On Realisation Without Embodiment

On the path, I encountered teachers who had clearly realised something true. They had seen through the illusion of a separate self. Their words were sharp, clear, even liberating.

And yet… something felt off.

Their teaching lacked warmth. There was no softness, no inclusion of the messy human experience—no space for grief, trauma, confusion.

I had been walking a different path. One rooted in shadow work, nervous system integration, emotional honesty. For me, the awakening journey wasn’t just about clarity, it was about wholeness.

For a while, this mismatch confused me. I wondered: how can someone be so clear and still seem so disconnected from the human?

But then it became obvious: Awakening can happen without embodiment. 

Realisation doesn’t require the character to be healed. It doesn’t wait for integration or emotional maturity. It simply reveals: there is no one here.

That recognition can land like lightning; slicing through the illusion, regardless of how messy or broken the human system is.

Why? Because awakening is not about fixing the character. It’s about seeing that the character was never you.

But here’s the deeper truth: realisation does not automatically integrate the human.

The trauma, the old emotional patterns, the protective strategies—they don’t always vanish just because the self is seen as illusory.

And if those patterns aren’t included, the realisation can stay in the head, or behind the eyes, detached from the heart and body.

That’s why some “awakened” people can feel cold, aloof, or dismissive. The clarity is real, but the light hasn’t yet reached the basement.

That’s okay. That’s just how it’s moving for them.

But if you’re someone whose path has been rooted in tenderness, grief, shadow, and inclusion—don’t think you’ve done it wrong.

You’re not behind. You’re going deep.

The slow, embodied unfolding may not look dramatic from the outside. But it touches places the lightning sometimes skips over.

Eventually, all paths lead to the same truth: there’s no one here and nothing is excluded.

Integration doesn’t happen because it “should.” It happens because the light, once seen, wants to touch everything.

It wants to hold even the mess, even the pain, even the parts of the character that were once pushed away.

So yes, some people awaken and leave the character behind like a burnt-out house.

Others awaken and slowly return to that house, tenderly turning on the lights in every room.

Neither is better. But if you’re called to that second path—trust it. It’s not a delay. It’s devotion.