How to deal with non-awake humans when you (start to) awaken

For humans on the path of Awakening, it is a challenge at times to find an approach to the non-awake humans they encounter in their lives. A good deal of sages, from Socrates to Rumi to Leonardo da Vinci, have been credited with statements along the lines of

“I awoke, only to find that the rest of the world was still asleep.”

That statement is one many who awaken will experience… and it is the statement that reveals the beginning of Awakening!

1. It is ‘but’ the Beginning

This is a challenging phase in Awakening, in that it seems difficult at times not to judge and condemn those “sleepwalkers”, “those who have eyes but are utterly blind [to the deeper Reality]”, “those [***]”.

I read it a lot in comments on Enlightenment or Awakening, or whatever you call the ‘real-isation’ of what Life & Reality is.

I have contemplated it a lot myself...

So here goes, how to approach non-awake humans when you awaken :

You start by accepting this “appreciation” of other humans – or rather “irritation” at them.

This is simply what happens when you start awakening to the nature of Reality and of This Universe... seeing the “obvious”.

I completely understand the feeling when “it” happens, as depicted in this drawing.
There you are, you “see”… and yet there are still people around you walking through their lives, through Life, with a proverbial blindfold on.

Accept that what you are seeing and experiencing as obvious, is only obvious to “you who sees”. Those who are still blindfolded, “asleep”, do not see what you see as “obvious”. Simply because they haven’t arrived at that stage in their life, in The Grand Story & Scheme of Things.
Yes, it is an irritating phase.
Yes, it is one where the awakening human being can doubt the usefulness of Awakening.

Yes, it can lead to despising the rest of humanity for the non-use of our species’ “special talent”.

But this whole phase is just the indication of the Beginning of the Awakening, when you start to see Reality for what it is : 

a kind of holographic story, a game,
played out through forms,

in a World of Forms

that is Itself not real but an Illusion

– “Maya” as it is called in Hinduism.

You may say that this is indeed what you have come to know… “but why then do I get irritated at these human sleepers?”. 

2. It is the mind that struggles, struggling to… 

You see, the human mind likes statements such as the above.

The human mind likes the theory, something the intellect can understand and analyse and get its head around. It provides food to the mind.

The mind is in this way useful for getting to Awakening, by asking questions, by contemplating everything. But the mind thinks it can grasp it all that way, when... it cannot.

That is why the mind keeps coming up with the thoughts that lead to that irritation, that questioning of the use(fulness) of awakening, that despising of “the sleepwalking others”. It’s the mind, and its mind stuff.

Despite all it has come to know and comprehend, all the theory,

[T]he mind approaches Reality from the perspective of Duality!

Awakening entails the realisation that there is only Oneness.

The advanced mind knows this, and knows it does this duality-separation thing. But it cannot help itself to analyse and keep analysing what it sees on the basis of the “me versus not-me” thing, “me the awakening one versus the asleep not-me’s”. The reason :

The mind, your mind, thinks… but it cannot experience by itself!

The mind can understand the Duality Rules of the Game : “there is a this to every that, there is an opposite to every complement, there is a yin for every yang, there is a North to every South, there is a reaction to every action etc.”.

But it cannot experience the Game according to the Rule of Oneness which forms the basis of the whole Game.

That is why the questioning of the usefulness of Awakening when surrounded by the non-awake, is formulated by the mind. It starts to understand what this whole Awakening thing means for itself, i.e. relinquishing the master-role, assigned an instrument-role :

“No longer the king but a servant.”

In the Beginning it feels like the picture above: there you are, awoken from a deep sleep, and yet so many still asleep.

As stated, that is just a phase.

In the full Awakening you are aware of the nature and extent of Ramana Maharshi’s response to the question: “What about ‘the others’?” …

“THERE ARE NO OTHERS!”

There are no others in this Grand Story, in this Ultimate Game played to the tune of ONENESS!

You can try to use your brain power to (try to) understand. You need it to get to the Beginning.

But then you come to the threshold the mind cannot cross by itself. You can only cross that threshold using another level of your being; it is something that is too big for the mind alone: true Oneness.

Full Awakening requires letting go of mind control and impeaching the mind as master.

“How can there be no others?” is a question that teases the mind. When it gets a glimpse of understanding, it feels comfortable again… until it contemplates the Vastness and Immense Calculating Prowess revealed through Creation, as symbolised for example by The Flower of Life.

Time and again the mind realises, “nooooo, I don’t have the control, there is no control”, and flees back into the level of perceived control in the Illusion of Duality. “Surely I have control when I just rule this little form, this little me”.

The human mind can understand the basics of all this. That is what makes it such a fantastic and wonderful gift of Creation.

3. Creation : dynamic and a multitude in One(ness)

One is baffled at the extent and intricateness of Creation, to manifest as It does.

The Flower of Life as depicted below truly is an apt symbol in this respect.

It also aids in grasping how to deal with the non-real others, in the Illusion of Duality & Separation, this illusion of Separatedness.

We are all Oneness, even though we experience ourselves as little bubbles or spheres in The One(ness). When we awaken we know ourselves to be interconnected… that means ALL of us!

Other spheres come to connect profoundly and closely, while others in the Vastness never touch.

Yet, even those who never touch are connected to all the others through the Vast Interconnectedness within The One Circle of all the little spheres, touching and overlapping and in this way being connected even to the spheres on the outer edges.

You are connected to every human, even those on the other side of the planet.

On top of that, our lives, just as the Flower of Life, aren’t static. They are dynamic. In our lives “spheres” (i.e. ”others”) come and go, connect and move on. All this under the direction of The Divine Oneness, a Dance choreographed by The Great Divine Choreographer.

Try to make a 3D visualisation of the below picture in your mind's eye, and make the spheres move around in your visualisation :

The thing is, you can be awake and understand "all of this" is an Illusion with capital "I"... but at the end of the day, or better, at the start of the day you still wake up as a form, one of those "spheres". When you are truly awake, you choose how the story of that day goes by choosing how you (inter)act with what and who you see in "your story of the day".
You can read up some more on this in my e-book “Symbolism and Sacred Geometry”, available through ttps://www.life-coach-healer.be/en/books.

4. Okay, okay, but what about these non-awake humans? How do I deal with me being awake and “them” not?

I should add the question: “how do I deal with the judgment of “them”, with the contempt at times?”

I would like to quote the recently deceased Stephen Hawking in this respect

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star.

But we can understand the Universe.

That makes us something very special.”

Stephen would have been forgiven for the reference to “monkeys” while humans are – anthropologically speaking – an advanced breed of “apes”.

Monkeys and apes share a common ancestor who split up ages ago, long before humans split off from the (other) primates branches. So you cannot really call an “ape” a “monkey” [humour intended].

This is not about dehumanising humans. On the contrary, it is about describing and defining the life form “human”, as very aptly done by Stephen.

So always bear in mind

“Humans are life forms generated by Nature, just like any other (life) form(s).”

There are life forms – other than primates – on this Planet that have a similar remarkable capacity for cognitive understanding, dolphins being a prime example. They have been found to be able to communicate with other sea mammal species https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/false-killer-whales-and-bottlenose-dolphins-swim-together-for-years/.

But – at least for now – we cannot say much about their understanding of the Universe we live in.

When you awaken you start to look at Life as a story played out through all these life forms that come and go. Life forms have offspring, forage, have some stress (when hunting or being hunted) and a good deal of fun in the process.

Humans have been taught to consider themselves above all of this… when in fact, we are not!

Awakened humans know this.

Non-awake humans go about their business in pretty much the same way as other mammalian life forms on this Planet do: eating, drinking, sleeping, producing and providing for offspring, and being entertained in between.

The difference between humans and the other life forms on this planet is as defined in the statement of Stephen Hawking, this one talent :

The capacity to contemplate the Beyond!

This capacity of ours is linked to our brain, our mind.

In this whole Story non-awake humans use their brain capacity to maintain the mammalian storyline of eating, drinking, etc.

They are life forms worthy of respect and Love as any other life form!

When you awaken you see Life, Reality – these are basically the same –, as a Play, a Story, a Game of all these created forms.

In this Play, this Story, the human form allows for "waking up", for seeing Reality for what It truly is: all a story,

Information turned in(to) form.

So when you awaken, approach the human forms who are not (yet) awake in your story from your knowledge that they are life forms in this Play, this Grand Story.

You cannot and need not wake them. They will in their own time.

Moreover, they show you something to appreciate in Life :

there you are, awakened to the True Nature of this Game, and

there they are, living as the form and not grasping that very Nature…

because they don’t have to, while at the same time the separation between

“you who know and see” and “they who know not and do not see”

is an Illusion!

Look at it as follows: it is a test of the extent of your Awakening.

If you truly see the Game of Creation, of Reality, then you know these non-awake humans aren’t “real”. They are what they are in the Story of Life.

In this Story, in the storyline you are experiencing as a form, they might awaken a bit later than you or never awaken in and as the forms that they are at present.

When you start to get irritated with them, for being sound asleep, for not realising their full potential as you strive(d) to do… that is an indication that you yourself have fallen (back) into the trap of looking at Reality as something “real”, and dual!

It indicates your awakening is not fully embodied in your form.

You got stuck in your mind, the biggest creator of Duality, of the “me and the not-me”, of the “me and the others”.

While there are no others in this Play, there is only Oneness, and what you see in Life is a reflection of what you are and contain within!

You “get” that when you descend from the mind, quieting the mind, and living & centring in your Heart. Only there can you complete the Awakening, only there can you

Be & Do Awake(ness)!

Your mind can still be used to understand more and more, but do not get stuck there.

Irritations with non-awake humans are an indication that you are stuck in your head instead of your Heart.

Approach the non-awake humans with Love, centring in your Heart holding the wisdom that at base there is only Oneness… even with these non-awake people who are not separate from you.

There is no “you” and “me”, there is only “WE”.. in Oneness, as expressions of The One(ness).

So approach the non-awake humans as the life forms that they are, a form like you and one form amongst a multitude of forms… be it that the human forms hold a fantastic potential towards Awakening. What a marvel of a creation.

In the Story you are living they have not yet arrived at the latter. But it is not up to your mind to decide for the other (life) forms in this Story, your story. Besides, the others are in you, just as you are in the others… reflections of what is within. The mind is not the best tool to “live” that insight.

Be happy that you, in your human form, have arrived at this knowledge.

Aim to embody it ever more, from your Heart rather than your mind, that generator of “me versus not-me”.

You might ask: “Pffff, what use is Awakening then? What benefit does it give me?”

Allow me to answer with a question: “Who is asking that question?”

Do you truly fathom what it means, to know that what you see – as an expression of the Only Seer There Is – is what you PROJECT? To understand that your form allows for this Play to be played?

That you are this form, the energetic system behind this form, and the Being that gives rise to All and is THAT WHICH DOES THE PROJECTING?

Apply the wisdom of Awakening and live your life accordingly: AWAKENED.

Awakened above all to your own inner functioning.

It is as the Zen proverb goes

The chopping of wood and carrying of water “After” is however a very different “chop wood, carry water”. It is done in an awakened state, with the Knowledge and Wisdom of all the Grace that gives rise to you being here, as a form, chopping that wood and carrying that water.
It is choosing the option that everything is a miracle in Albert Einstein’s statement.
If those who are not awake in the Story you are experiencing do not understand that as yet, so be it. Some day they will, but that is of no importance to you: YOU need to understand in your story, that suffices!

You are an awakened form amongst forms, in a Story of forms that is nothing more and nothing less than that: a Story!
Whatever presents itself to you in that Story, approach it from the knowledge of an Awakened Being:

“I, as the observer, and what I see, the observed, are One.”

What you observe is simply a mirror.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged”… because ultimately you only judge yourself through your judgment.

Strive to go about your business, awakened to the extent you are. Bearing in mind Rumi’s statement:

The forms might be different,

the light might shine more brightly through some than through others at present,

but all are part of THE ONE BIG STORY, having all these storylines in It!

Don’t follow your mind when it comes to non-awake humans. It will pull you back into non-awake Duality.

Use your mind as an instrument to understand, not to judge.

Follow your Heart; it will keep you Awake to the Oneness.

You can visualise how a vortex in your Heart swallows up all the thinking of your mind.

Like water spiralling down the drain, like a tornado sucking up all thoughts until only Stillness is left. And you can generate Love & Compassion for all, including those your mind labelled “non -awake”.

Plunge your mind into your Heart, then you will be able “to do” what Rumi stated:

None of this is real. What's the point then? Having fun in Creating.
Practice makes Awake!

It is what it is, and it will be what it will be.


Manu The Mirrorologist
www.life-coach-healer.com

*Just as a side note, size doesn’t really matter when it comes to “brains”. Earlier homo species had brain volumes bigger than that of homo sapiens sapiens, the current human species (the second “sapiens” is nowadays left out). It’s the functionality and the capacity for interconnections that make the difference, not so much the brain size.