interesting thread, I just wrote something I was thinking about putting on my blog. This is a territory which I guess everyone goes through after having some insights -- "coming out and getting hosed" -- very amusing and familiar .... Laurel has pretty much nailed it, the practice is ego-threatening.
As things happened to me only last year, I am still pretty smug and zealous (kidding - sort of)

which I hope is only a phase.
The most amazing thing for me is how even people who have had the same insights react, in real life and online.
Here is my take on it. Will we ever reach a society when to say you're awake is as easy as saying you're gay (in liberal cities in the west) for example?
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This is 2014, the world needs to wake up. Time to drop the tired taboos surrounding Enlightenment & Awakening?The Rise of MindfulnessThe year is 2014, and we are starting to see the word "mindfulness" everywhere, with successful programs in schools, prisons even corporate offices. The benefits that meditation has for stress management, productivity and well-being are well established. Meditation is losing its crusty, wishy-washy new age or religious image and becoming something that will be soon be as acceptable as jogging is as part of a healthy lifestyle. Nike-branded meditation cushions are probably on the way.
However, the historical Buddha, who is largely responsible for the worldwide spread of meditation, did not set out to help Shell executives be more productive. He founded his entire teaching on a single moment of insight, his awakening, which caused him to exclaim - "I, and the entire Universe are awakened". This is pointing at something much more subtle and profound than how mindfulness can help you diet.
What is Awakening?There is something common to most spiritual traditions called Awakening or Enlightenment. In palatable, rational language, it is a neat little psychological trick you do to yourself, a switch in your brain you can pull, after which your brain is no longer stuck in duality-mode. You untie the knotted concept of "I" from any limited ideas of your body, 'you' or 'your mind', and it never re-ties again.
It no longer seems that there is anyone looking out of your eyes, or anyone speaking your words. There is no longer any belief at all in the existence of a nebulous entity which you refer to as "I" or "me". There is no longer any belief that anything in your experience is 'you' or not. It is profoundly liberating, often causing people months of bliss. This is the state of unity, of "one-ness with everything" which the sages describe.
Awakening as a condition, is as real as say, schizophrenia, homosexuality, or being in love. The number of MRI studies into "non-dual awareness states" from Harvard, Kings London and many other institutions has skyrocketed in the last couple of years.
It's not even that rare or difficult to attain.If you live in any reasonable sized city, there will be both teachers and regular folk with families and jobs, who live from an authentic non-dual, Awakened experience (but regrettably also many who teach from just an intellectual understanding).
The conditions for awakening are stronger and stronger. People have more access to authentic information, and easier access to basic food and shelter, which gives them more free time to practice. As material conditions get better in the West, the spiritual call also becomes stronger for those who have eyes to see it. More and more people are having genuine spiritual Awakenings.
And things seem to be getting faster.
On the Liberation Unleashed, a forum which guides people to Awakening, there are people from all around the world popping awake every few days. On hardcore Dharma forums such at DharmaOverground, people share advice on meditating your way to Awakening as freely as information on how to change your car oil filter.
But it is incredibly hard to talk about.Yet this core fact, the bedrock for all the great spiritual traditions - that a person can transform themselves so they experience unity, non-separation, on an ongoing basis - this fact remains an incredibly uncomfortable thing for people to handle.
Think about this for a second. In a lot of spiritual circles, saying you're Awakened is as painful a scenario as coming out as gay to a homophobic crowd. Especially if, like me, you're relatively young or haven't practiced in a recognised tradition.
People like the idea of Awakening as long as it's so remote from them that it remains a myth or a joke. Even yogis, people who describe themselves as spiritual, some practicing Buddhists, when confronted by the reality of someone sitting opposite them who has experienced a permanent non-dual awakening, becoming defensive. I watch spiritual seekers, people studying a degree in transpersonal or existential therapy, people who have been meditating for longer than I have been alive - all start to become visibly uncomfortable, when we talk about the actual possibility of Awakening, for them, in this life.
We need to change this attitude of fear surrounding AwakeningWe now stand at a point in history where quantum physics has shown the utter lack of solidity in anything, at the fundamental level. We have experiments in neuroscience which point us directly to the fact there is simply no single part of the brain that direct and controls 'us'. We have found the God particle, but science on all fronts cannot find the thing which runs our lives - the "I". Materialist atheism is a common worldview yet these materialist atheists live their lives with the believe in something as utterly un-provable and un-verifiable as God - the individual self.
The planet is being destroyed due to greed. Many people believe that spiritual transformation of the population's consciousness is an utterly vital part of a solution.
So to all those who say they are on a spiritual path, if you are really interested in changing your consciousness, Awakening is the core, the heart of spiritual transformation that makes it uniquely different to any conventional moral framework.
If we want to accept Awakening as a Generally Good Thing, we first need to be able to talk about it with the current fear and freak show reactions that it generates. I remember when I was a child I heard an old lady say that she didn't even believe in homosexuality, she said it was just "people being contrary for the sake of it". This is where I would say that Awakening stands currently in the public consensus - scary or distasteful, and people would prefer it didn't exist.
I write this to raise awareness and understanding of the Awakened condition, just as people have done in the past for mental illness or vegetarianism. I look forward to a society which understands spiritual Awakening without fear or prejudice, and sees it as a useful thing to change the planet for the better.
Know that all the great sages experienced non-dual awakening. Know that the only reason their teachings survive as truth is exactly because it is possible for regular people to make the same Awakening. Practice well. Come home!