A Know-it-all Spiritual Person Can’t be Enlightened?

Question on whether the spiritual journey is truly never-ending

I went through a wildly dramatic level of spiritual awakening three years ago and my experience matches the so-called Kundalini Awakening. It felt like my life was falling apart, and when it was pieced back together, I felt like a renewed soul, just like what the Holy Bible says.

That should be it, right? I was healed, reconciled with people who had hurt me, meditated every day, etc. My path to enlightenment was done and I was pretty much a buddha now, right?

When I observe people, I see the wounds they can’t see within themselves. When I talk to people, I present clarity that they have yet to comprehend.

But then, when the lockdown happened to me, why did I stop all my spiritual practice and fall into my sofa binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy?

After reading Kimberly Fosu’s article, I think I’d some further insight about my own spiritual journey, and how to continue to evolve.

Spoiler alert: we become a child again.

A Know-it-all is better than a know-nothing

Based on Kimberly’s article, I self-diagnosed to be at stage II of the spiritual journey.

The moment we establish we’re spiritual, there’s a subtle sense of pride that rises within — Kimberly Fosu

Eckhart Tolle has challenged the absurdity of well-known philosopher René Descartes’s quote: “I think therefore I am”:

“The philosopher Descartes believed he had found the most fundamental truth when he made his famous statement: “I think, therefore I am.” He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking. The compulsive thinker, which means almost everyone, lives in a state of apparent separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict, a world that reflects the ever-increasing fragmentation of the mind.” — Eckhart Tolle

That’s right. Most people who will/have gone through spiritual journeys are generally thinkers. They are sensitive to their surroundings, alert to experience within themselves, and tend to overthink.

If you’re like me, who’s known for being able to think and are quite proud of it, as Kimberley said, there’s a risk that when we have experienced some kind of spiritual awakening, we felt that we have all the answers suddenly.

The truth is, an even deeper thinker should know that there’s no way we can know all the answers. We can only know as far as the spirit/universe allows us to know. That’s not to humanize the universe, but to clarify that there’s a time and place for everything.

The instant we became clear about our connection with the spiritual world, is a milestone within a journey, but it’s still an instant, not the journey itself.

The question I had when I was a know-it-all, was how are we different from people who aren’t spiritually awaken but simply have a mild temper and no issues with their family?

That’s the question that brought me to what Kimberly identified as stage 3: Realizing You Know Nothing at All.

It’s not about knowing

I have met those people who haven’t gone through any spiritual or religious journey, don’t even know what meditation is, but have a complete healthy sense of self, calm and friendly to others, and generally relaxed.

When I talk to them about meditation and all the spiritual chats, they listen intently but can’t seem to relate to it. They don’t think they need it, because they don’t feel like they have problems at all, and they generally seem to be very content.

I couldn’t understand. These people didn’t go through any dramatic spiritual awakening, but they have achieved the non-reaction, inner-peace, and compassion I’m trying very hard to achieve.

Why?

I think there are only two possible explanations.

One, there are multiple cycles of life and they might be an advanced being (old soul) that have reincarnated into the current lifetime already awakened previously.

Two, they haven’t get triggered yet.

The latter is very possible because that’s how most people get screwed over by their mid-life/existential crisis much later. I started questioning life since I was fifteen, and some might only feel lost when they are fifty.

Sadly, it does feel like we have gone a big circle to become as relaxed and peaceful as these people.

Do we all need spiritual awakening?

Spiritual awakening requires three things: knowing, consciousness, and experience. We need to become aware of it, then we can learn about it, and finally embodied the spirituality within us.

The outward behavior of an enlightened person might be quite similar to these mild/peaceful people who don’t know anything about spirituality, but we are not the same. We know, we are aware, we have consciously healed.

So when Kimberly said the third stage is realizing we know nothing at all, I think we do know something. We are not the same as these people who are born relaxed and potentially ‘unwounded’. Because they aren’t aware of it at all, and we are.

We are aware of the patterns of our ego, the triggers from the environment and others, as well as the possibility to align with the universe.

So yes, we have gone through extraordinary parts of our spiritual journey, and as the journey continues, we don’t need to have more knowledge about the universe (personally, I don’t think we need to worry too much about crystals and stuff).

Instead, we need to continue to become aware, detach from our ego again and again when we are triggered, and align ourselves back with the universe. We are indeed a know-it-all, but we aren’t immune to misalignment.

Knowing or not knowing is pretty meaningless. Either way won’t keep us in the path, but knowing we are on a path in the first place is very helpful.

More articles from me on spirituality!