This kind of direct experience and knowing of the purity of true nature I call “necessary awakening,” an awakening of true being. This means that an encounter of the third kind with true nature is necessary for essential activation. But being necessary does not mean it is sufficient. That is to say, it doesn’t mean that an encounter of the third kind by itself will be sufficient for activation. It is necessary, though, in the sense that activation won’t happen without it. The activation of the life of being, this irrepressible, unstoppable dynamism, is not possible without this necessary awakening to true nature, awakening to spirit.

Recognizing that true nature is from another world, from another dimension or realm of reality is a significant part of necessary awakening. If we have an experience of true nature and simply think, “Oh, that was nice. It felt good. That must have been an experience of pleasure or some kind of love and sweetness,” we might mistake it for a continuation of our usual experience and not see that it is a quantum break with reality as we have known it. If we don’t recognize the radical otherness or difference of true nature, we haven’t yet elements necessary for awakening awakened. True nature remains for us just another pleasant experience and is severed from the stream of consciousness that can begin to activate the life of being. In talking about necessary awakening, I am not revealing anything new. We have worked with encounters of the third kind all along the path. It does not matter what form of true nature you experience—whether a kind of presence, awareness, or emptiness, whether bounded or boundless—because all forms are basically one truth manifesting in different ways. What is important is that you recognize the underlying purity and otherness of true nature regardless of what form it takes.