Awakening vs Insight

[CultivateLove]

Is there a clear difference between these two? I looked up the definition of those two but the definitions wary based on which dictionary it's in.

Definition of insight in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition: "The ability to discern the true nature of a situation, especially by intuition."

But in the Oxford dictionary it defines intuition as: "The capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something."

The same applies to the word Awakening, it is similar but differs slightly based on which dictionary it is in.

@Leo Gura I'm especially interested in hearing from you because to me it seems like you use those two words distinctively.

[CultivateLove]

Isn't saying "I awoke to the fact I am God" just the same as saying "I realized I am God" or "I had the insight that I am God" 

I realize language is entirely subjective and it doesn't have any inherent meaning, but why would one use different words for the same thing when trying to speak as clearly as possible? 

[Leo Gura]

To me they are quite different from each other.

Awakening is a radical shift in your state of consciousness in which you become directly conscious that you are dreaming up reality. This is way more than a mere insight, but of course it comes with insight. So in this case insight would be an aspect of awakening.

But you can have all sorts of insights which are not awakening and which do not create a shift in your state of consciousness. An insight could be something as minor as realizing how to solve a puzzle game.

Insights are way easier to have than awakenings or God-realizations. And insights usually don't change your state very much. The typical person will have hundreds or even thousands of insights in her life, but zero awakenings. An awakening is a very serious event. It's like breaking reality.

[Vincent S]

IMO: Insight is when you grasp the possibility of something in reality being actual. More of a heightened idea, with a kick of understanding the nature of something.
While awakening is when you clear every single possible mental baggage and doubt, ideas and fantasies about something. No more speculation. And it becomes crystal clear, for what it Is. Which is Everything. What was searched for has been found, with even more than what was searched for, In an overwhelming way.

Insight is more of marking locations on your map to get a localized/globalized viewpoint, and show you how far you have gone or how much of the map you have discovered.
Awakening is when you realize that there were no map. You are trying to grasp something that is not graspable. But yet, it is, and it is Infinite.
A deep sense of awe and as @Judy2 mentioned, a transcendental component is attached to it. Reality shifting thoroughly.

Insight is connecting dots on the relative levels. While awakening is connecting those dots to the Absolute.


When you are sleeping on the bed, and someone tries to shake you up and wake you up, the person trying to wake you up: nudges you a little bit, but if you are sleeping heavily, then those nudges are just a prerequisite, or a warming up to wake you up, but it is still not enough somehow, sometimes. Those nudges are insights.

But awakening is when you are sleeping on your bed and you are dreaming about something. Lets say you are dreaming of falling. That usually jolts people up out of their dream. But sometimes the falling in the dream seems so real, so you are just falling and falling, without ever reaching a ground. And then you have someone on the outside, trying to nudge you or shake you up to wake you out of the dream.
So the person gets worried and hits you with something or slaps you out of the dream. And you go from falling Infinitely, to waking up on your bed, with your mom slapping you across the face.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Vincent S

[CultivateLove]

@Leo Gura Ah I see, so it's kind of like becoming lucid in a dream, but in "waking life". I remember making that connection in the past yet somehow it slipped away from me... I had a few lucid dreams in my life and they always had a strong mystical, magical sort of feeling. Like reality was pure magic. I get that sometimes in waking life too, but no as strong, except when on psychedelics.

Thanks for the clarification.  

[Leo Gura]

@CultivateLove I have a video: What Does Awakening Feel Like? which fully explains it.

[Gesundheit2]

Personally, I use the words awakening and insight interchangeably. But I prefer awakening when the insight is so overwhelmingly obvious and groundbreaking, that it's shocking how I wasn't aware of it before, that I estimate it must stick with me forever. So to represent the difference between the state of being asleep and the state of being awake in regards to a particular insight or facet of reality.

Basically, both words boil down to the same core meaning, which is direct recognition of truth.

[CultivateLove]

@Leo Gura Nice, I'll check it out!

Edited June 10, 2022 by CultivateLove

[SOUL]

Here's a simple explanation even though there are deeper ones that can be made: awakening is like taking off blinders and insight is what is seen once the blinders are off.

[Aaron p]

14 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

An awakening is a very serious event. It's like breaking reality.

haha nice

[Superfluo]

@Leo Gura Do you think logic as a process is a sequence of micro-insights which we are accustomed to using?

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, Superfluo said:

@Leo Gura Do you think logic as a process is a sequence of micro-insights which we are accustomed to using?

Hard to say. Haven't contemplated that.

[VictorB02]

@Leo Gura Great description of the two. That is how I have experienced it.

On 6/10/2022 at 0:57 AM, Leo Gura said:

To me they are quite different from each other.

Awakening is a radical shift in your state of consciousness in which you become directly conscious that you are dreaming up reality. This is way more than a mere insight, but of course it comes with insight. So in this case insight would be an aspect of awakening.

But you can have all sorts of insights which are not awakening and which do not create a shift in your state of consciousness. An insight could be something as minor as realizing how to solve a puzzle game.

Insights are way easier to have than awakenings or God-realizations. And insights usually don't change your state very much. The typical person will have hundreds or even thousands of insights in her life, but zero awakenings. An awakening is a very serious event. It's like breaking reality.

Awakenings: Completely mind blowing / reality breaking / profoundly deep and mystical - deeply changes who "you" are and what you identify with, can last for a long time.

Insights: Usually minor, can be very cool and mind opening - doesn't usually change who "you" are in any significant way, usually comes and goes like a thought and doesn't last too long.

Edited June 13, 2022 by VictorB02
added a few words