We adults were born into a world saturated in an old paradigm of religious dogma.  In many ways those teachings were very beautiful for their time.  But humanity needs something more now.  Why?  Because we are evolving.  The “Great Awakening” everyone is talking about is a new level of Truth that humanity is beginning to feel and know.  This is our journey from the head to the heart.  It is our journey from “me” consciousness to “we” consciousness.

I will be referring to All That Is as “God” in this article. Please feel free to replace this name with whatever term you feel comfortable with.

I was raised as a Christian: Sunday church, religious schools… the whole bit.  These teachings were very traditional, and even conservative.  I learned much and I received a solid foundation of spiritual understanding.  I learned that God is love.  I learned to treat my neighbor as I would like to be treated.  I learned to give, and to help, and to serve.  I learned to pray.  It was a beautiful education, and one which shaped who I am.

As I got older, I began to realize that my understanding of God wasn’t really as comforting to me as my religion promised.  My view of God as a punisher/rewarder was causing me pain and blocking my growth.

My idea of hell felt scary, and my prayers weren’t bringing the results I had been told to expect.

My traditional beliefs were sometimes even making me feel bad about myself, about the world, and about God himself.  I was uncomfortable.  I felt guilty.  I saw myself as a failure.  I was angry at God and felt trapped in my body and imprisoned on this harsh place called Earth.

At this point I had two ways to look at things.

Either I was going to make myself bad, wrong and unworthy (again), or I was going to expand my notion of what God is.  So I began searching my heart for new answers. 

I had a great awakening.  My heart burst open and I began to see the world, God, myself and other humans through a new lens of vastly expanded acceptance and love.   As we continue to open to more Truth, we notice that we arrive in various stations of consciousness along the way. 

The Great Awakening is opening humanity’s heart to the fullest degree.  And from that open state, new and inspiring realizations are dawning upon people about the nature of God, reality, the universe, and sentient beings everywhere.  These expanded ideas are the cutting edge of human consciousness in our modern time.

When the heart awakens, it KNOWS new things.  These insights are a natural result of the flowering of the heart chakra.  The following are the 11 central spiritual Truths that emerge from an awakened, heart.

1) God (All That IS) is our creator.   He is pure love.  He is capable of presenting himself to humans as personal, but He is, at the same time, impersonal, eternal, and unfathomable. He is all that is in every level of existence, physical and non-physical.  God and his creation are ONE.  There is only one being here.

2) God first created humanity, then WE created the world we’re experiencing and all the drama in it. 

3) All of the world that we see is a dream. In reality, we are still with God in heaven – safe – and we are dreaming all of this.

4) Everything we experience in life is a mirror of our own inner beliefs. God does not get involved with this process. He simply allows it to happen as we dream it up.  This is the meaning of “free will”.

5) God doesn’t reward or punish us.  We do that to ourselves by judging ourselves as “good” or “bad”.  God just loves and accepts us in whatever we choose to be, think or feel.

6) Hell isn’t a place – it’s a state of mind.  It is the state of mind we go into when we veer away from the Truth. It feels bad because we (mistakenly) believe we are separate from God.

7) It’s not God’s job to make sure we feel or know him.  God is always present.  God is always revealing Himself to us.  It’s our job to open to his presence.

8)  Prayer is important, but it doesn’t work the way may have been taught.  God doesn’t grant requests.  When we pray for help from God, it opens us to be able to feel His presence.   Things change in our life when we open to His love.  

9)  God is always with us. He does not abandon us.  We are the ones who abandon God. We dream of a world that is scary and separate, forgetting we are in the arms of our beloved at all times. 

10) Just like the traditional religions teach, there are higher worlds than this one. Like the movie, Inception, these worlds look like nesting dolls – a dream within a dream within a dream. 

11)  To move on to the next world after death only takes one thing: forgiveness.  We do not have to be perfect.  We do not have to perform glorious feats of holiness.  We do not have to punish ourselves for mistakes we have made.  We must only forgive.  You’ll know when you’re doing it because you’ll feel acceptance for all things, which brings a feeling of peacefulness.  Forgiveness makes us feel peace.

So, basically, humanity is on the cusp of learning two things:

1) that we are responsible for our own experience

and

2) that the only real choice in life is either to love and forgive or not.

I have the power to choose.

I can choose to love and forgive myself instead.

The “Great Awakening” is the process of powering up the Human Heart to its fullest capacity.  For the first time, humanity is ready to engage the heart center to love ourselves fully, forgive ourselves fully, accept others fully, and finally let go of all the shame, guilt, and hell we’ve been living in for thousands of years.

 

Paige Bartholomew is a Licensed Psychotherapist, Sufi Master Teacher and passionate advocate for the healing of all souls.