Meditation has long been held as an important practice for spiritual growth. The earliest known evidence of meditation used for spiritual enrichment is back in 1500 BCE from the Hindu Vedic literature.
Spiritual awakening, enlightenment, and meditation have gone hand in hand since the beginning of spiritual pursuit in human history.
So, how exactly do you meditate for spiritual awakening?
Here’s the formula:
Intention + Mindful observation + Habit
- You must set an intention before your meditation sessions for the purpose or raising your consciousness and awakening to spiritual truth.
- Practice mindful observation in whatever form of meditation you prefer
- Create a habit of steps 1 and 2 above
Those 3 simple steps will create more spiritual growth than you could ever hope for if you do so consistently.
What is Spiritual Awakening?
Spiritual awakening refers to the process of “waking up” to profound spiritual truth. A spiritual awakening is a profound experience that shifts your consciousness and understanding of reality.
The process of waking up spiritually happens when you gain understanding and insight into the nature of reality. Can you see how meditation might help here?
Meditation puts you face to face with reality. The more time you spend being present with reality and observing life the more insights you will find.
Can Meditation Help With Enlightenment?
Meditation can help raise your consciousness, hone your awareness, and ultimately aid you in attaining enlightenment.
In fact, meditation is a central practice on the path towards universal consciousness. Some form of meditation can be found in every great spiritual tradition for this very reason.
WHAT STAGE OF YOUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY ARE YOU IN?
WHAT STAGE OF YOUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY ARE YOU IN?
Discover the 6 stages of awakening and find out where you are in your journey.
The Buddhist and Hindu traditions have a particularly strong practice of meditation.
Enlightenment is a bit different from awakening. Awakening is the process of attaining enlightenment. Enlightenment is the end goal of complete understanding of the nature of the universe.
Meditation can help you have a spiritual awakening and attain enlightenment.
Best Types of Meditation For Spiritual Awakening
It’s true that meditation is one of the most powerful tools for spiritual growth, but which type of meditation is best?
Mindfulness Meditation
The simplest type of meditation is also the most useful for spiritual growth. This simple type of meditation is known as mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness meditation involves consciously observing everything and anything that appears. This an be anything from thoughts & emotions to feelings, sights, and sounds.
Mindfulness is a good one to start with as it is the basis of all other types of meditation. You don’t always need to go complex to get what you want. In fact, this simple type of meditation may be most beneficial for your journey towards awakening.
Vipassana Meditation
Vipassana meditation is a specific type of meditation that is designed to help you awaken. Vipassana is believed to be the meditation taught by Buddha and roughly translates as “insight meditation”.
Vipassana is based in mindfulness meditation, but it’s a bit different. The practice of Vipassana instructs the meditator to be completely nonreactive. No matter the discomfort or desire to quit, Vipassana meditation continues until the session is finished.
The reason Vipassana meditation sessions are laid out in this way is so that you can begin to see the nature of your suffering. After deep Vipassana sessions, meditators report having powerful spiritual breakthroughs.
Vipassana meditation sessions are notoriously long. Some retreats involve meditating for several hours a day for days on end.
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental meditation’s (aka TM) purpose is to get you into a deep state of relaxed alertness where you can transcend your mind and access greater consciousness.
This particular technique involves mindfully focusing on a specific sound in your environment to bring you into a deep meditative state. The focus on a particular sound in transcendental meditation is known as a silent mantra.
A mantra is simply something you repeat over and over again or refocus your attention onto. This refocusing over and over again brings you into deep present alertness.
The state of mind that TM gets you into is perfect for having spiritual insights and will be very helpful on your journey towards enlightenment.
Tracking Your Spiritual Progress
How do you know where you are in the process of waking up? Are you fully enlightened after a single awakening?
Not quite.
Meditation will help you progress down the spiritual path, but having even a couple of awakenings from meditation doesn’t mean you’re enlightened now and finished with your spiritual journey.
There is a well documented path towards enlightenment in the Buddhist tradition.
Find out what stage of your spiritual journey you’re in here.
Happy meditating spiritual seeker!
Hi, I’m Ryan. I’m a meditation teacher, spiritual seeker, and founder of nurtureyourspirit.org. I’m glad you’re here! I founded Nurture Your Spirit because of my love of meditation, spirituality, and spiritual awakening.
