Awakening from the Dream: The True Purpose of Spirituality

The purpose of a spiritual path:

I want to continue sharing a story I started to share in a previous email but with some additional context to help answer the question of "What is the point of spirituality?"

When I was 16, I spent 7 days in a retreat doing dyad (a zen practice). I had my first enlightenment experience in this life. Most of that experience goes beyond words, however one aspect of it that I want to share is how when in that state, there was no world. There was pure light, pure knowingness, pure love, and pure source energy.

There may have been a world around me, I may have been in a body, and at some level I was aware of those things but at the same time, none of it was real. It felt more like the world as we knew it was but a shadow or reflection of the true reality that I was in.
That is the first important thing I want to share.

The second….
After I came out of that experience (sorry it wasn’t a permanent state, yet!) I had a deep sense of knowing that even 1 minute of that experience was worth a lifetime of focus, or dedication to bringing my waking/daily experience closer to that.
Well, my actual thought was, that I would give up everything in the world to just experience that one more time.

Part of that thinking was my inner addict who had suffered for most of his life with depression, addiction, pain, trauma, and broken relationships.
So the addict in me or the sufferer in me, had noticed that in that enlightened (natural) state, there was no pain or suffering. There was no sense of the loneliness that constantly plagued me, driving my endless need to shift my experience into something else.
In the natural state, there was only peace, silence, and the direct experience of oneness. (plus all the ineffable aspects)

So what is the purpose of spirituality?
Well many people try to make it something you can do to feel better, or as a self-help process to try and create a better dream (life).
You can use spirituality to clear your unconscious programming, to bring awareness to all areas of life, to create a new thought system that may serve you better in life, and possibly even bring you more peace, awareness, and other benefits like your ability to concentrate or to be more mindful. Meditation has health benefits.
However, all these things when used for the purpose of creating a better dream (life) and I say dream because as I stated about my enlightenment experience, it became clear that this world of form is a shadow or dream of the true reality.
So if you use spirituality to try to make your life better, to feel better about yourself, or to be able to hit that check box that says you did your spiritual practice as you should so now you can carry on doing other things and feel less guilty since you did what you were “supposed to”....then you aren’t really using spirituality for what it’s higher purpose is. (in my opinion)

To me, the higher purpose of spirituality isn’t to create a happy dream. A better life.
But rather it is to be able to give up the dream. To not make it real.
To not try and source your happiness from it.
You may be able to create a very happy dream, but even then, it will end, you will continue to reincarnate, and the cycle will continue, leaving you reliant on “good things” happening to you.
Whereas true spirituality shows you that the only thing you can truly rely on is the true reality of spirit. The oneness of spirit.
You start to forgive the world and all the people in it. Not by justification of what has happened but in the realization that nothing ever happened. It was all dreamt up and you are home in spirit now and always.
When you then give it all up, and fully give yourself to the divine, that experience of oneness is beyond anything you could ever imagine.
Like I described, after coming out of that experience I would have given up every pleasure and gain in the world for just a minute more.
However, even seeking enlightenment is often just another version of “give me a way to have a better experience than the one I am having”. People use that as their version of “give me a happy life.”
When in reality, as long as you have a body, you likely aren’t maintaining that depth of an enlightenment experience all day long.

So again the point is freedom from this world. No longer believing in it, seeking for your answers, pleasures, and joys from it.
Instead, it is knowing the truth of who you are and where you are.
It is releasing the world so that when it is your time to drop the body you are so deeply aware of the truth that you permanently reside there instead of coming back to reincarnate in the dream.
This is why I love that Osho said in his final words “I leave you my dream”.
He knew that was all he was leaving behind. A dream.
This might still not sound encouraging if you were hoping to gain an easier and better life out of spiritual practice… you can use it in that way, however, it isn’t the highest purpose of spiritual practice and it won’t bring you home.
Don’t stress this too much though. There is no perfect path, there is no need to feel guilty or struggle to be a good spiritual practitioner. We all make it home eventually and this is just a blip. A moment in time.
Which brings me to my last message in this email….When you do true spiritual practice, you create miracles, and miracles collapse time and space, accelerating your journey, and this can create a happy dream!

It just isn’t the true purpose or goal, it is a side product of miracles.
This might not sound like the most positive message to the ego, but to the spirit it sure is.
You no longer have to try to have a perfect or happy life, you get to be aware of your home in spirit and let your life be as it is, no matter how it is.
And I promise you, from my experience and the words of many others, that life in spirit is invaluable in comparison. Of course, it is because it is actually real.
The paradox of this is that when you engage in the process of awakening, the illusions of the world can take on a gentler, more loving form. This is what I mean by the "happy dream."
The happy dream is not the ultimate reality, but it reflects a healed perception and is a byproduct of releasing the false images in our minds. (lies)
Miracles, which are shifts in perception from fear to love, contribute to this gentler dream state.
So while I can’t promise success, worldly gain, or getting what you want, I can suggest that you will feel at peace with the dream world, while having moments of living in the real world of spirit and benefiting immensely from those moments (miracles).

So in summary. The purpose of a spiritual path is to awaken from the dream and end in the reincarnation cycle.
However, in doing so, you do create a happy dream, not in the results but in the perception of it all.