A deeply spiritual exploration of awakened, no-mind states like non dual consciousness and furthermore, a deep experience of such states, is rarely ever fully satisfying and fully complete. While one may go on years living in a non dual state, rarely, does living in such an extraordinary state of consciousness acquit one of the inner, human “work” that such a shift in consciousness essentially makes available.

Many aspirants on the path get stuck in non duality, because this living quality of awakening is not brought into practice, or rather their awakening lies incomplete and unintegrated. Awakening itself simply pries open the gates to an opportunity of true enlightened living. This means that awakening is an active principle, a living, breathing, dynamic expression of Being.

An unintegrated path is often the result of years of disassociating with repressed emotional states and unprocessed energies. An extraordinary state of awareness, while it may reveal the inner connectedness and freedom of the essence of life, it still must be processed and worked through in the individual human system.

More likely than not, the enlightened state of consciousness will stimulate and set into motion an often intense and relentless release of one’s shadow. In some cases, this is more difficult than others depending on the amount of unprocessed energy.

While a state like non-duality or samadhi lends itself easily to no-form, beyond any and all manifestations, a cohesive and integrated process will indeed allow one to expose, meet, own, and become the very things that have become unconscious.

This is where Eastern spiritual traditions greatly fall short of their contributions to modern consciousness, and where the western psychological practices offer more of a holistic approach. Together, both the East and the West, have an incomprehensible amount of value to offer a genuine spiritual aspirant, because the integration of lower, repressed energies creates yet another opportunity, giving birth to an awakened life or “emptiness dancing”.

When true wisdom is brought into embodiment, the effect is a harmonious system that impacts the whole. When Being recognizes it’s unity, oneness, and interconnectedness with all of life, and also behaves in a way which acknowledges this unity, the impacts of its existence reach economic, political, multi-generational, ecological, and social spheres. This is where we get into an understanding that consciousness itself is evolving, and learning how to express itself in deeply harmonious ways. In fact, it also becomes clear and evident that consciousness is still relatively young and its shifts have been both slow and arduous.

Simply looking out at the state of the world, the current state of the psyche, and the individual human being’s eco system, we can see that there is immense opportunity and potential for each and every person’s awakening to shift and expose itself in broader and more radical territories that are conducive to human life in general.

Anyhow, I write this post today to give a larger perspective on the implications of extraordinary states of consciousness and to encourage aspirants to shift out of dogmatic, static, and conceptual realms that they so often find themselves in with spiritual teachings, practices, paths and conditioning.