Why does spiritual awakening require a shift in our priorities?

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Spirituality removes what is false about yourself so that it allows you to focus on what’s true. We make little incremental shifts over time, but they’re to our whole being, not just to small pieces of it. Because the whole being is changing, we don’t perceive them as small incremental changes, we perceive them as big, life-changing ones.

I mean, it is life-changing, but the being remains the same. You’re still the same person. Just as the individual cells in your body don’t define you, in fact every cell in your body is replaced on average every seven years, individual beliefs and positions do not define who you are. But if they all changed all at once, well, that might well just turn you into a different person or even end your manifest existence. For this reason spirituality is a slow process.

The perception of it can be quite different from the reality. You may see that the way you’ve been organizing and directing your life was wrong. So your priorities have to change.

Spiritual awakening is somewhat different than the ‘ordinary’ sorts of life epiphanies we have. It’s the realization and experience of a reality fundamentally different than our material one bounded by rationality. It’s a realization that this reality can be extremely powerful, dwarfing our own agency like raindrops to the sea.

Once awoken, the spiritual instinct demands expression. We can’t just leave it bottled up inside. It’s so much bigger than us, it pushes its way out, we’re unable to contain it, an overfilling cup.

You were asleep, and now you’re awake. That’s what the difference feels like. Awake people don’t act the same way as sleeping people. That’s why priorities change.