Awakening

Awakening or Enlightenment is traditionally considered to be the unity between the individual self and the ultimate Reality (what Sufis call Supreme Identity), generating a Wholeness or Non-duality that, including the entire reality, transmits to the individual a feeling of ultimate freedom and total fulfillment (…).

An ultimate Reality that is not only the anchor of all manifestation, but that, when it is discovered, frees humans from suffering and shows them their True Nature and the groundless Foundation of being (known by names as diverse as Buda’s nature, Brahman, Divinity, Ein Sof, Allah, Tao, Ati, Great Perfection, One or Satchitananda, to mention just a few) (…).

We have critiques of capitalism, consumerism, sexism, racism, patriarchy, greed-driven businesses, fossil fuel-derived energy, global economy, environmental exploitation, global warming, militarism, global poverty, the gap between rich and poor, trafficking of human beings, the epidemic of drug use and trafficking, hunger, drought, global epidemics, food shortages, etc. In my opinion, almost all these critiques are most adequate, but there is one that, although it is never mentioned, is probably the most important of all: that is, western culture has lost access to the fountains of awakening (…).

An awakening to an ultimate Reality that, as groundless Ground of being, anchors and gives meaning to all our relative tasks (…). The discovery of this ultimate Reality is not only the groundless Ground of all beings “there”, but also “here”, that is, the discovery of our deepest and true self, the Tality, the most fundamental Reality of our being, the discovery of which directly implies the awakening, the enlightenment and the metamorphosis.

Ken Wilber, Introduction to the book La religión del future [The Religion of tomorrow] (Kairós, 2018)

Translated by Mertxe de Renobales Scheifler