Awakening is just the beginning. It is the most important turning point in our evolution because it marks the potential to live more purely as Essence in the world and less as ego. However, for most people the ego isn’t gone after awakening and can resurrect at times or operate surreptitiously. Ego-identification still occurs after awakening, but when it is happening it is usually recognized quickly, and so it doesn’t last long or have the power to cause suffering that it did before awakening. Most people’s egos are intact after awakening, but because there is a realization of who you really are, the ego is seen for what it is and recognized to be not who you are. When ego-identification happens, it’s more like you are watching yourself be identified, while you continue to be aware of yourself as Essence. There is a much greater capacity after awakening to not identify with the ego and to remain as Essence, which is an easeful experience of being in the flow that includes love easily flowing from you toward everyone and everything.

There are certain common experiences that occur after awakening, although everyone’s experience is individual. Nevertheless, nearly always the first stage after awakening is an experience of elation and spiritual inflation to some degree. The ego re-forms around “I am awake” and takes some pride and sense of superiority in that. This is a phase that nearly everyone passes through, and it is pretty apparent, if not to the newly awakened person, to those around him or her. There is often a tendency to talk about the awakening, to wonder who else is and is not awake, and to identify oneself as “awake” to others. An identity forms around being awake. This can be rather harmless, but if the person doesn’t realize the ego has taken on spiritual garb, then this phase can last for some time. Knowing that this is a normal stage can help you get through this phase more gracefully.

The reason we find thoughts about ourselves and others so compelling, besides the fact that we are programmed to pay attention to them, is that we believe we need them to function—and we enjoy thinking. Nevertheless, such thoughts come from the ego, and we don’t need those thoughts, and we are better off without them.

We think that if we don’t pay attention to the voice in our head, we will miss out on something, but what we miss out on when we give our attention to that voice is real life, the life beyond the ego’s mental world. The ego doesn’t have a very high opinion of real life, and neither do we when we are identified with the ego. Life without thoughts seems boring, uninteresting. But that’s only because we don’t stay in real life long enough to really experience what it has to offer. We often have one foot in and one foot out of our present moment experience: One foot in the mind and one foot in what is real.

We tend to believe that thinking supplies everything we need: wisdom, insight, information, guidance, planning, and fun. What more could you ask for? If paying attention to the egoic mind could really provide these things, then this voice in our head would be indispensible and a true friend. However, it fails miserably at this; even the fun often comes at quite an expense. The egoic mind pretends to be able to provide these things, and we are programmed to believe it can, but it doesn’t deliver what it promises. Even once we see this, we may still give this voice in our head our attention, just in case it comes up with something good: Maybe the next thought is the one that will change everything!

Everything we really want to know—what will happen, why things have happened, and what to do next—the mind just doesn’t know. Let this sink in a moment, because we are deeply conditioned to believe that the egoic mind has those answers. What if you really knew that it doesn’t have any of the answers you are looking for? Instead, it is what raises those questions and wants so badly to know the answers—but it doesn’t have them.

Thoughts are designed to be very convincing. As soon as we think a thought, we believe it. We have to learn to stand apart from and question our thoughts before it becomes clear how few of them are actually true. “I’m not pretty,” “He shouldn’t have left,” “I can’t do that,” “I can’t take any more rejection,” “She doesn’t care”—such thoughts are felt to be true, and so they are believed and therefore spoken convincingly, as if they were true. And because we are convinced when we speak them, others become convinced as well.

The funny thing, though, is that being convinced of something doesn’t make it so. Con artists and salesmen convince people all the time of things that aren’t true because they know how to sound believable. The best salesmen are the ones who believe in their product, but a salesman can be just as effective by pretending to believe in a product. If that person is so convinced, then, we are likely to be convinced too. But believing something doesn’t make it so. Many contestants on the TV show “American Idol” believe they are going to win, but only one actually wins.

We live in a state of uncertainty. You may be certain about some things, but the overall experience in any moment is one of uncertainty: What will happen? Why did that happen? Why is this happening? When will it be over? What will be the result? These questions are our constant companions in life. We are doomed to uncertainty, or so the ego feels. That's not the experience of Essence, however, which enjoys the uncertainty of life. Essence isn't what asks those questions. The ego poses them and tries to answer them to try to gain some sense of control over life, which is essentially uncontrollable, unpredictable, and unknown.

Let's take a look at some of these questions, because people tend to think they are valid and valuable, but really, they belong to the ego and its way of thinking and are related to its desires and fears. The desire for life to be a certain way and the fear that it won't be drive those questions and every other activity of the ego. The problem with these questions is they presume an overly simplistic answer: What will happen? This will happen. End of story. Why is this happening? Because of this. End of story. When will it be over? Time and date. End of story. What will be the result? This will. End of story.