Whole Life Times: Consciousness in Action

January 2006 | Whole Life Review

Consciousness in Action

On the four stages of personal transformation

by Andrew Beath

It took 10 years of world travel, reading philosophy and poetry and an exploration of spiritual traditions before I was ready to radically change my life. I was so encumbered by childhood conditioning that I did not even begin until age 30. Fortunately, I had the time and financial resources to travel through 80 countries and to seek out people who gave me help in my quest.

A Model of Personal Transformation

The first stage [of radical change] is normal awareness, in which our attention is focused on the daily issues of earning a living and dealing with problems. But something unusual sometimes happens. A broader perspective enchants us, or we are thrust into one. The journey may begin from seeing a capable therapist, reading an inspiring book or hearing a talk from someone whose clarity resonates with something unusual inside ourselves. At this point there is a realization that everyday awareness has a grander potential.

“Awakening experience” is the term I use for the second stage. A new worldview opens during this phase. Catalysts are frequently present. Some are unusual, like a near-death experience, but others are accessible through normal events. Each person’s story is different. Unbearable suffering, for example, the death of a child or life partner, will often demand this shift in attitude. Ending a love relationship can be as jarring as the death of a close relative. In a similar vein, I am convinced that more of us would be startled awake by grief if we understood the impending ecological collapse.

Many are exposed to opportunities to investigate forms of alternative spirituality, like yoga, Sufi dance meditation, shamanic rituals or any number of time-honored disciplines that expand awareness. These experiences can provide the gateway so that initial curiosity eventually leads to integrated wisdom. Such a trigger stimulates our intention to enlarge our perspective.

Sweat lodge ceremonies have taught me a great deal about sacred space and connection to the divine, the two things I’ve grown to respect the most. I’ve learned that if I care for others, the creative source looks after me. With this outlook, everyday occurrences also meld into sacred space. The stillness and beauty of the full moon or a secluded beach can cause a feeling of mystical presence.

Disconnection causes suffering. Deification of money and stuff thwarts creative expression. Yet this way of life is reinforced by the constant bombardment of propaganda on television, radio and billboards. It is when the emotional pain created by this shallowness starts to outweigh the comforts it affords that the urge to transform rises in us.

My trigger was an amorphous discontent, a dissatisfaction with my day-to-day life during my mid-twenties, which led to the end of my youthful marriage and then to my departure from my business profession. I decided to travel around the world, although I had no objective and no inkling of what would come. It was through these adventures that I came to understand natural harmony. More often than not, our wake-up calls are far from dramatic. The choice to proceed need not be an epiphany on a mountain or treetop. It can be as simple as the urging of a friend or the inspiration of a book.

The third stage in this four-stage description of transformation is the shift from awakening experiences into a process I call “integrating awareness.” In the moment of an ecstatic alignment with the mystery of creation, you realize that you are more than you have ever known yourself to be. Prior perceptions of separateness fall away. No longer constrained by the limited vision of the past, you find yourself in the rhythm of a new dance that culminates in gracious awareness.

My search spanned 10 years. At the beginning I had no idea what I was seeking. But my wanderings from country to country, mosque to church and temple to mountain drew me deeper into mystery and adventure. During my journey I witnessed the magnificence of our planet, human and nonhuman beings, forests, caves, crystal glaciers, temples, museums and bottomless lakes. I absorbed all I could from my human, spirit and nature teachers. My ongoing transformation continues to be a series of thousands of small, interwoven awakenings.

Normal awareness is the bare branch. The awakening experience is a trigger mechanism that initiates the third stage of transformation, that of integrating awareness. Like a flower bud beginning to open, whether from a dramatic occurrence or a long process, the integration of awakening experiences eventually results in a blossom that is able to pollinate others. The final stage, gracious awareness, contains the seeds of cultural change.

It is neither a practice nor a liberation pathway. In gracious awareness we simply accept life’s dance of effortless relationship.

Adapted from Consciousness in Action: The Power of Beauty, Love and Courage in a Violent Time (Lantern Books, 2005)

Andrew Beath is founder of EarthWays Foundation in Malibu and co-producer of LA’s World Festival of Sacred Music. For more information about his work, visit earthways.org.

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