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We are not merely the body, nor are we only the thoughts and the emotions. It is possible to detach ourselves from our thoughts and watch them. Try it now - ask yourself what you are thinking - and just watch the thought as it dissolves away.

So what are we if we are not the body, the emotions or the thinking? Well, all we can say with any accuracy is that we are some kind of consciousness that observes. Another, equally ambiguous, way of saying the same thing is to say that we are the spirit.

And yet what is this spirit -this inner eye that apprehends the thoughts? Is it big? Is it small? Where is it located in the body? Does it have mass? Is it even containable or measurable by spatial standards. No, it isn't! This "I", this spirit, that exists at our core, our heart of hearts is not so easy to define. And it certainly does not easily fit with the rational, materialistic scientific thinking of the west - which is probably why it barely gets a mention these days. But that is not to say that this was always the case...

Our spirit, our true nature, is not made of anything... It exists in the realm of the mind, the consciousness... It is peaceful, it does not react, it is ineffable, it is always present in the present moment, it just watches as impartial as a mirror -reflecting all - without condition.

The problem for people though is that we are very rarely identified with our spirit -we are more identified with our thoughts and very rarely do we realize that we are actually watching our thoughts from some other place.

So spiritual awakening is that time when we have an inner shift away from identifying with our body, the constructed social identity, our thoughts our prejudices our emotions, to an identification with this inner observer.

For if you stop to consider some of it's attributes, it's formlessness, it's omniscient nature, it's impartial loving nature, it's innocence and it's peace it starts to start a bit like some kind of deity - which is why i guess they say we are all shards of the same divinity...

So spiritual awakening is nothing to do with wearing sandals and sock combinations or hugging oak trees - or strapping explosives to yourself, or removing splinters from your brother's eye - it is purely and simply being yourself! Kids are good at it... until we mess with their heads! That is.

Learn more about this author, Jeremy Clancy.
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