The Journey Back to Unity and Our Enlightened Nature! (3 of 7)
The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment – Part 3 of 7
The world can feel darker now than it has in a long time. War, climate crisis, economic uncertainty – the news streams in like an endless flood of problems without solutions. In the midst of all this, many of us are searching for something more. A counterweight. A way out of the darkness.
In this article – the third in the series on the path to spiritual enlightenment – I take you on a journey back to something you already have within you. Something you may have forgotten, but never lost.
As a child, you were in contact with your complete nature. You experienced joy without reason, curiosity without limits, bliss that was simply there. But as you grew up, layer upon layer of expectations, rules, and others’ opinions settled over this original, pure mind.
The joyful child was buried. But it was never destroyed.
In this article, we explore how you can find your way back – through the developmental journey of the chakras from root to crown, through the transformative power of shamanic death, and past the many shortcuts that promise rapid enlightenment but never deliver.
When the World Feels Dark – There Is an Alternative
The world can seem darker now than it has in a long time.
War. Climate crisis. Political chaos. Economic uncertainty. Pandemics. Artificial intelligence threatening jobs. Social media that divides more than it unites. The news streams in like an endless flood of problems without solutions – day after day, week after week, year after year.
And in the midst of all this, you and I must navigate daily life.
We have to pay bills. Perform at work. Take care of those we love. Stay healthy. Maintain relationships. Find time for ourselves. And somehow – in the middle of all this – we’re supposed to find meaning in it all.
It’s no wonder if you feel overwhelmed.
It’s no wonder if you sometimes wake up at night with a knot in your stomach. If you feel a vague unease you can’t quite put into words. If you ask yourself: “Is this all there is? Is this life?”
I know that feeling. I’ve been there myself.
In 2003, I collapsed completely. A life-threatening burnout that doctors couldn’t explain or treat. I was a successful civil engineer and businessman – everything looked perfect on the outside. But on the inside, I was dying. Literally.
It was only when everything fell apart that I found my way to something deeper. Something that not only saved my life but transformed it completely.
Here’s what I’ve learned through more than twenty years as a shaman, and through my own journey from rock bottom to deep inner peace:
There is a counterweight to the darkness.
Not as an escape from reality. Not as an excuse to ignore the world’s problems. But as a deeper presence within reality – a presence that gives you the strength to face challenges without being crushed by them.
The path to spiritual enlightenment is not a distant, mystical idea reserved for monks in faraway monasteries or gurus on mountaintops in the Himalayas. It’s a practical, grounded path back to something you already have within you – something you may have forgotten, but never lost.
“Where light fills existence, darkness cannot exist.”
This isn’t poetry. It’s not a beautiful turn of phrase or a nice quote to hang on the wall. I mean it literally.
In a state of spiritual enlightenment, you don’t experience anxiety in the same way. Pain loses its grip. Hopelessness disappears. Not because the problems in the world vanish – they’re still there – but because you see them from an entirely different place.
From a place of deep inner peace and clarity.
From a place where you know – not just believe, but truly know – that you are more than your body, more than your thoughts, more than your history. That there is a dimension of you that can never be harmed, can never die, can never lose its essential goodness.
Does it sound too good to be true?
I understand the skepticism. As a civil engineer, I was the most skeptical of all. I didn’t believe in anything I couldn’t measure, weigh, or prove. “Spirituality” was a word I associated with naivety and escapism.
But after walking this path myself, and after helping thousands of others on their journey, I know this is possible. Not just for a chosen few. For all.
It takes work. It takes time. It takes the courage to look yourself in the eyes. But the reward is a life that is fundamentally different – a life filled with meaning, peace, and deep joy, regardless of what happens around you.
The Joyful Child You Once Were
Do you remember?
The first months of your life. Perhaps you don’t have conscious memories from that time – almost none of us do – but your body remembers. Your cells remember. Your soul remembers.
During that period, life was filled with pure curiosity.
Everything was new. Everything was fascinating. The light falling through the window. The sounds from the world outside. The feeling of warm hands holding you. You didn’t need anything special to be happy. Happiness was simply there – as a baseline state.
Joy without reason. Bliss that wasn’t dependent on external circumstances – only on having basic needs met.
You didn’t need to achieve anything to feel worthy. You didn’t need to perform to be whole. You didn’t need to prove anything to anyone.
You were in contact with your complete nature.
In the first article of this series, “The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment – Your First Birth – The Original Pure Mind”, I introduced the concept of “Sahara” – the vast, timeless and spaceless dimension of yourself that exists in what we call Unity.
Let me explain this image more fully, because it’s crucial to understand:
Think of yourself as one desert. An infinite desert stretching in all directions. The Sahara. Millions of square kilometers of sand, sun, and silence.
Now – pick out a single grain of sand from this desert.
This grain of sand is your material existence. Your body. Your thoughts. Your emotions. Your history. All the experiences you’ve had. All the memories. All the dreams. Everything you think you are.
A single grain of sand.
But the desert? The infinite desert surrounding the grain of sand on all sides? That is who you truly are. Your timeless, spaceless, infinite nature. Your Sahara.
Most people live their entire lives in this one grain of sand.
They worry about the grain of sand. Defend it. Decorate it. Compare it to others’ grains of sand. Desperately try to make it bigger, better, more impressive, more successful.
They fight over the grain of sand. Suffer for the grain of sand. Sometimes they hate their grain of sand and wish they had a different one.
Without realizing they’re surrounded by an infinite desert of possibilities.
As a child – before the ego was fully formed – you had a natural connection to this desert. You didn’t know you were limited to the grain of sand. You experienced existence from a much larger place.
That’s why children have such a capacity for wonder and joy. They haven’t yet learned to believe they’re only the grain of sand.
What Happened to the Connection?
As you grew up, something happened gradually.
Your ego began to form. This is a natural part of human development – we need an ego to function in the world. The problem isn’t the ego itself, but that we confuse the ego with who we are.
You learned what was “right” and “wrong” – not just morally, but in every possible way. The right way to dress. The right way to speak. The right things to think. The right things to feel.
You absorbed others’ opinions as if they were truths. Parents’ expectations. Teachers’ evaluations. Friends’ judgments. Society’s demands.
Rules. Norms. Prejudices. Expectations. Taboos. “This is how it’s done.” “That’s not how it’s done.” “What will people say?” “You have to be realistic.”
All of this settled like layer upon layer of dust over your original, pure mind.
Think of it as a mirror that gradually becomes covered in grime. The mirror is still there, as clear and pure as ever. But the dust makes it so you can no longer see the reflection clearly.
The joyful child was gradually buried under all of this.
Not destroyed – but hidden.
As an adult, most things are about functioning. About surviving. About succeeding according to standards that may never have been your own. You wake up. Go to work. Come home. Stare at a screen. Sleep. Repeat.
Routines take over. A certain numbness sets in – not dramatic, just a gradual dimming of life’s colors. Conflicts fill daily life – at work, at home, in the news. And the darkness – that creeping darkness that drains your energy and joy – begins to permeate not just you, but the entire society we live in.
But the child is still there.
Hidden beneath the layers. Waiting. Hopeful. Ready to be found again.
And sometimes – in glimpses – you can feel it. In a moment of deep stillness. In the face of nature’s beauty. In a child’s laughter. In moments of genuine connection with another human being.
Then you sense that there’s something more. That life can be different. That you can be different.
It’s not an illusion. It’s a glimpse of the truth.
The Path Back to the Light
To find your way back to your original, pure state, you must do something active.
This is perhaps the most important thing I can tell you: It doesn’t happen on its own.
You can’t wait for it to come to you. You can’t hope it will happen by chance. You can’t buy it, inherit it, or receive it as a gift.
It requires conscious effort. Systematic work. A willingness to face what has built up inside you over the years – not to fight against it, but to see it, understand it, and integrate it.
Society has built barriers around you. All the expectations. All the roles you play. All the identities you’ve taken on. Everything that defines you in others’ eyes – and perhaps in your own.
Your ego has built even more. Defense mechanisms. Strategies for avoiding pain. Ways to keep the world at a distance. Masks you’ve worn so long you’ve forgotten they’re masks.
These walls may feel safe – they protect you from pain, rejection, disappointment. They’ve served a function. They’ve helped you survive.
But they also shut out the light.
So how do you begin?
The First Steps
By cultivating inner stillness. Not as an escape from life, but as a foundation for meeting it. Stillness is not the absence of sound – it’s the presence of something deeper. In stillness, you can begin to hear yourself again.
By practicing deep meditation. And I mean truly deep meditation – not just five minutes with an app while half-checking your phone. Real, silent, transformative meditation where you learn to be with yourself, without distraction, without agenda, without anything to achieve.
By looking honestly at yourself and your life. Not to judge or criticize, but to see clearly. What’s working? What isn’t? What patterns keep repeating? What pains are you carrying that you’ve never processed?
By daring to feel what you’ve avoided feeling. Most of us carry emotions we’ve pushed away because they were too painful. Grief. Shame. Anger. Fear. These emotions don’t disappear – they’re stored in the body, in the mind, in the soul. To become free, you must be willing to meet them.
Slowly, but surely, you can find your way back.
It’s like washing the dust off a mirror, layer by layer. The more you wash, the clearer the reflection becomes. The more you work, the more of the original light begins to shine through.
This is not an easy journey. I won’t lie to you about that.
There will be days when you feel like you’re going backward. Periods when everything feels harder than before you began. Moments when you want to give up and return to the numbness.
But it’s a journey worth taking. Because it’s not just about you – it’s about everyone you touch. It’s about contributing to a better world by becoming a more radiant person yourself.
Shamanic Death
In the second article of this series, “The Prerequisite for Your Second Birth – Healing “The Dark Night of the Soul” Through a Shaman Death”, we examined one of the most crucial phases on the path to enlightenment.
The dark night of the soul.
Perhaps you’ve already been there. Perhaps you’re there now. Perhaps you recognize the description even if you’ve never had words for it before.
It’s that period when nothing makes sense anymore. When the old motivations – career, money, status, even family – lose their power. When everything you thought you knew about yourself and life falls apart like a house of cards in the wind.
The old strategies for keeping yourself together stop working. You can no longer distract yourself. You can no longer pretend. The mask you’ve worn so long begins to crack.
Most people flee from this state.
They medicate it away with pills or alcohol. Distract themselves with work, entertainment, or busy schedules. Fill their lives with noise to escape the silence. Throw themselves into new projects, new relationships, new goals – anything to avoid feeling the emptiness.
But here’s the secret no one told you:
This dark night is a gateway.
Beyond it lies the light. Not despite the darkness, but through it.
Shamanic death is about meeting and overcoming your deepest fears. The imprints you’ve carried since childhood without knowing it. Traumas that have shaped you without your awareness. Karma – the repeating patterns – that have bound you to certain ways of reacting, feeling, and acting.
By confronting these parts of yourself – not fighting them, but truly seeing them, feeling them, and integrating them – something begins to happen.
The old walls begin to fall. Stone by stone. The illusions the ego has created dissolve. The identities you thought were you turn out to be just clothes you were wearing – clothes you can take off.
It takes courage. It takes patience. It takes a willingness to let go of old patterns and beliefs – even those that have felt like “you” your entire life.
But on the other side awaits something you can barely imagine:
A higher state of consciousness where light, love, and joy replace darkness, fear, and pain. Not as a temporary feeling, but as a new baseline state. A new way of being in the world.
Shortcuts to Enlightenment That Don’t Work
Many wants the quick route. The solution that requires the least effort. Enlightenment in three easy steps. Transformation over a weekend. A pill that fixes everything.
I understand the temptation. Really. We live in a time when everything is supposed to happen fast. When we’re accustomed to instant gratification. When patience feels like a lost art.
But here’s the hard truth:
This is exactly why 99.9% of those who start on a spiritual path never reach their destination.
They look for shortcuts. And the shortcuts only lead them further from the goal.
Not because the universe is punishing them. But because real transformation cannot be shortcut. It’s like trying to skip winter to get to spring faster. Nature has its own rhythm. So does the soul.
Let me show you the most common traps – and explain why they don’t work:
1. Superficial Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation is a powerful tool. I’ve practiced it daily for over twenty years, and it has been fundamental to my own transformation.
But here’s the problem: Most of what’s sold as “meditation” today isn’t really meditation.
Five minutes with an app while half-checking your phone is not meditation. Listening to a guided visualization while your thoughts wander is not meditation. Sitting still and feeling stressed about not doing it right is not meditation.
It’s relaxation with spiritual packaging. And relaxation is good – we all need more of it – but it’s not the same as real spiritual transformation.
Real meditation practice is about silencing the mind completely – not just calming it down a bit. It’s about achieving states where thoughts stop entirely. Where you rest in pure awareness without any content.
This takes time. It requires systematic training under qualified guidance.
Superficial meditation can even become a form of escapism. You feel slightly better afterward – a bit calmer, a bit more relaxed – and use it as an excuse not to address the real problems and blockages hindering your growth.
You get an illusion of progress without real change.
2. Spiritual Consumerism
In our time, it’s easy to fall into the trap of consuming spirituality as if it were entertainment.
You buy books. Lots of books. They sit on the shelf looking impressive. You may have read some of them – at least started them.
You sign up for courses. You attend workshops and retreats. You follow gurus on Instagram and YouTube. You might have an impressive collection of crystals, oracle cards, incense, and Tibetan singing bowls.
All of this can create a feeling of progress. Of being “on the path.” Of being a “spiritual person.”
But if the knowledge doesn’t become lived experience – if it isn’t anchored in your daily life and leads to real changes in how you live, feel, and act – it remains just intellectual entertainment.
You know a lot about spirituality. But you don’t live it.
Spiritual enlightenment requires that you move from theory to practice. That often means making difficult choices. Changing deeply ingrained habits. Confronting uncomfortable truths about yourself. Letting go of things – perhaps even people – that don’t serve your growth.
It’s much easier to buy another book.
3. Social Media Gurus
Social media is full of “spiritual teachers” with impressive followings and polished images.
They sit in meditation poses on beautiful beaches. They share wisdom quotes in graphics with sunset backgrounds. They have perfect homes, perfect bodies, seemingly perfect lives.
Some of them offer valuable insights – I’m not saying everything on social media is bad. But the format creates an illusion of rapid progress that doesn’t match reality.
Short videos. Digestible quotes. Perfect moments. All designed to capture your attention for a few seconds before you scroll on.
Real enlightenment cannot be conveyed in a 60-second reel. It requires depth. Time. A personal practice that goes far beyond what any influencer can give you.
And dependence on external guidance – no matter how inspiring – keeps you attached to others’ light instead of finding your own.
You can’t become enlightened by watching someone else who is. You have to walk the path yourself.
4. Psychedelics and Substances
This is perhaps the most controversial point, but it must be said clearly.
Yes, psychedelic substances can open the door to powerful experiences. Glimpses of something greater. Insights that feel profound in the moment. Many report having “seen God” or experienced “unity with everything.”
But they are no substitute for the continuous, deep inner work required for lasting transformation.
Here’s the problem: A psychedelic experience is like taking an elevator to the top of a mountain. You get to see the view. It can be spectacular, life-changing, unforgettable.
But when the effect wears off, the elevator takes you back down.
You haven’t built the muscles needed to climb up yourself. You haven’t learned the way. You haven’t integrated the experience into your daily consciousness.
Psychedelic experiences can also be overwhelming. They can be misunderstood. And without proper integration – which requires months or years of work – they can lead to more confusion and disillusionment, not less.
Some end up chasing the next experience, the next trip, instead of doing the real work. They become addicted to the elevator.
Real enlightenment isn’t about visiting higher states. It’s about living there. Permanently. And that requires walking the path on foot.
5. Spiritual Bypassing
This is perhaps the most insidious trap of all – because it’s so well camouflaged.
Spiritual bypassing is when you use spiritual practices and concepts to avoid uncomfortable feelings, traumas, and problems.
You focus on “light and love” to avoid feeling the pain. You talk about “letting go” without having done the work of actually processing what you’re releasing. You say “everything happens for a reason” as a way to avoid feeling the grief.
You use positivity mandates as a shield: “Think positive!” “Stay high vibe!” “Don’t let yourself be dragged down!”
It looks like progress. It feels like progress. You can even convince others – and yourself – that you’re very spiritually developed.
But it’s actually the opposite.
The unprocessed material doesn’t disappear. It gets stored. It festers. And sooner or later it comes up – often at the most inconvenient times, often in distorted form.
Real spiritual growth requires that you meet everything within you – including what is painful, shameful, and difficult. Not to dwell on it. Not to identify with it. But to see it, feel it, and integrate it.
Only what is fully felt can truly be released.
6. Misuse of Shaktipat
Shaktipat – the transmission of spiritual energy from a master to a student – can be a powerful experience on the path to enlightenment. I have experienced this myself, and it can be genuinely transformative.
But when sought as a shortcut, it becomes a trap.
Some become addicted to the ecstatic experiences. They chase the next “hit” of energy, the next rush of bliss, the next meeting with the master. They travel from retreat to retreat, from guru to guru, seeking the next experience.
But they never do the necessary inner work themselves.
Without proper preparation and understanding, shaktipat can even create confusion and imbalance. Energy that’s awakened without a prepared system to receive it can lead to problems – physical, emotional, and psychological.
Real enlightenment requires personal commitment to continuous practice and self-reflection – not dependence on external energy transmissions.
The master can open the door. But it’s you who must walk through it.
The Only Path That Works
Real spiritual enlightenment is a deep, transformative process.
It requires patience. Perseverance. Willingness to confront the darkest parts of yourself. Humility to realize how little you know. Courage to continue even when it feels impossible.
There is no shortcut around this.
All attempts to skip the necessary work lead to an illusion of progress – not real awakening. You can fool yourself for a while. You can even fool others. But deep down, you know something is missing.
By avoiding these traps and instead committing to an honest, integrated practice, you can gradually open yourself to true enlightenment. The kind that brings lasting peace – not just moments of peace, but a peace that’s there even in the midst of life’s storms. Deep joy – not dependent on external circumstances, but springing from within. Clarity and understanding that changes everything.
The only path is through authentic self-exploration and healing.
It’s a journey that requires courage and commitment. But the reward? A life filled with deep meaning, clarity, and inner peace.
A life where you don’t just survive – but truly live.
Spiritual Enlightenment – The Developmental Journey from 1st to 7th Chakra
You are more than a physical body.
In addition to your material existence, you consist of a complex energetic structure.
72,000 nadis – energy channels running throughout your entire system, like an invisible network of light and information.
114 chakras – energy centers each with their own function, frequency, and role in your total consciousness. Of these, two are located outside the body, while 112 are within. We can work directly with developing 108 of them; the remaining four develop as a result of work with the others.
The seven main chakras each have 16 dimensions. One is connected to physical existence – the one we all know about. The other 15 open to spiritual dimensions most people never experience.
Let me take you through them, one by one:
1st Chakra – Root Chakra (Muladhara)
This is where the journey begins.
At the base of the spine, in the pelvic area, you’ll find the foundation of your entire existence. The root chakra is your connection to the earth, to the physical, to reality here and now.
Connected to the earth element, this chakra deals with the most fundamental things: Survival. Safety. Stability. Belonging.
Before you can climb higher on the ladder, you must feel safe and grounded down here. It’s no use seeking higher consciousness if you’re constantly in survival mode, worried about where the next meal is coming from or whether you’ll have a roof over your head.
Working with the root chakra means working with your roots. Family bonds – not necessarily the relationship to biological family, but your sense of belonging somewhere, to something, to someone. Financial stability – not wealth, but a basic sense of security. Physical health – taking care of the body that is your temple in this incarnation.
Many spiritual seekers want to skip this. They think it’s “too material,” “too earthly,” “not spiritual enough.”
But a tree without roots falls over in the first storm.
2nd Chakra – Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana)
Just below the navel, you’ll find the center for emotions, creativity, and life energy.
Connected to the water element, the sacral chakra is about flow. About allowing emotions to move through you without stopping them or drowning in them. About embracing your creative power and expressing it in the world. About sexuality – not just in the physical sense, but as life force, as creative power.
When the root chakra is balanced – when you feel safe and grounded – you can begin to explore this deeper emotional dimension.
It’s about accepting your feelings. All the feelings – not just the “nice” ones like joy and love, but also anger, grief, fear, shame. Feelings aren’t good or bad in themselves. They’re energy in motion. And suppressed feelings create blockage.
It’s about expressing feelings in healthy ways. Not suppressing them. Not exploding with them. But letting them flow through you and out, like water through a stream.
And it’s about rediscovering the joy of life. The spontaneous joy that doesn’t need a reason. The creative impulse that just wants to create, express, play.
3rd Chakra – Solar Plexus (Manipura)
In the stomach region, your fire burns.
The solar plexus chakra is the center for personal power. Self-esteem. Willpower. The ability to set boundaries and take control of your own life.
Connected to the fire element, this is where you find your inner flame. Your drive. Your will to act, to create change, to stand up for yourself.
Many struggle here.
They give their power away. Let others decide who they should be and what they should do. Say yes when they mean no. Adapt to avoid conflict. Lose themselves in others’ expectations.
Working with this chakra is about reclaiming your power. Not over others – but over yourself. Your time. Your choices. Your life.
It’s about developing confidence without arrogance. Strength without hardness. Will without rigidity.
And it’s about balance: Personal power combined with compassion. Boundaries combined with openness. Fire combined with warmth.
4th Chakra – Heart Chakra (Anahata)
In the center of your chest, you’ll find the gateway between the earthly and heavenly aspects of yourself.
The heart chakra is the center for love, compassion, and forgiveness. Connected to the air element, it balances everything above and below – the three lower “earthly” chakras and the three upper “heavenly” ones.
This is perhaps the most important chakra of all. The heart is the ultimate gateway to the soul, to the divine, to who you truly are.
Opening the heart means loving – truly loving – both yourself and others.
Unconditionally. Without demanding that anyone be different than they are. Without needing anything in return.
It’s about forgiving old wounds. Not because those who hurt you deserve forgiveness. But because you deserve the freedom from carrying it any longer.
And it’s about cultivating empathy and kindness – not as a duty or a spiritual exercise, but as a natural outpouring of who you are when your heart is open.
5th Chakra – Throat Chakra (Vishuddha)
At the throat lies your voice. Your truth. Your ability to express who you truly are.
Connected to the ether element – the most subtle of elements – the throat chakra governs communication and authentic expression.
When the lower chakras are balanced – when you’re safe, in touch with your feelings, in your power, and with an open heart – you can begin to find your true voice.
Not the voice that says what others want to hear. Not the voice that holds back from fear of rejection or conflict. Not the adapted voice that has learned to say the “right” things.
But your authentic voice – the one that speaks clearly and honestly, listens deeply, and expresses your creative and spiritual insights without shame.
Many people have never found this voice. They’ve lived their entire lives with a false voice, an adapted voice, and don’t even know there’s something else.
6th Chakra – Third Eye Chakra (Ajna)
Between the eyebrows lies the third eye.
The third eye chakra represents insight and intuition. Connected to light (tejas), it gives you the ability to see beyond the physical senses and achieve deeper understanding.
When the lower chakras are in harmony – and this is important: they must be in harmony first – you can begin to open this center.
Then you develop your intuition. Not as magical mind-reading or predictions about the future, but as a deeper knowing that comes from a place behind the thoughts. A knowing that “just knows” without being able to explain why.
You cultivate spiritual awareness. You begin to experience dimensions of reality that physical eyes cannot see. You achieve clarity in your visions and understanding of yourself and the world.
Many spiritual people seek this chakra without having done the groundwork in the lower ones. They want the intuition, the visions, the psychic abilities – but they haven’t built the foundation. The result is often confusion, illusions, or in the worst case, psychological imbalance.
7th Chakra – Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)
At the top of the head – the connection to the divine.
The crown chakra represents your highest spiritual potential. Connected to pure consciousness, this is the gateway to enlightenment – to unity with all that is.
But here comes the crucial insight:
There is no direct path to developing the 7th chakra.
It’s a result – not a goal in itself. You can’t “work on” the crown chakra the way you work on the others. You can’t force it open with techniques or exercises.
When the other chakras and their 16 dimensions are opened and balanced – the next step happens not through effort, but through surrender.
You “leap into the unknown” – and the crown chakra opens.
Then you experience transcendental consciousness. Unity with all that is. The deep spiritual enlightenment that is the goal of all true spiritual practice.
Why You Need a Qualified Teacher
Every spiritual path can be described as a journey from the root chakra to the crown chakra. From earth to heaven. From survival to enlightenment. From the grain of sand to the desert.
There are many techniques and processes for moving energies from the 1st to the 6th chakra. Meditations. Breathing exercises. Yoga practices. Healing modalities. Self-exploration methods.
You can come far on your own. You can open much, heal much, transform much.
But from the 6th to the 7th chakra?
There is no concrete path.
In the yogic tradition, this transition is called “falling upward.” It’s a paradox: You fall, but you fall upward. You let go, but you reach higher.
It’s not something you can do by will or technique. No amount of effort can force it. You must either jump or fall into a bottomless pit where you have no idea what awaits you.
Think about it: Everything you’ve built up. All your identity. Everything you think you are. You must be willing to let go of it – without any guarantee of what will come in its place.
Many spiritual people believe that love and peace are the highest states. That’s because they’re stuck in the 6th chakra. They’ve come far – further than most. They experience deep meditation, intuition, spiritual insight. They feel love and peace.
But they haven’t taken the final leap.
And the truth is that there are states that transcend love and peace in ways impossible to describe with words. States where even the concepts of “love” and “peace” feel too limited. States of pure being, pure consciousness, pure existence.
The Final Leap
When you’re ready to take this leap – into the unknown, where everything is different from what you’re used to – you need one thing more than anything else:
A qualified spiritual teacher who has walked this path before you.
Not because you need someone to tell you what to do. Not because you’re incapable of finding the way yourself. Not because you’re weak or dependent.
But because this leap requires a trust so deep that you cannot jump without it.
You must trust that it’s safe to let go. That what you’re falling toward is better than what you’re leaving behind. That you won’t disintegrate, but become whole in a new way.
This trust cannot be built toward a book. Not toward a video. Not toward an idea. You can only build it toward another human being – a human being who has been there themselves, who knows the way, who can hold you through it.
Since the dawn of time, all great spiritual traditions and cultures have understood this. The relationship between master and student is not a coincidence. It’s not an outdated tradition from the past. It’s a necessity.
The final great leap into freedom cannot be made alone.
This is perhaps the most important reason why so few complete the journey. Not lack of will – many have enormous will. Not lack of ability – many are highly gifted. Not lack of knowledge – many know an incredible amount.
But lack of a qualified guide they have built deep enough trust with.
The Path Forward
In the next article in this series, we will look more closely at which paths you can follow to complete liberation in a state of spiritual enlightenment.
There are several trails up the mountain. Different traditions. Different methods. Different approaches.
But they have something in common: They all require that you walk them – not just read about them.
Knowledge without practice is like a map without taking a single step. You can study the map for years. You can become an expert on the map. But you won’t get anywhere.
The journey awaits. The question is whether you’re ready to begin.
