Spiritual Awakening Test
Evaluate your signs of spiritual awakening using the simple assessment tool below.
Discover the signs of a spiritual awakening that may have eluded you until now.
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Evaluating the Signs of Spiritual Awakening
Although most of us started on the spiritual path with a clear intention to awaken, over time many of us have gradually lost touch with that potent sense of possibility, and the conviction that comes with it.
As a result, we often don’t have a clear sense of how our path is going or whether we’re even evolving in the ways we originally aspired to.
In this Spiritual Awakening Test, you’ll complete a simple self-assessment to help you see clearly the signs of a spiritual awakening and the ways in which your spiritual practice is working–and the places where it might be falling short of its potential.
By answering each of the self-assessment questions honestly, you’ll be able to evaluate the signs of awakening and the fruits of your spiritual practice so far, and identify the greatest opportunities for a breakthrough.
Step One: Tracking Your Signs of Spiritual Awakening
In the way it’s often described, spiritual awakening can seem ethereal, mysterious and intangible. But it doesn’t have to be. Although awakened consciousness itself is a superordinary phenomenon, the signs of spiritual awakening are tangible and visible.
The discovery of awakened consciousness propels us into a radically different experience of being alive and unlocks a powerful set of supercapacities that enable us to meet life’s challenges and opportunities with a grace, strength and wisdom unimaginable to our former self.
You can easily measure your spiritual progress and assess your signs of awakening by tracking the degree to which you are currently able to access each of these extraordinary capacities. That’s exactly what this spiritual awakening test will help you do.
What Is Awakening or Enlightenment?
But before you take the spiritual awakening test below, it’s important to consider the signs of a spiritual awakening in the context of the goal of spiritual practice, which is enlightenment or awakening. So let me take a minute to define what I mean by awakening.
When we awaken, there’s a shift in our consciousness and we suddenly realize that this whole story we had invested our life in isn’t reality. Something else is real. We realize that so much of what we took to be real was not at all. It was just a fabrication of our mind. It was just a story we made up. It was just an erroneous way of seeing reality.
1. Discovering the Sacred Essence of Reality
Now, there are many dimensions to that, but the one I really want to focus on here is the crux of it. I want to name it in two parts. The first is that it is the discovery that there is a sacred essence to this whole reality, that the whole cosmos, this whole event is, at bottom, it’s a glorious, luminous, divine unfolding and that was not apparent before.
Prior to that moment, this seemed like a material world, a cruel world in a lot of ways, and sort of a random world. A world where it’s hard to make sense of it all, because, on the one hand, there are a lot of good things, but on the other hand, a lot of horrible things. This is what the scientific materialists would try to convince us of, “See, it’s a random, chaotic, often cruel event, that’s what life is and that’s what the cosmos is.”
So, this first essential discovery of spiritual awakening is, “No, no, no, it’s not the way it seemed. There’s actually this sacred heart of reality that is the fundamental truth of reality.” That it’s made of God stuff or Buddha nature as a Mahayana Buddhist would say, “It has Buddha nature. It has an enlightened consciousness dimension to it.”
2. We Are that Sacred Essence
And then, the even more important realization of spiritual awakening is that this sacred essence is the core of who we are and it’s the real self that you are. “I previously took myself to be the story of this person who was born at a certain time and has lived through certain life experiences and, you know, I’ve got my bad side and my good side and I’m trying to be better and I was this finite being.
And then in an instance of awakening, I realized that I’m not that. I’m not that little story. I’m not that little person. I am this vast, infinite, sacred consciousness—this immense power. This unstoppable force of love and care that has no end. This surging well of creativity. I am that!
Awakening Transforms Our Lives
This realization realigns everything. Our entire relationship to this life transforms in unimaginable ways in the direct knowledge of our true nature.
Suddenly, because we’re not afraid of life, we’re not believing all these stories of limitation. And we don’t have a fundamental sense that something’s missing. We become this being who is open, innocent, responsive, filled with love and care, and overflowing with the kind of spontaneous wisdom that’s coming from a place we don’t even know. These are positive signs of spiritual awakening.
It’s not our wisdom. We can’t claim it, but it seems to show up—creative responses coming out of nowhere. The metaphor is of being reborn, which is often used to describe spiritual transformation. It makes a lot of sense: we’re reborn into a completely different knowledge of who we are, and this whole new set of capacities come with it.
And we experience a sense of flow. We’re able to meet challenges in life without contracting back into fear or without insisting on limitation. We’re present for what’s happening, not shying away from discomfort and difficulty, and all of this is happening naturally and effortlessly. Why? Because it’s arising from our direct knowledge of reality and of ourselves.
Our Nature Is Already Awakened
Many of the signs of spiritual awakening I just mentioned are the ones we try to embody as good and spiritual people: we want to be more that way and we work on it. But now we discover that our own nature is already that way—that those qualities and signs of awakening are our natural and inherent virtues.
So, this is what I mean when I use the word “awakening” or “enlightenment” in its essence.
And yet, although it’s the most natural way of being, it’s extremely rare for a human being to not just discover this but also to embody it. To live in what’s been called the “natural state.” This is our natural state. We experience it as utterly natural when we tap into it, when we step into it, and it is arguably the most native essential dimension of who we are.
Spiritual Awakening Test | Step One
For each of the signs of spiritual awakening listed below, indicate the degree to which you are currently able to access this capacity or quality on a scale of 1-10.
For example:
- Circling “1” would indicate a complete absence of this sign of awakening.
- Circling “5” would indicate that you have frequent but inconsistent access to this sign of spiritual awakening.
- Circling “10” would indicate consistent, unwavering access to this capacity. Estimated Time for completion (Step One): 10 Minutes.
1. Deep Presence
By freeing us from self-concern, spiritual awakening gives us a unique ability to be fully present and available to meet whatever life brings our way. Undistracted by any form of self-conscious inner monologue, our full attention is available for every conversation, interaction, encounter or project. We naturally and easefully show up fully for each moment, giving all of our presence and energy to what is happening now.
To what degree are you able to bring a quality of deep presence to each moment, regardless of what’s happening or how you’re feeling?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. Equanimity
Spiritual awakening anchors us in the direct knowledge of the timeless, changeless ground of being. This knowing enables us to remain steady, centered and non-reactive amidst the ups and downs of life.
To what degree are you able to meet life’s challenges with equanimity?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3. Comfort with Uncertainty
When we awaken to our enlightened essence beyond the mind, we discover a natural innocence and humility which manifests as a willingness to let go of our certainties and embrace the unknown. Freed from the fixed reference points, rigid beliefs and certainties we once needed, we find ourselves open, curious and receptive to what we don’t already know.
To what degree are you comfortable with uncertainty? How easy do you find it to hold your beliefs lightly and take decisive action even in the absence of concrete knowledge?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4. Boundless Compassion
When we awaken to the truth of our essential unity with all of reality, our heart opens into a vast embrace that encompasses all beings. We find ourselves overflowing with a great love, care and compassion that expresses itself not just as a concern for the suffering of others, but as a profound commitment to the elevation of everyone toward their ultimate potential.
The more we let this love flow, the greater its intensity grows until we ultimately come to experience that, in our essence, we are love.
To what degree is your life an expression of this boundless universal love and compassion?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5. Spontaneous Wisdom
Spiritual awakening activates a mysterious “wisdom faculty,” an inner source of spontaneous insight and clarity that arises from beyond the conceptual mind. When this function is activated, we find ourselves repeatedly amazed at the holistic insights and penetrating clarity that continually flow forth from a place within us that we cannot see.
To what degree do you have access to a natural flow of emergent wisdom that arises faster than thought to meet the needs of each moment?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
6. Limitless Energy
The discovery of our spiritual “supernature” reveals to us a source of seemingly limitless energy that is always available to us when it’s needed. This transpersonal power enables us to rise to meet life’s demands in a way that frequently exceeds all of our self-conceived limitations.
To what degree do you have access to a source of seemingly limitless energy?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
7. Passion for Evolution
Spiritual awakening reveals to us that we are not separate from the Evolutionary Impulse that has driven the emergence of the cosmos, life and consciousness. When we realize that this impulse of evolution is the very force that animates us, we come alive with a passion for growth, change and higher development. This newfound passion for the possible compels us to embrace each moment as an opportunity for growth and evolution.
To what degree is your life an expression of the Evolutionary Impulse? To what degree are you able to embrace the potentials for growth and evolution even amidst challenges and setbacks?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
8. Effortless Fluidity
When the miracle of awakened consciousness establishes itself as the center of our life, we find all of our rigidities dissolving into a fluid, dynamic, flexible way of being. No longer clinging to a static sense of self or a fixed set of beliefs, we are carried by a sense of ease and flow, enabling us to respond freely and sponta- neously in each moment, adapting effortlessly to whatever life brings our way.
To what degree are you able to meet life’s changes and challenges with fluidity, agility and flow?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
9. Natural Creativity
By freeing our mind from limiting beliefs and preconceptions, spiritual awakening opens the door to a natural creativity that enables us to easily find innovative solutions to problems and generate new, previously unseen possibilities in every domain of our lives.
To what degree do you experience a powerful flow of natural creativity throughout your life?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10. Unshakable Trust
Spiritual awakening opens us to the deep, inherent goodness and positivity of life itself. It also gives us access to a previously unimaginable source of inner strength, clarity and freedom of being. These powerful discoveries give rise to a deep and abiding trust that emboldens us to let go of control and allow a free and spontaneous response to life to carry us beyond rigidity and fear into a miraculous, liberated way of being.
To what degree do you live from a place of unshakable trust which allows you to let go of control and flow with life as it unfolds?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Keep Assessing, Keep Evolving
This Spiritual Awakening Test was designed to help you track your progress over time. Whatever your score is now, the goal is to keep evolving, so don’t worry if you scored low in many or even most of these signs of awakening. The simple act of beginning to measure your signs of spiritual awakening will catalyze greater self-awareness and accelerate your awakening.
Test Once A Month
We encourage you to use this spiritual awakening test as an ongoing tool on your path, returning to it once a month to see how your awakening is progressing. Each time you complete the exercise, look at the signs of spiritual awakening where you scored the lowest as clear opportunities to dig deeper into your practice.
Catalyze Growth
The signs of awakening where you scored the highest are potent opportunities to anchor yourself in awakened consciousness and allow it to catalyze additional growth.
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