What exactly does one become awakened to in the spiritual sense?

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Possibility.

Awakening does a lot of things for you, it expands your perception, alerts you to dynamics you’d been ignoring. But if you have to boil it all down to a single concept, one idea that you didn’t have before you were awakened, but now as a result of the awakening, you now have, it’s the sharp expansion of what you thought was possible.

You can work out through this dynamic, the difference between awakening and enlightenment. While enlightenment is a binary thing, you’re either awakened or you aren’t, enlightenment is gradual. What was possible slowly becomes utter truth. Enlightenment is awakening that’s no longer special. It’s awakening that’s settled down, cooks you breakfast in the morning, and tucks you in at night. Every day.

But spiritual possibility, that is the key thing unlocked in an awakening. The very idea that things can happen that are purely undriven by physical means, that your mere will, your simple wishes, can find manifestation in the real world, this is what awakening offers. Not that it will always turn out the way you want. Not even enlightened people get that.

No, there’s a third level above awakening and enlightenment that offers the seductive promise of pure power. Once you’ve become enlightened, if you keep pursuing spiritual growth, you can eventually reach a level that I am currently calling “mythic.” As in, people will mythologize the things you do during your life if you make it there. It’s where possibility becomes reality.