Episode Transcript

Chandresh: Take a deep breath. Relax. Reflect on these questions for a moment. How do I define the spiritual awakening? What are the barriers I have been building toward my blooming? Is there a right way to arrive at my spiritual awakening? Who am I beyond this body, beyond my family name? What lessons have I been learning toward my awakening? In this episode, I'll dive into all these questions and my hope is we all arrive at a safe space and cultivate our own experience of awakening and transformation. I am Chandresh Bhardwaj, and this is Break The Norms. Namaste, everyone. I hope you are doing well. This episode could have multiple interpretations, multiple perspectives based upon how you define awakening, how you define spiritual potential. And there are multiple meanings, definitions out there about what people call as awakening or spiritual transformation. But they all are labels, they all are their experiences, and let's be fully aware that spiritual ecstasy, spiritual knowledge, is a borrowed knowledge. It becomes our experience only after we started to experiment with it.Chandresh:And I urge you, request you, to keep experimenting, keep showing up for it. And when a particular experiment works, then use it consciously, use it consistently. That's where the magic really happens. In this episode, I want to reflect light into certain barriers that we have built unconsciously. I want to encourage you to reflect upon the barriers that you feel you have been building, and I may not even mention that. Because here's a powerful truth that changed my life and I hope it will change yours too. As a human being, we exist as a potential, which means there is immense potential when we are born. That potential is defined as [foreign language 00:03:09], which means pure consciousness. We exist as that pure consciousness when we are born. There are infinite possibilities, countless stories and experiences of waiting to unfold through us.Chandresh:And if we show up for the work, if we remain honest and sincere toward our blooming, then magic will happen, that transformation will happen. And on this transformation, you will witness a lot of elements, seasons, a lot of layers, a lot of roles that you have been playing. Do not hate any of those elements. Do not suppress any of those roles. The journey of spiritual transformation is the journey of really transforming the ability of those roles and keep playing them and not getting stuck in any role. That's really the name of the game. Before we get into the barriers, here's a little something I wrote and I'll share it with you. Hopefully, that will set the right mood for you to dive deeper into understanding the barriers.Chandresh:Spiritual awakening means you have come home to yourself. Spiritual awakening means there are no ego battles, no grudges, no revenge plans keeping you busy. Spiritual awakening means love and compassion are no more difficult to find. In fact, they become impossible to avoid. Spiritual Awakening is an endless dance with the unknown. It's healing, orgasmic, dreamy, and so much more. I hope this perspective on spiritual awakening helps you, but I also want you to know spiritual awakening might sound this poetic and dreamy and orgasmic, but the process, the journey toward this orgasm is a tough one. It's a tough one because we have created many obstacles. We have made our life complex. We build battles simply because someone is not confining to our idea of spirituality. We build battles because someone doesn't agree with our political views. You know where I'm going with this, right?Chandresh:The ego creates multiple revenge plans. The ego wants to control everything. The ego feels great when you agree with it, when you keep feeding it. And this is why I always say, "May you don't get what you want," because many times our wants are based on our ego and we have to shift from what we want and move toward a space where we feed what our awareness needs to bloom and to heal. And this shift is in itself a powerful meditative experience where you let go of the battle of ego and you shift to the journey of awareness, where you're only engaging in experiences where you feel you are growing, you are blooming. And even if it's tough, challenging, uneasy, you go for it. And then I promise, the musing I shared with you will happen as an outcome. The process is tough, but the destination is beautiful, and that's why I gave you a glimpse of that destination so that you feel inspired to look within for the barriers.Chandresh:And this episode, well, of course, cannot cover all the barriers. As many human beings are on the planet, multiply that with 100 barriers. We each have our own unique challenges, our own barriers, our own obstacles. I'll share just a glimpse of the barriers and hopefully that will kickstart your journey into understanding the barriers. Because if you meditate consistently, that's one part of the work. If you take the mindful actions, that's another part of the work. And third, an important layer of work is knowing the obstacles and barriers you have been building to experience that spiritual potential, to experience that ecstasy that's waiting for you. And that's why I'm not going to share any mantra or meditation methods. I'm just sharing daily life actions that you can look into and start changing your story.Chandresh:Number one lesson and barrier that we have been building is not taking responsibility of our life. If you want to experience the complete transformation, be very honest with yourself and take responsibility of where you are, which means no more blame game, no more convincing yourself that this didn't happen to me because my father did not do this for me or my partner did not show up as a support. The mind will always feel at ease when it wants to blame something else. And our mind is so interesting that we not only blame the environment, the family, the friends, the politics, the religion, but we also blame the elements in the universe. We blame past lives. We blame things we don't even know if it really exists or not. But we dump the blame so confidently because that's what mind wants, and mind feels powerful in that, when it doesn't take responsibility.Chandresh:Taking responsibility of a where you are will be a game changer, because your mind is not expecting it, and when you do something that your mind is not expecting it instantly loses its power. Taking responsibility of your life simply means that you release everyone from your grudges, the resentments, and come back to yourself and accept complete responsibility of the situations you are in, the challenges you are in. Because after the acceptance, the help will come. If you are not showing up with this acceptance, the help will also be far away from you, because you need to show up with certain receptivity that, "Okay, I get it. I take responsibility. What's the next step?" When you do that with complete humbleness, you will be provided the clarity, the courage to take the next steps. It's my absolute experience, I'm fully confident in this, that even if it's tough, uneasy, and uncomfortable taking responsibility of your life, who will be the ultimate game changer.Chandresh:Second barrier, drop the seriousness. It simply means stop taking your existence so seriously, because you are the only one taking yourself so seriously. Everyone around you really doesn't think of you in that serious way. And when I got to know that about myself, I released a lot of seriousness and I continue to do that. In fact, every time I've gotten into trouble, it's because I was not being serious. From the time I was in first grade until my last trouble two weeks ago, it all happened because I was not being serious enough. And I'm okay with those troubles, because that playfulness, that childlike energy, it's a rare luxury, and I take it very personally that no one should take away that non-seriousness. So wherever you feel you are being too serious, you're not getting the cosmic joke, stop there and just be okay with the mistakes, the unexpected plot twist, the crazy things that are happening.Chandresh:Because if you don't joke about it, if you don't laugh about it, there's a good chance they will become a deeper wound, and you may never heal that wound. And I'm not saying suppress the wound, just laugh whatever is happening. I hope you get that. That's definitely not what I'm saying. I'm simply saying, when you wake up in the morning, allow yourself to be playful, to be childlike. Whenever there's a plot twist, whenever something doesn't go according to your script, pause, be curious, and ask yourself, "Is that so?" And I hope this reminds you of the podcast, Is That So? Those who have not heard that podcast, go back to that one. I highly recommend listening to it, because I constantly tap into that, Is That So? And it makes me giggle. It makes me let go of my ego and control of that moment. And "Is That So?" is such a powerful mantra to just let go of the silliness sometimes, the silliness of the ego. Ego wants to cultivate battle out of everything, and it's not even worth it.Chandresh:The next barrier that I want to share with you is the barrier of getting stuck in the known and the familiar. Freedom from known is the ultimate freedom. If you want to experience spiritual ecstasy, if you want to experience the peak of your potential, start trusting the unknown, start embracing the unknown. The known and the familiar elements make us feel safe. We always feel safe with a known devil, and that's why we don't try new experiments. But the truth is, when you really start to understand the unknown, when you really start to tap into the magic of unknown, something really powerful starts to happen. A hidden force will wake up and it will start guiding you. It will start helping you in all the moments. And embracing the unknown also helps us to accept that it's all right if I don't know everything. It's all right if I'm not too smart about everything happening around me.Chandresh:I can be curious, I can be childlike, I can be ignorant about something, and that's totally cool. And when you start embracing these barriers, start understanding these barriers without any battle or hate with them, you start to channel these barriers into a powerful energy, and that's the whole lesson of tantra. Do not hate or fight with any element within you. It could be your darkness, your ego, your addiction, your impulsiveness, your desires for anything. All of these elements exist for a reason. There are contracts you're still resolving. There are experiences you're still decoding. And when you hate them and you run away from them, when you don't take responsibility for what's happening, then these contracts will never be solved.Chandresh:This episode is a reminder to witness those barriers, channel the energy in these barriers to become a conscious higher force, and it will happen. Thank you for listening, and I will see you on Sunday on the Leela Instagram account for the live meditation, 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Be safe, be well, and I'll speak to you soon.

Useful Links

Chandresh's YouTube Channel

Find Your Source of Happiness - 21 Day Challenge

Private Guidance Program with Chandresh

Buy the book - Break the Norms

Instagram: @cbmeditates