Why Not Awaken (Niche Website)

The Awaken Aspirations are more than just community guidelines – they’re the core attitudes to bring into the way we practice on Awaken, and they’re the values that form the bedrock of our community.

Messy Authenticity

No one has it figured it out. When we practice on Awaken, we’re asked to bring ourselves, just as we are. Be you, share your truth, and try not to be afraid of judgement. Waking up is a messy process, and Awaken is a safe space to express and work through what we’re feeling – while staying aware of how the ways in which we show up have an impact on those around us.

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Contemplative Approach

Of course, being authentic doesn’t mean just spewing what you feel is your truth. Practicing with Awaken is also centered on being contemplative – why do we feel the way we feel? What’s going in our minds and hearts as we’re being authentic? The contemplative approach asks us to observe and be curious about our experience: our thoughts, emotions, our words and actions. It asks us to look deeper into ourselves to discover more layers of truth.

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Collective Liberation

When we practice with Awaken, we’re not just practicing in solidarity with other people, but we’re learning more and more deeply how our own freedom and joy is fundamentally intertwined with the liberation of all people. We center certain types of liberation and justice – for Black, Indigenous, and peoples of color, women, LGBTQ+ folx, people living with disabilities, and more – as a necessary part of this process of collective liberation.

The Awaken Path

The world is on fire right now, so it makes sense that we’re feeling like we’re on fire as well. Far beyond our current political predicament, the unconsciousness, oppression, and hate that has always been a part of our political, economic, and social systems seems to be on the rise.

Awaken strikes at the heart of what this system depends on: perpetuating our illusion of separateness. When we meditate and contemplate what’s happening in our minds, hearts, and lives, we are undoing the social conditioning that tells us only certain people should have power in the world, rejecting need for constant stimulation, and detaching from consumerism. Instead, we’re cultivating a healthy, loving relationship with ourselves, one that doesn’t rely on what we own or how we look, but is rooted in the simplicity of who we are, our inherent and fundamental goodness as human beings.

For all of us to be free and awake, we must – together – prioritize ending suffering for those most oppressed in the current incarnation of the world. Furthermore, we simultaneously realize that this is not just most expedient path for those groups, but for all people – that systems of oppression target and harm all of us, regardless of what type of body we’re in. We do this through both meditation practice, but also by sharing with others in the community, so we can express our truth and learn from the experiences of others.