Bear in mind Rip Van Winkle? These of us in the American English speaking portion of the globe who passed our high school years in the 1950s to 1970s do bear in mind him. He was the man who slept for 20 years in a hollow in New York. We knew him in our English Literature class.

For the younger generation who know practically nothing about Rip Van Winkle, right here is a really short summary. He was the principal character in Washington Irving’s story “Rip Van Winkle.” He was a Dutch American who did not want to perform for a charge. He just wanted to play. One day he was lost in the mountains of New York as it was then before the American Revolution and got into the business of the ghosts of Henry Hudson and his crew. He drank their drink and fell asleep. He woke up only immediately after 20 years, with a extended beard and an aged man. He goes back to his village only to find out it was no longer the very same as he left it. America was now independent from Good Britain. Following energy healing looking he discovered his loved ones.

The reason why I began with the story of Rip Van Winkle is mainly because he illustrates the person who sleeps for quite a few years, who is awakened only soon after sleeping these several years, that is, in his physique, the physical life.

In the spiritual life, like Rip Van Winkle most people today are asleep and unless somebody wakes them up they will continue on sleeping spiritually, probably for the rest of their life. Some of them will wake up only in eternity.

Right here are three approaches to know you’ve had a spiritual awakening. If you have not gone by way of these 3 methods, this suggests that you are nevertheless asleep, that is, spiritually, like Rip Van Winkle physically, and it is time for you to wake up.

And that is the distinction involving spiritual awakening and physical awakening. You cannot know that you are physically awake if you are asleep. You can not know that you are awake whilst you are still sleeping. But you can know that you have not but awakened spiritually. How? By reflecting on your life, no matter whether any of these strategies are present in your life. If they are not but present, then it suggests that you have not yet awakened spiritually. Recognizing this you can now need to awaken spiritually. And desiring to awaken spiritually is the step before basically awakening spiritually.

Thankfully, the strategies to know we’ve had a spiritual awakening are related to the ways to know we’ve had a physical awakening.

The first way to know that you are physically awake is by being aware of your surrounding, at initially indistinctly, then little by small, additional distinctly.

Even ahead of you open your eyes you can know that you are currently awake, that you are nevertheless in bed, that it is late in the evening or early in the morning, and so on.

Even so in spiritual awakening you are aware of the spiritual realities around you. You are aware that you are in a world of spiritual as effectively as physical realities. Once more, as in physical awakening, this awareness is at 1st indistinct, but as time goes on and as you proceed in our spiritual journey this awareness becomes clearer and clearer.

This awareness of spiritual realities around you might result as a consequence of a dissatisfaction with your present job, of a failure in business, of a loss of a loved 1, of a joyful encounter with a beloved. Whatever it is that triggers this awareness, you are produced conscious that not only physical, visible issues surround you but also spiritual, non-visible issues, like like or fear, inner peace or turmoil, joy or confusion.

Have you had this practical experience? If you have, then you have begun to awaken spiritually.

In physical awakening, after getting conscious of your surrounding the organic issue to do is to open your eyes and you see things about: the fading darkness or the onrush of sunlight, the furniture around the room, the light switch, the door, and so forth.

So also in spiritual awakening you open your spiritual eyes and perceive the spiritual realities about you: the strivings of human beings to strengthen their lives and seek ultimate happiness, the crimes committed in the search for some sort of satisfaction, the exultation and joys of these who succeed in their endeavors, the struggle in between good and evil occurring prior to your extremely eyes.

Do you perceive these spiritual realities about you? Beneath the stories of sordid crimes and wars, of organic and man-made calamities, do you see the mighty spiritual forces claiming for your focus? Do you see the ever escalating hordes of human beings who are digging deeper into poverty and homelessness? Do you see the couple of elite masters of this planet earth who continue to obtain sources beyond their consumption and just waste them away? And do you see these events as element of a spiritual battle amongst the invisible superior and evil forces of the universe, beyond psychological, sociological, economic and political aspects? Do you see the forces behind our planet leaders which push them to dominate peoples and exploit them? If you do, you’ve had a spiritual awakening.

Thirdly, in physical awakening soon after you are conscious of your surrounding and immediately after you open your eyes, you act. You get out of bed, go to the wash space, and so on., preparing yourself for the perform of the day.

So also in spiritual awakening, immediately after you are aware of your spiritual surrounding and immediately after you see what is happening spiritually around you and all over the planet, you act. You prepare for the spiritual function ahead of you. You do not sink into hopeless resignation, pondering you can do practically nothing mainly because of the enormity of the spiritual forces about you. You act mainly because you are convinced that the Spirit in you is mightier than the thousands of troubles about you.

You act but you do not do so rashly. You do not go into battle unprepared. So also in spiritual warfare you put on the shield and weapons of a spiritual nature, fully ready to vanquish the enemies.

Are you struggling with spirit energy to make this world a improved location for you to live in, even just in your corner of the world? If you say, Yes, then you are acting and you are spiritually awake.

The three approaches to know irrespective of whether you have had a spiritual awakening is by 1) being aware of the spiritual realities around you 2) opening your spiritual eyes to the events of spiritual forces around you three) acting spiritually in your corner of the planet to make it a superior location to live in. If this has happened to you, you know that you are spiritually awake and you can now support other folks to wake up spiritually.