Awakening Vs Enlightenment: What Is The Difference?

Hi.

This was all about the difference between awakening and enlightenment.

And I mean this in a very spiritual sense.

Many people in our modern world don't understand the distinction.

But it's really,

Really important.

And I'm going to lay it all out for you right here.

My name is Brent Michael Phillips.

I am the founder and creator of the Awakening Dynamic System of Energy Healing and Higher Consciousness.

And I created this because I see that with my students and clients there's a lot of confusion when I talk about awakening.

People have unrealistic expectations about what it is or what it can do.

Similarly,

A lot of us are running mythologies about enlightenment.

A lot of the things we think we know about awakening and enlightenment come out of movies and TV shows that are designed to entertain,

Not to inform or educate.

And that's cool.

I love TV.

I love movies.

We just have to realize it's kind of a sad truth that I remember someone had said that after the movie came out on JFK,

I think it was in the 90s,

The majority of what most Americans knew about the Kennedy assassination was in the movie.

As most people don't study history,

That's okay.

And so I am a teacher of awakening and a facilitator of enlightenment.

And I want to be clear,

Brent does not have all the answers.

There is no one perfect path or system or teacher that's going to make you enlightened overnight.

What I can do is lay out the facts and the truth as best as I understand them in order to help facilitate your journey.

Whether you want me as your teacher or someone else,

Or you're doing it totally on your own,

Almost no one is successful in long-wolfing it.

If you're serious about results in the spiritual world,

You need to find some kind of group,

Teacher,

Mentor.

The late poet Rumi used to say that a journey of three weeks will take a hundred years without a guide.

And this is exactly what he was talking about.

So,

What is this stuff?

First,

Let's talk about awakening.

When I say awakening,

I mean something very specific.

When I say awakening,

I'm not talking about learning about energy healing,

Or how to talk to angels,

Or how to use the secret to manifest through the power of your mind.

It doesn't have anything to do with that.

All that is cool stuff.

I've studied it,

I practice it,

I teach some of it.

So,

It's cool stuff,

But it has nothing to do with awakening.

What I would offer is this.

Awakening has nothing to do with metaphysical tools.

So,

What are metaphysical tools?

Subconscious block clearing through hypnosis or NLP or some kind of energy healing,

Right?

Great metaphysical tool,

Nothing to do with awakening.

It's not about learning to communicate with your angels or your spirit guides or your ancestors.

Again,

Cool metaphysical tools,

Nothing to do with awakening.

Also,

It's not about healing.

Physical healing,

Emotional healing,

Growth,

Prosperity,

Money,

Has nothing to do with that.

Instead,

This is what awakening is.

Awakening is nothing more and nothing less than coming to a crystal clear understanding of what you are.

That's all it is.

What is this you?

This you that we think sits up in our head behind our eyes,

That has the ability to see and hear and think and feel,

That has thoughts,

That makes decisions,

That takes actions,

That has a bank account and a memory and a family and a job.

Most of us never stop to question that.

Most of us spend our entire lives assuming we know what we are.

We go,

Oh,

I'm me,

Duh,

I know what that is.

And when I experienced my own awakening,

It was back in 2012,

It was a crazy thing.

Because up to that point in my life,

I had always assumed I knew what I was.

I had grown up what I call passively Protestant,

Even when I was very much an agnostic.

I used to think,

Well,

I'm probably some kind of soul or spirit being or divine spark that is wrapped up in this human body,

Experiencing a life on earth.

And I didn't know exactly how it worked.

But religion kind of tells us a version of that.

Most religions.

When I got into more of the new age,

New thought energy healing world,

That clicked too.

One of the teachings you'll hear a lot in that world is you are an energy being having a human experience or something like that.

Let me just say,

That's not quite true.

It has a large range of applicability,

But it's not absolutely true.

Kind of like Newton's laws.

Newton's laws were great for about 400 years.

Then Einstein came along and said,

What happens if we're moving near the speed of light?

Newton's laws blew up,

Right?

Got replaced with relativity.

So I'm not saying that teaching is outright wrong.

I'm just saying it's limited and it will break if you push on the boundaries.

So awakening again is understanding what is this you?

What is it?

Where does it come from?

How does it work?

And most people,

Certainly a lot of my new clients and students,

When I really drill down and ask them,

What exactly is you?

They admit,

Hey Brent,

I assumed I thought I know because I just assumed this is me.

Duh,

Right?

But most of us don't actually know.

And if you know and you're convinced,

Great.

You don't need to come to me or any spiritual teacher.

I'll just say,

Most of us are wrong.

And awakening was really a punch in the gut for me because I used to think I was so smart.

I had all these degrees and educations and accomplishments and all these awards and blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Right?

I used to be so full of myself.

I thought I was so smart.

And at that moment of awakening,

I was over 40 years old.

Just so you know,

I had been a full-time energy healing practitioner for seven years at that point.

I had no idea what I was.

I thought I was some kind of soul or spirit that had inhabited a human body.

None of that was actually correct.

Now,

I can't really tell you.

Proper awakening takes about three to four hours.

If I could just give you words and wake you up,

I would.

It doesn't work that way.

It's almost like learning a language.

That if I could tell you the answer to the life,

The universe and everything,

But it's in Swahili,

You could hear the sounds,

But it wouldn't be impactful.

You wouldn't know what it means.

So it's like that.

We kind of have to build a foundation of language and terminology and concepts.

Then we can wake up.

And it works differently for different people.

Awakening is not the same as enlightenment.

And this is one of the reasons I made this.

So many people don't see the distinction.

So let me offer the difference.

Awakening is coming to a crystal clear understanding of what you are.

What is this you that has thoughts,

Memories,

Makes decisions,

Takes actions,

Et cetera?

That's awakening.

Enlightenment is the complete embodiment of awakening.

It's living without resistance,

Living without suffering,

Being completely immersed in the perfection of the divine plan in every moment.

And so they are different things.

For those of you that are familiar with what's called the Hawkins scale,

Based on the work of the late author,

Dr.

David Hawkins,

What he wrote was that there are different levels of human consciousness.

And his scale went from zero to a thousand.

He wrote a book called Power Versus Force.

If you like to read metaphysical stuff,

It's a cool book.

Pretty good.

And what he talks about is there's different levels of vibration or consciousness.

And quite simply,

In Power Versus Force,

He says basically we have these different levels of the human journey.

And long story short,

It goes from zero to a thousand.

Awakening is 500.

And he would say that that is the most significant and most difficult leap in the whole journey,

Is 499 to 500.

He admitted he didn't know how to do it in others.

He himself had done it,

But he could not get others to make the leap.

Just so you know,

Brent figured it out.

So that's why I created 30 Days to Awakening and my system of trainings is to help you make that transition.

But don't come to me if you don't like people that are very scientific and intense and fast-paced with no tolerance for nonsense.

That's me,

Right?

By contrast,

Enlightenment is the 1,

000 vibration.

That is the limit of human consciousness.

Some call that Christ consciousness or ascension consciousness or true masterhood or versions of that.

The Buddha mind,

There's a lot of terms for it.

And I want to make a distinction that awakening is not that.

What awakening is,

Is the beginning of the second half of the human journey.

Because again,

With Hawkins scale,

Zero to 1,

000,

Right?

500 is the middle.

And here's the sad thing.

Almost all the humans on the planet have no idea that second half of the journey is there.

Because 499 is the pinnacle of success through the ego.

You know a lot of things,

Maybe you make a lot of money,

Have a lot of family and friends and you're very accomplished,

But you're still suffering because you're still identified with being a separate being.

You think you are your ego.

It's that simple.

So go around and play as much as you like.

One of my colleagues,

Another awakening teacher,

His name is Jim Drever,

Had a great saying.

He would say,

Most people don't want real freedom.

They just want to build a bigger prison to let their ego roam around in.

And that's most of the world.

I don't intend that as judgment.

It's just like saying,

If I were a 12 foot tall alien and I came to earth,

I'd be like,

Wow,

Earth humans are short,

Right?

Anywhere from five foot to maybe seven feet tall,

Most of them.

No one's 10 or 12 feet tall.

So it's not a moral judgment of their worth as people.

It's just an observation that,

Hey,

If you're 12 feet tall,

Everyone seems short,

Right?

And so once you're past that 500 into awakening on your journey to enlightenment,

You'll look around and see a lot of people totally immersed in the ego,

Spending all their time and energy just trying to build a bigger prison.

But hey,

If you're going to be stuck in prison,

You might as well build a nice one,

Right?

You might as well have cable TV in your cell and a pool table and video games and a chef making custom meals.

But at some point you're going to want real freedom.

And if you study the lives of highly successful people,

Many of them realize this.

There comes a point when more money,

More success,

More homes,

More private jets,

More power doesn't do the trick.

You'll realize that I'm still me,

Just in fancier clothes and a bigger house and a more expensive car.

But there's nothing different on the inside,

At least not over time.

And so awakening is the beginning of the end of suffering,

Not the end of suffering.

Enlightenment is the end of suffering,

Which is nothing more than complete embodiment of awakening,

Connecting the head to the heart.

And I'm sure a lot of you watching this have been to seminars and read spiritual books,

And that's great.

But how many of those great teachings do you really embody?

Do you live your life according to the truth of it?

And if you're like most people,

The answer is not a lot.

I like to talk about road rage.

When I was back in the 90s,

I remember when I first read Conversations with God,

Oh my gosh,

I loved it.

I love Neil Donald Walsh,

I think he's an amazing author.

And I had all these great ideas about God and the universe and the nature of life,

And it was amazing sitting with my cat on my lap in my easy chair on Saturday night reading the book,

Right?

It was great.

And then I'd be like,

Damn,

You know,

I'm out of beer,

I need bread or something.

And I'd hop in my car to head to the store,

Some idiot would cut in front of me and I'd be yelling at him,

Screw you,

Buddy,

I hope you die,

Right?

I just want to point out,

I had great ideas in my head,

Great spiritual knowledge,

But I didn't embody it.

So enlightenment is the full embodiment.

But enlightenment,

There's a lot of mythologies too.

It's not about levitating or walking on water or bilocating.

Now,

I'm not saying that can't happen,

But that's brain candy.

It's like saying that the most important thing in an NFL football game is the touchdown dance.

No,

It's almost irrelevant,

Right?

Now,

If you score a touchdown in an important game,

Sure,

Take a moment and dance,

Right?

It's cool,

People like it.

But a really good touchdown dance is not going to get you even on the high school team,

Let alone the pros.

It's brain candy.

It's fun.

It's neat,

But it's not what it's about.

So I would say all that Superman stuff,

It can happen,

But it's not what it's about.

It's just a touchdown dance.

And be wary of someone that tries to sell you that.

It'd be like someone saying,

Hey,

I think your kid should join my football camp.

Well,

What will he learn?

We're going to teach him all the best touchdown celebration dances.

You're like,

No,

I'm not going to spend time and money on that,

Right?

That won't get him on the team.

That won't get him a college scholarship,

Right?

Playing football will.

So enlightenment is about resistance.

It's about the lack of our judgment.

And when I say resistance,

I mean the lack of resistance.

It's life going in every moment,

Knowing,

Feeling the perfection of the divine plan.

Even when the ego is literally dying.

Some of you may have heard about a certain rabbi from Nazareth that when he was on the cross said,

Father,

Forgive them for they know not what they do.

That's what I mean.

That is the kind of thing you hear from someone who's truly enlightened.

Now,

I do not claim to be enlightened.

There is still suffering and resistance in Brent's life.

If you don't believe me,

Talk to my wife.

Talk to my neighbors,

Right?

Talk to people that deal with me day to day.

My most important teachers,

Tara and Carl,

They were not enlightened masters either,

But they were ahead of me in the journey,

But close enough that they could facilitate my advancement.

And that's why I'm here.

That's why Jim is here and other great teachers.

I like Ayeshante's work.

There's a lot of people I really like.

Ramana Maharshi,

Very well known.

Nisargadatta,

We all kind of do the same thing.

None of us is a perfect,

Enlightened being.

It goes both ways.

And so enlightenment,

Again,

Is not superpowers.

It's not getting your way all the time.

Why is that?

That's really important.

Because if you're getting your way,

That just takes a U-turn and drives you right back to the lower vibrations.

It's about surrendering the agenda of the ego.

Now I think this is all worth it.

With awakening,

It will subtly change your life.

You'll be less attached.

You'll find the good in situations.

You'll be able to see things more objectively.

You'll stay calm and present under pressure.

And because we're releasing attachment at the core,

You will become more powerful.

Why?

It's your own attachment and resistance that's slowing you down.

Reminds me of when I was at a CrossFit gym in West LA.

Every Memorial Day,

They'd do Murph,

Which is a brutal workout.

Here's how it goes.

You run a mile,

Then you do 100 pull-ups,

200 push-ups,

300 air squats,

And then run another mile.

And oh yeah,

All while wearing a 25-pound weight vest.

Right?

Oh my God.

And this is so crazy because I remember one of the guys at my gym,

Super fit young guy,

Played college football,

Strong as a horse,

Right?

Super fit.

He came in almost last and he was nearly in tears when he realized he was wearing a 50-pound weight vest.

Oh my God.

Can you imagine doing that workout with 50 pounds on your shoulders?

Wow,

Blows my mind.

What I want to say is,

Living from the ego is like that.

Life is hard enough as is,

Right?

Murph is tough enough without any kind of weight vest.

Why are you putting on 50 pounds?

So many people find you put down the burden of living from the ego through awakening,

Consciousness work,

Meditation,

And you will become more powerful.

You'll make more money.

People will like you more.

You'll have more sex.

You'll live longer.

All these things.

But it's not a magic wand and it does take work and practice.

And I'll leave you with this.

The last thing I'll say is,

Historically,

Students of awakening must ask their teachers if they're getting it.

Most of the time,

It's not a big,

Self-evident light show.

It's not like the quickening in Highlander where there's like thunder and lightning and No.

It's so subtle,

Most people miss it.

So I had to ask my teachers,

Am I getting it?

My students have to ask me,

Am I getting it?

So it is a subtle shift.

And it's something,

Though,

That when you look back on,

You go,

Wow.

My life really started to change at this point.

It wasn't obvious at the moment.

But you look back 5,

10,

15 years later,

You go,

Wow.

This was one of the most important and significant things I've ever done.

So if you have interest,

Go find the right teacher,

The right system that resonates with you.

If you want to learn more about me,

I have a program specifically designed for it and leads you through some interactive processes so you can experience higher consciousness for yourself.

As I like to say that higher consciousness is like orange juice.

I can talk here,

Making videos for hours and hours and days and days.

But the only way for you to really know what orange juice tastes like is to pour a little bit and take a sip.

That's what I'd love to do with you live in a group or one-on-one or whatever.

I want you to taste the orange juice to have a sense of higher consciousness.

And if you want to pursue it,

Talk to me or any other teacher.

We would love to be your guide.

That's all I've got to say for right now.

Please take care and namaste.