightly different way\u2026 How is Love known? It is the nature of Love to Love. Thus, Love is known via what it does, how it appears. In this way, how it appears is how Love is objectified and thereby how it is known. Another great pointer is how we understand what is called energy.How would Albert Einstein respond when we ask him, \u201cWhat is Energy?\u201d Since he was a pure scientist Einstein would answer, \u201cWe don\u2019t know what energy is; we understand it via what it does.\u201dHistory shows us that Einstein went even further by showing that energy and matter are related, as he literally defined their relationship via his famous equation E = mc2Today we know that when we plant an acorn in fertile ground that after some years there will be an oak tree at that location. In this case we understand that what unfolds is that the information in the acorn\u2019s DNA orders the elemental energies of Fire, as heat and light from our sun, Air, as carbon dioxide and other gasses in our atmosphere, Water, as rain and ground water, and Earth, as the elements in the soil, to materialize as an oak tree, and that this form appears in Space. We also know that we can reverse this process by setting fire to the oak tree such that the elements that are in this particular formation are released.The masters of many ancient wisdom traditions, like ones from India, China, Greece, and others help us understand how the vibrational nature of essential elements appear in objective form.For example: when you see an iceberg at sea on a partially cloudy day, what is seen is water in distinct degrees of vibration as: the ionosphere, which is the ionized part of Earth’s upper atmosphere, is what scientists call the Plasma Form of Matter \u2013 this is the Fire Element; the clouds, which are water vapour, are what scientists call the Gas Form of Matter \u2013 this is the Air Element; the water of the ocean is what scientists call the Liquid Form of Matter \u2013 this is the Water Element; and the ice is what scientists call the Solid Form of Matter – this is the Earth Element.And we know that we can cause the change from one form of matter to the other by adding or removing energy as heat. In a similar light we see that ancient sages took the approach of speaking of how the true nature of your being appears, rather than trying to define it. Thus, they depicted how it appears as what it does.And, the most accurate description of how the true nature of your being appears is the Om Symbol as illustrated in the Mandukya Upanishad. The Mandukya Upanishad is the shortest Upanishad and its content is pure wisdom. The word Mandukya means frog, and it represents a kind-of jump from one state of consciousness to another.The Om Symbol is composed of a background and four progressive degrees of manifestation [objectification] and a crescent that represents the veiling power of super-imposition as follows:– The blankness of the background of the Om Symbol is represented here by blackness. This signifies that Your True Nature Itself cannot be objectified. The rest of the symbol represents that which can be objectified and thereby how you are known.– The first appearance is a dot, called Turiya in Sanskrit, which means the Fourth relative to the other three more dense states of consciousness [although it is called the fourth relative to the others, it is truly the first]. The dot is a point in space that has location yet no dimension. This is the \u2018I am\u2019, or more accurately, simply \u2018Am\u2019 as the knowing quality that you exist.– The next form that appears is a crescent, which is called Maya in Sanskrit and it represents super-imposition as the veil of separation. This super-imposition solidifies via the densest degree of manifestation, and as will be shown later, it is the reason behind the mistaken conclusion that you are separate.– The next degree of density is the upper wave, which represents Deep Sleep, or Sushupti in Sanskrit. At this level there is being, yet still no dimension as Deep Sleep is experienced as a blankness. This is the Causal Level of being, as although it is experienced as a blankness, the seed of your current manifestation, which includes the mistaken conclusion of separation, is present such that you remember what you appear as on waking.– Dream Consciousness is the next degree of density, called Swapna in Sanskrit. This is represented as a whirlpool or a wave curving back on itself such that there is a localized form. This is experienced as a Dreamer and a Dreamer\u2019s world. This is the Subtle Level of Consciousness as form here is purely mental and it also includes the mistaken conclusion of separation.– Finally, there is the densest degree of manifestation, which is Waking Consciousness, called Jagrat in Sanskrit. This is represented by the bottom and largest wave of the form. This is experienced as a Waker and a Waker\u2019s World. This is the most common state of consciousness and it is the Gross Level of Consciousness. It appears a physical body, mind and world in Space and Time.It is in the state of Waking Consciousness that the mind as Maya most thoroughly super-imposes the idea of separation such that identification with a localized form flowers as the mistaken understanding of who you are. In this way the ideas of \u2018me\u2019 and \u2018not me\u2019 fully solidify at this level, and the experience of identification as a limited localized form is strongly supported, as it is the fundamental belief of most human beings.So, who or what is your true nature?Your true nature cannot be objectified, yet you can know yourself via what you do, how you appear. This is what Krishnamurti meant when he said, \u201cThe Observer is the Observed.\u201dYou are Fully Human; this is confirmed by your daily experience as follows:– There is the experience of that which cannot be objectified. You may call it Emptiness, Sunyata, Love, Pure Consciousness, Awareness, God, or any number of other names for the nameless.– The one thing that you can know for sure is that you exist \u2013 that is Turiya, the knowing quality of being.– Every Day you sleep and within sleep there is Deep Sleep and the experience of Blankness, within sleep you also dream as the Dreamer and the Dreamer\u2019s World and you experience Waking Consciousness as the Waker and the Waker\u2019s World.– Waking Consciousness is the most solidified form of Consciousness. This is the state of consciousness that is experienced at least two-thirds of the time. For most people this experience is distorted by the super-imposition of the mind\u2019s mistaken conclusion that he or she is a localized form that is separate from other people and things.While it is true that the Waking State appears as a localized Waker that is separate from the Waker\u2019s World, it is not true that the true nature of your being is limited to the Waking State of Consciousness. This is unquestionably clear when you see the simple fact that you experience other states of consciousness every day, and that the experience of these distinct states of consciousness is proof that you are simultaneously Fully Human and Fully Spiritual.The Spiritual aspect of your being cannot be objectified as stated earlier, yet it is not unknowable and it is realized when you see that what you are is unknown, or emptiness, expressing Itself as all that which is objectified and thereby knowable.And this is also confirmed via your daily experience. For example: When you smell a rose you do not say, \u2018My nose senses the scent of the rose\u2019 as there is simply the experience of the rose\u2019s scent. After the fact you may super-impose the idea of a nose that senses it, because when your eyes are open, you see the rose as a form that is separate from you, yet when you close your eyes, there is only the experience of smelling as the scent of the rose.Similarly, on hearing a beautiful piece of music or hearing an extraordinary singer you do not say, \u2018My ears hear the music or the singer\u2019 as there is only hearing at this moment. Again, when your eyes are open you may falsely conclude that the musicians and singer are separate from you, yet when you close your eyes there is only hearing.Once this is clear and you then open your eyes again, all there is, is seeing.In these examples you also see that the idea of some separate form sensing via a particular sense door is added to the experience by the super-imposing activity of the mind as it describes the experience.Ancient sages have stated the true nature of your being in Mahavakyas, which means Great Statements. There are four Great Statements in ancient Sanskrit texts, and the one that I feel best fits with what I\u2019ve shared thus far appears in the Chandogya Upanishad as, \u2018Tat Tvam Asi\u2019, which means: That Thou Art.In Krishnamurti\u2019s words this is the fact that, \u2018The Observer is the Observed\u2019 or simply you are that which is appearing now.In summary, your True Nature Itself cannot be objectified, yet like Love, Energy and Om it is not unknowable. Like Love, Energy and Om, it is your nature to express yourself as what you do. What you do, how you appear, is the objectification of your true nature in degrees of density and most solidly as a body, mind and world in Space and Time, and this is the means whereby you Know Yourself as simultaneously Fully Human and Fully Spiritual.In this light, for you Spiritual Awakening\u2019s answer to the question, \u2018Who am I?\u2019 is, I am known via how my true nature appears! I am simultaneously Fully Human and Fully Spiritual. My Human Form is temporary; my Spiritual Being is limitless. In Biblical terms this stated as, \u2018I AM THAT I AM\u2019.#spiritual_awakening @spiritual_awakening"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Spiritual Awakening  – What Spiritual Awakening Feels Like","item":"https:\/\/jamestraverse.com\/spiritual-awakening-2\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]