The Message of Awe
Some experience it daily, others just sporadically. Everybody knows awe, yet it remains strangely elusive. Diminishing the elusiveness may detract from the mystery. It may also Open one up to even more depth.
Awe cannot be coerced ― yet it can be invited.
For instance, through the environment: the mountains, the sea, a sunset or sunrise, feeling how this is part of an infinitely more expansive universe, a starry night, a religious building, a specific happening, the excellence in any performance.
More abstractly, one feels this – or becomes aware of it – through an encounter with Beauty, Immensity, Depth… with the Unspeakable.
Anything that invites awe can be seen as a kind of autosuggestion.
In other words, it’s a communication with the non-conscious ― therefore, with ‘total self,’ symbolized through the awesome object or situation.
As with any autosuggestion, trying to coerce it, it may backfire.
Eventually, a symbol always leads to total self. A Symbol Is Always YOU. For instance, remember the last time you felt in awe? Chances are you also felt profoundly ‘you’ in that situation.
Awe is the feeling of grandeur in this.
It shows how wonderful and important YOU are. This is the profound message of awe.
At the same time, as in any of the above cases, awe has an awesome effect also because it head-on humbles the ego in contact with the total self ― not standing in the way for a while, being Open. Awe is this combination of humility and grandeur.
An encounter with total self ― therefore also with meaningfulness.
Awe can remarkably feel like coming home where you belong. You can feel at peace with ‘it’: your life, life in general, the universe… in a profoundly meaningful way.
Thus, experiencing awe should always be welcomed as an important moment. It is a close encounter of the meaningful kind.
It’s also a very wholesome moment. At such a time, you breathe sanity. It’s an experience that you should cherish and carry with you. An experience that – if repeated now and then – makes life more worthy.
And yes, this tends towards the mystical.
A mystical experience is always one of awe, even when it doesn’t feel so at first sight. ‘The mystical’ lies further along the road of awesomeness.
Every day an experience of awe is everyday mysticism.
An open door to Open Religion.
Wow.
Related Posts
The Personal-Universal Paradox
What is most deeply personal can also be what is most universally felt. This paradox lives in poetry, in Compassion, in healing — and in silence. It invites us to explore how depth creates bridges rather than barriers. This blog explores how the personal-universal paradox manifests across coaching, culture, health, and the inner journey. A Read the full article…
How Lisa Gains Depth
Depth grows through processes that are surprisingly natural. Much like in human development, Lisa’s depth emerges through experience, reflection, interaction, and the gradual organization of meaning. The question is not whether Lisa can gain depth, but how such depth comes into being inside an, euh, robot. Two directions of depth People describe depth as if Read the full article…
Quick Fixes Worsen Problems
Western – pretty much global – culture is bent on quick fixes, and there are a host of persistent problems. It seems evident that these issues are deeply intertwined at both individual and societal levels. ’Quick’ is frequently also ‘surface level.’ This way, quick fixes tend to leave deeper solutions unaddressed. These continue to fester Read the full article…