Sorting Out Dawning and Realization

         There are two similar experiences in the spiritual process that I think are important to distinguish because I have heard both referred to as “awakening experiences”, yet one occurs at the beginning of ego’s undoing and the other at the end. While they have a lot in common, they are obviously distinct stages.

The first one is equivalent to the Period of Undoing in A Course in Miracles. (See the Manual for Teachers, Development of Trust, M-4.I.A). This is when Truth (God) dawns in your conscious awareness, transcending mere intellectual belief, and you know It is real and you know It is within you. You may not yet know It is all that is real, but It is here now in your awareness and will not leave you. This can be a joyous time, though not always wholly as it is often accompanied by a sense of loss, within as well as in your material life. And ego is threatened, although its full resistance to this dawning awareness may not come until later.

You may have mystical experiences that transcend ordinary experiences, like seeing Love, Unity, or the Light of Christ. You may become aware of what the Course calls the real world and may even feel in another dimension for a short while. You feel changed, maybe even transformed. You may use words like “weird”, “strange”, and “disorienting” to describe your new experiences, although you are fascinated by them. You may be happy but uncomfortable at the same time.

 You may feel something is gone in you because you are so different. People and interests drop away because your values have certainly changed, and for a while you may be willing to give up everything to devote yourself to Truth. Or you may just want to pare down your life, simplify it. You want more time to meditate, study, or to just be. The people closest to you know that something has changed. Some may be interested, others threatened because you have become somewhat detached from what used to interest you, and maybe even detached from them. You find you are not upset as easily as you were before. And when you are, it passes quicker. You may feel everything is happening easily for you, or that you are guided by Something within. You feel loved and taken care of.

You may have some or many of these experiences when Truth dawns. When you hear of or read of others’ awakening experiences, much of it is familiar to you. You may have many realizations about the nature of consciousness, ego, and Truth.

But even though you have experienced a significant shift, you have not yet shifted out of ego-consciousness. You have shifted to an awareness of Truth while ego is still the center of consciousness, and a strong sense of personal identity remains.

The dawning experience is a taste of realization, but that is all. You now know it is possible, but it is not happening yet—if it is to happen for you at all. So, eventually, this magical, mystical time passes. It can last for months to years, but eventually ordinary life seems to take over again. Of course, it does not do so wholly, because you are different, just not as different as you may have thought you were. Truth is in your awareness now and you cannot unknow It, yet you have not yet realized It. You are now living in the conscious awareness of the split nature of consciousness, ego and Spirit (Truth).

Many have the dawning experience. They may have it while on a spiritual path or it may precipitate a spiritual journey. It hails the beginning of a new spiritual life and will characterize the rest of their lives, even if there are times they seem to be “off the path.” But they are never off the path. If they live it consciously, they will develop into a Spirit-centered person, still in the split mind, but always with recourse to Spirit for relief from ego.

Fewer will reach realization (the Periods of Unsettling and Achievement in the Course). This is when ego falls away, the personal identity is gone, and everything experienced during the dawning stage comes to fruition. One shifts into another dimension and remains there. So, there is no return to ordinary life, no matter how one’s material life looks. Though difficult at first—like the dawning episode on steroids—the remaining structures of ego are undone over time. The lovely experiences of dawning, like mystical experiences of Love and Unity, feeling totally taken care of, ease, and detachment, are the new life.

Though the dissolution of ego is still a process and can take many years, there is no longer any sense of personal or spiritual growth as the personal identity is gone. The person (body and personality) continues to play a part in the Atonement, but the center of consciousness is Spirit, not ego or the person.

If possible at all, it would be extremely rare for realization to happen without preparation, as the process of ego falling away is raucous, and some detachment from it through an awareness of Spirit is necessary first. When realization does come, it is generally years, even decades, after dawning.

Of course, it is very painful to mistake a dawning experience for realization. If you have the experiences described but have not yet experienced years of detachment from ego through an awareness of Spirit, you are likely in dawning. This applies to those you hear about as well, even some popular teachers. Some spiritual students describe teachers having a “sudden awakening”, by which they mean realization (hoping it can happen for them this way), but these teachers describe a long process that followed. They experienced dawning and may have become an advanced Spirit-centered teacher, but their minds are still split until the delusion of ego falls away. There are many practices for detaching from ego but only Spirit undoes ego.

Put simply, the difference between dawning and realization is that realization is “no longer two but one.” After dawning, you still live in the world as though it is real, even if you are aware of Truth. After realization, you live in Truth and watch the illusion of the world. 

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