Discussion

        Through the approach of transpersonal phenomenology a noumenal presentation of a Westerner’s sudden awakening was illuminated shedding light on both the effect that awakening has on the unsuspecting individual; and the psychological shifts that take place alongside subsequent awakening experiences.  These shifts appeared necessary for the awakener to return to the world (albeit with a different self-orientation and view of the Kosmos in general).  My awakening shattered the concept of what I understood my self to be. 

        While these experiences provided me with glimpses into the nature of mind and self, they were not met passively, as we learned that the ego or our “I” does not take its usurping uncontested.   My recounts of terror and psychic turmoil viewed through the eye of contemplation illustrated that no-selfhood is not a state of mind.   Awakening appears to work from the inner to the outer and, acting as a harbinger, the individual is awakened from the inside; creating waves and ripples that move outward to revolutionize how the external world is interpreted and understood.  However, our inner core recoils from transformative energies.  My experiences attest to how the egoic “I” marshals its defenses as a result of bumping up against one’s true nature.

        While we did not compare a non-Westerner sudden awakening to that of a Westerner, the wisdom traditions make it clear there are paradoxical paths and “gateless gates” that allow states and stages of self-realization to guide our way home (Adyashanti, 2004; Almaas, 2004; Chah, 2002; Kornfield, 2002; Wilber, 2001).  The phenomenology of our transpersonal approach affirmed the wisdom traditions’ claim that our true nature is always already present (Wilber, 2001) and we learned that having a sudden awakening without holding direct knowledge of essence brought forth a burning desire toward wholly claiming what appears to be the human birthright (Almaas, 1996);  that is a knowing  about which mystics have written since time immemorial.  We recognize that a sudden awakening concerns the expansion of one’s boundaries beyond an enclosed ego toward entering into the field of consciousness itself.

        A sudden awakening does not lead to a finality of thought, circumstance, insight, particular condition or state of mind.  As we have been witness to an unfolding journey, we have learned that a sudden awakening can ignite an unbridled passion for understanding the process of awakening and also toward learning how to negotiate the ebb and flow of living as Being.  In conclusion, our case study illustrates that, following the experience of a sudden awakening, much is still left unsettled. As shown here, the embracement of non-dual living spawned by a sudden awakening required further integration and a continual burning through of residual ego structures.  Such a cleansing helps to reveal a home without center (Foster, 2008) whilst existence continues to sing, manifesting its myriad of forms.