Foreword: A Note on Awakening, Stability, and Mental Health
This guide explores concepts that reach into the foundations of how we experience reality. At times, glimpses of awakening may arise — moments when identification with the ordinary ego-self loosens, and a deeper truth shines through.
While profound, these glimpses can also destabilize. The ego, built to preserve its own continuity, often attempts to reclaim such insights into its own narrative. This can result in inflated thoughts (“I am God”) or fearful spirals, pulling attention back into old patterns.
This is not failure. It is the natural resistance of a system protecting itself. Yet without grounding, the swing between clarity and ego-reidentification can feel confusing, even disorienting.
A few guiding principles:
Stabilize before tuning. Work first on surfacing and realigning core psychological beliefs — guilt, shame, worth, judgment — before attempting to “tune reality” or pursue awakening directly. Without a clear foundation, higher states may not integrate and can collapse back into loops.
Destabilization is part of the arc, but not necessary. Regression may happen, and if so it becomes part of learning. But it is often possible (and wise) to minimize it by strengthening psychological alignment first.
Mental health context matters. Many mental health conditions, such as psychosis, can be understood as cases where beliefs held with conviction do not align with consensus reality (the shared narrative of society) — or, at a deeper level, with objective reality (the undivided field of what is). This guide is not a substitute for therapeutic or medical care, but can serve as a framework for better understanding where beliefs and perceptions may become misaligned.
Ground in the simple. Rest, embodiment, creative action, and connection with others provide balance and prevent over-identification with abstract insight.
Awakening dissolves, it does not inflate. If an insight appears to create “more identity,” pause and let it pass. The real shift is toward less story, less role, and more simple presence.
In short: Clear the ground before lifting off. Build a stable foundation of self-understanding, then allow awakening to unfold naturally, without force. This guide is best read not as a ladder to climb, but as a mirror to return you to what has always been here.