On the Journey of Being, there are steps or stages of awakening where we reach and embody significant shifts in the recognition of who we truly are. And with each step, we find greater peace, love, joy, and contentment.
There is a trajectory to these shifts, each of which reveals a higher order level of our being, and our perspective or view of reality. We are multi-dimensional beings. We exist on many layers simultaneously, each layer folded into the next layer of broader scope, like the rings of a tree trunk, with the outermost ring being the layer with the broadest perspective, and within which all the other ring layers reside. Our Journey of Being is the conscious recognition of these dimensional layers at broader and broader levels of our whole multi-dimensional existence.
The focus of our identity, of our sense of self, of our being, defines our stage of awakening. When the focus of our identity is at the ego level, we have not yet recognized, or awakened to, the broader order dimensions of who we are. As we awaken to each successive level, all the prior levels continue to exist and function. What has changed is that our sense of self, our identity, our being, has been recognized at a broader level. And at each level, we experience greater release from limitations allowing more peace, love, joy and contentment into our lives.
Starting from an ego-based identity, there are initially three major awakenings that can unfold on our Journey of Being.
The first is Self-Realization (or Cosmic Consciousness). Here we awaken to infinite Pure Conscious Being as our deepest sense of self. We are freed from the limitations of our ego-based identity. We experience great peace and happiness. And yet the world is unchanged. We relate to the world from our infinite sense of self, but still see the world as separate from us, though we may notice that the world is *contained* in Pure Conscious Being.
The next major awakening is the oneness of Unity Consciousness. Here we awaken to the reality that everything contained in Pure Conscious Being is none other than our self as well. We relate to the world not as separate from us, but as us. We *are* everything contained in Pure Conscious Being. We become one with everything.
The next major awakening is when we recognize that Pure Conscious Being itself resides in the Divine. We discover that Pure Conscious Being and everything in the world, including us, is actually the Divine appearing as us and the world.
And throughout each of these stages, our individuality remains intact, but we come to recognize that we are Divine eyes looking through us as windows into the world.
– Joel