Spiritual Awakening - Inspiration From The West

Journey alongside the transformative awakenings of notable figures from the West— including Carl Jung, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, and many others — as they move into states of profound realization and connectedness. Let their stories inspire your own path, as we explore universal themes like illusion, oneness, consciousness, and the light deep within us. Through reflection and journaling prompts, you'll be invited to explore your own journey of awakening with greater depth and presence.

The accompanying music soundtrack contains theta wave binaural beats, promoting brain waves that support deep relaxation and creativity. You may wish to bring headphones, a pen, and a journal to this contemplative session.

Music by Chris Collins, indiemusicbox

Transcript

Hello friends,

I'm Aine and I'm delighted to sit with you for this session on Spiritual Awakening Stories and Inspiration from the West.

We're going to be journeying alongside the transformative awakenings of various notable figures from the West,

Including Carl Jung,

Ram Dass,

Eckhart Tolle,

And many others as they move into states of profound realization.

Let their stories inspire your own path as we explore universal themes of oneness,

Illusion,

Consciousness,

And the light deep within each of us.

Through journaling prompts,

You'll be invited to explore your own journey of awakening with greater depth and presence.

The accompanying music soundtrack contains Theta Wave binaural beats.

These promote brainwaves that support deep relaxation and creativity.

So you might wish to pause the audio and grab headphones,

A pen,

And a journal for this contemplative session.

Let's start with our first story rolling back time about a thousand years to Hildegard of Bingen from Germany.

From as early as age three,

Hildegard began experiencing vivid visions.

By age five,

She understood these as divine communications.

Though she was initially hesitant about communicating these,

By her middle ages she received a powerful vision instructing her to write down everything she saw and heard despite her deep humility and her fear.

Throughout her life,

These celebrated writings continued,

Fueling not just others but herself.

Her work is a composer,

Theologian,

Abbess,

And a reformer,

Transforming her from a cloistered nun into a voice of healing.

In her own words,

Oh,

You who are ever giving life to all life,

Moving all creatures,

Root of all things,

Washing them clean,

Wiping out their mistakes,

Healing their wounds,

You are our true life,

Luminous,

Wonderful,

Awakening the heart from its ancient sleep.

What beautiful and inspired words.

And as we sit in the energy of those words,

We can move forward in time about three or four centuries and sit next with Joan of Arc.

Joan's story is a complex story,

Though rich with its own learnings.

Joan of Arc was born into a land-owning peasant family in a village in northeastern France.

At the age of 17,

She experienced divine visions,

Voices she identified as Saint Michael the Archangel,

Along with Saints Margaret and Catherine.

These visions urged her to seek Charles VII and offer support in liberating France,

Which was enmeshed in war at the time.

Moved by her fierce conviction and spiritual purity,

Charles granted her request and sent her to the besieged city of Orleans with a relief army.

When she arrived in April of 1429,

Bearing her banner and radiating courage,

She reinvigorated the dispirited French forces,

And just nine days later the siege was lifted.

Joan's story was not always a happy one,

But there's still so much that can be learned from it.

And there's a couple versions of a quote that's quite famous from Joan of Arc.

One goes,

I am not afraid,

I was born to do this.

And there's another interpretation that reads,

I do not fear the soldiers,

For my road is made open to me.

Regardless of which quote resonates with you,

The idea of falling into and surrendering to a calling that is deeper than anything else for us,

And the courage that that unlocks as our road opens up to us,

Is something that is beautiful and still true to this very day.

This would be a good opportunity for our first journaling prompt.

You are welcome to pause the audio after I share it.

Hildegard and Joan's stories both involve divine vision,

But this doesn't need to be something that we perceive outside of ourselves.

So here's your first prompt.

In my greatest moments of stillness,

What is the most joyful vision I've held for my own life?

In my greatest moments of stillness,

What is the most joyful vision I've held for my own life?

Feel free to pause the audio here,

And then we'll come back and share more stories of awakening from the West.

All right friends,

Let's move to a figure that's from the late 1800s,

Early to mid 1900s,

And that's Carl Jung.

In 1913,

Following a break with Freud,

Jung faced a psychological crisis of his own.

Visions of Europe awash in blood,

Which turned out to be heralding World War I.

Jung experienced a loss of time and identity and a deep confrontation with the unconscious.

He recorded his journeys in the Red Book,

A secret illuminated journal he kept hidden for decades to maintain his scientific credibility.

Through these visionary explorations and dialogues,

Jung intentionally engaged with his psyche,

Reclaiming parts of himself and embracing the numinous,

The raw uncanny presence of the psyche that was shaping his life's work.

In Carl Jung's own words,

The collective unconscious contains the whole spiritual heritage of mankind's evolution,

Born anew in the brain structure of every individual.

Here Carl Jung discovering for himself and sharing with us that there is a rhythm of life,

Knowledge,

Wisdom,

Information that runs much deeper than what each individual's experiences and mind can hold,

And yet able to be tapped into by the individual and for and from the collective.

And there are so many ways,

Friends,

To experience this sense of oneness,

Whether through layers of insight from the collective unconscious or in the form of the story as it was experienced in the early part of the 20th century by Thomas Merton.

After converting to Catholicism,

Merton entered a monastery seeking solitude,

But beyond his contemplative life,

He engaged deeply with Zen masters and interfaith colleagues.

Through prayer,

Silent retreats,

And an openness to a wide range of traditions,

He became a pioneering voice of interfaith dialogue,

Weaving heart and mind,

East and west,

His writings changed not only his spiritual path,

But also shaped modern interreligious understanding.

There's this wonderful experience of awakening that he shares,

So let's hear it from his own words.

In Louisville,

At the corner of 4th and Walnut,

In the center of the shopping district,

I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people,

That they were mine and I theirs,

That we could not be alien to one another,

Even though we were total strangers.

It was like waking from a dream of separateness.

He goes on,

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud.

Thomas then concludes,

Now I realize what we all are,

And if only everybody could realize this,

But it cannot be explained.

There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

This is another great opportunity to pause and do some reflection and contemplation.

Carl and Thomas's stories both center around a unified state of consciousness that we share as humanity,

A profound oneness that can shape our reality and our focus.

So here's your next journaling prompt.

In what situations have I felt the greatest state of oneness with others in my human family?

Again,

In what situations have I felt the greatest state of oneness with others in my human family?

Feel free to pause the audio and then we'll come back for some more inspiring stories.

All right friends,

Now a story from a wonderful spiritual teacher who actually just departed from the physical plane just a few years ago,

And that's Ram Dass.

He started his life as Richard Alpert,

And he was a Harvard professor whose career and identity were fractured through his experience with psychedelic research.

Seeking lasting transformation,

Something beyond mind altering substances,

He journeyed to India where he met Neem Karoli Baba,

Who he came to call Maharaji.

Maharaji's unconditional love and silent presence revealed higher consciousness without the use of drugs,

Inspired Ram Dass's return to the West to teach meditation,

Service,

And presence encapsulated in his immortal line.

We're all just walking each other home.

All right friends,

Another spiritual teacher,

This one who's still alive as of this time in 2025,

And that's Eckhart Tolle.

At age 29,

Eckhart Tolle found himself in the depths of depression.

One night while walking in London,

He felt a terrifying vortex in his chest and heard the internal command,

Resist nothing.

He said,

I can't do this anymore.

In that silent void,

His personal suffering dissolved,

And the next morning everything,

Traffic,

Trees,

Even air felt miraculous.

This awakened state lasted for years and became the foundation for his teachings in books like The Power of Now and A New Earth.

In Eckhart's own words,

At the heart of the new consciousness lies the transcendence of thought,

The newfound ability of rising above thought,

Of realizing a dimension within yourself that is infinitely more vast than thought.

You then no longer derive your identity,

Your sense of who you are,

From the incessant stream of thinking.

What a liberation to realize that the voice in my head is not who I am.

Eckhart Tolle's wife,

Kim Ng,

Has a story of awakening that's far less well-known,

But no less profound.

She shared this story during a retreat at Lake Louise in Canada in 2023,

Where she said that she woke in the night to a light emanating from her forehead and a voice asking,

Will you teach?

She sat in contemplation for a while and the voice asked again,

Will you teach?

When she finally said yes,

The light in her forehead stopped and the voice said,

Okay,

But you aren't ready yet.

She now teaches presence through movement alongside her husband,

Eckhart Tolle.

Here,

Friends,

Is a wonderful opportunity for a final journaling prompt.

Ram Dass,

Eckhart,

And Kim shared a variety of stories about guidance from a wise voice,

Either a guru,

One deep within,

Or one that appeared to come from without.

So here's a prompt for your contemplation.

What sources of wisdom have I found that resonate deeply within my soul?

Again,

What sources of wisdom have I found that resonate deeply within my soul?

Please feel free to pause the audio for as long as you like,

And then we'll wrap up together.

All right,

Friends,

Before we close out this session,

Let's bring in the beautiful voice of the poet Emily Dickinson.

She says,

The infinite,

A sudden guest has been assumed to be,

But how can that stupendous come,

Which never went away?

Here,

Emily encouraging us to recognize that spiritual awakening is happening continually for us in each moment.

For how could it be otherwise when we are all sitting always in this present moment in the pulsating energetic fabric of life?

As you reflect on your responses to the journaling prompts during this session,

What does it inspire you to do?

What actions or any changes to your own spiritual practice?

What's something new that you want to try?

A new wisdom source,

A new approach,

Maybe.

I hope you've really enjoyed this session,

Friends.

And if you did,

You'll be happy to hear that there's a separate recording about spiritual awakening stories and inspiration from the East.

Enjoy it,

My friends,

And I will see you next time.