There are two parts of awakening, which is often also called enlightenment. These two parts are called Freedom and Fullness.
Fullness involves movement through the structures of awareness, what we might call vertical growth. With each new structure that is actualized within a person, that person is able to take a greater number of perspectives. Basically it is the movement from me to us to all of us, an ever-widening embrace, ever-deepening care.
At present, there are about six or seven of these structures that have emerged or unfolded. They are commonly called archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, and integral. Part of awakening, the Fullness part, is moving upward through these structures, and thereby allowing the light of Spirit to shine more fully, more deeply and intensely, through yourself. Which is where the importance of real spiritual practice comes in, as I mentioned in my post.
So structures of awareness are one fundamental aspect of a human being. Another basic aspect of a human being is states of awareness. Structures are essentially permanent, in that once you've reached a certain structure, you're not really going to lose it. States, however are quite often fleeting.
Your normal waking mode of consciousness is a state, which can be altered by meditation, prayer, intense exercise or concentration, drug use, etc. In our everyday lives, everyone experiences the three basic states of waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep, which are sometimes referred to as gross, subtle, and causal states of awareness.
Freedom involves a movement through these states of awareness, what we might call horizontal growth. The basic aim of meditation is to allow consciousness, or wakefulness, to penetrate through all of these states, all the way to the ever-present Source of reality, that great Mystery.
In meditation, one simply sits and observes whatever is arising. Sounds arise, little aches and pains arise, emotions arise, desires arise, thoughts arise, and you simply sit and watch all of it. And what you begin to realize, not in a mental abstract way, but as a concrete experience, is that you are the stillness in which all of these things are arising. And this is the Freedom part of awakening, because that which is aware of suffering is free from suffering.
