The Price of Awakening in Mystical Journey

Awakening on the path of mysticism is a journey that always comes with a great cost; a price that cannot be measured by ordinary standards or weighed on any scale. What is paid is everything you have long been accustomed to, and what is received is a gift beyond measure: causeless peace, pure presence, and union with the Source from which your soul has arisen.

This article seeks to illuminate the dimensions of this “price”—not to instill fear, but to prepare the soul of the seeker who wishes to walk the path consciously.

1. The Collapse of Previous Assumptions

Every awakening begins with a death—the death of beliefs that once served as the refuge of the psyche. Throughout life, a person wears many layers of constructed certainties. Although comforting, they are often born of habit and imitation, not truth.

In the moment of awakening, the veils are lifted and old assumptions collapse. This breakdown, though unsettling, is the prelude to perceiving truth without disguise—just as a child must leave the safety of home to experience a wider world.

2. Existential Loneliness

Awakening does not sever you from society, yet it creates an invisible distance between you and others. When the eye of the soul opens, your words may no longer resonate with those still asleep.

This is not merely social or psychological isolation—it is existential loneliness. It is the realization that no one else can carry the weight of existence for you. Painful, yes, but ultimately liberating.

3. The Death of the Old Identity

One of the heaviest prices of awakening is the death of the “known self.” Masks, roles, and even the self-image you have cherished must burn in the fire of truth.

This death is bitter and difficult. The seeker feels they can no longer remain the same “I.” Nothing is truly lost, but rather a shell falls away so that a new truth may be born.

4. Embracing the Suffering of Awareness

Awareness does not only reveal beauty. Awakening also opens the eyes to the suffering and helplessness of humanity. The seeker sees how people remain trapped in ignorance, repetition, and distraction.

This vision, though painful, sows the seed of compassion. The awakened one can no longer deceive themselves or others, for falsehood is a veil already lifted from their sight.

5. Full Responsibility for Life

In sleep, blame can be placed on others: family, society, fate. In awakening, the seeker realizes that no one but themselves is accountable.

This responsibility is heavy, for it restores agency. The awakened one sees that they choose the path, and with every decision, they shape the reality of their life.

6. The Loss of Unconscious Pleasures

Many pleasures are possible only in ignorance—pleasures rooted in unawareness, in avoiding truth. The awakened can no longer indulge in them as before.

This is not deprivation but transformation. Shallow delights give way to deeper and purer joys—joys that spring from union with truth itself.

Beyond the Price of Awakening

Though the price of awakening is heavy, what is granted in return transforms all measures:

  • Causeless peace: not derived from external conditions, but born of presence in the now.
  • Pure presence: the ability to live in the moment, free from reliance on past or future.
  • Union with the Source: the experience of oneness with the very truth from which the soul has arisen.

These are not quantifiable achievements, but a new quality of being.

Awakening in the mystical journey carries a cost—a cost that may seem heavy: the collapse of beliefs, loneliness, the death of the old identity, the suffering of awareness, full responsibility, and the transformation of pleasures. Yet in comparison to what is given, the cost is nothing.

For awakening is not a transaction in the marketplace, but a transformation of the soul. You surrender habits and masks, and in return, reclaim your true essence.