Spiritual Awakening: The Ground of Love

3 Qualities of Spiritual Mastery and 3 Pitfalls. (1/2, EP3)

• OLIVIA FRAZAO

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What is spiritual mastery, spiritual authority, or simply being a spiritual person, really? Contrary to popular belief or what our culture tells us? This 2 part episode series discusses what being a spiritual person is and isn't, 3 pitfalls or traps we are often still stuck in even while on a spiritual path, and what it really looks like to heal from these and develop 3 qualities of spiritual mastery. 

This episode - and entire podcast series - is for people dedicated to spiritual awakening, spiritual practice, psychology and healing work. We are here to jump off the deep end together and explore what it means to live a life of devotion, multidimensional awareness, and truly embodied spirituality. We give ourselves, to be taken ever-deeper into true nature, connection with the Divine, and the truth of Love. 

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2:22 - What is a "spiritual person"?

7:56 - 1 (wound): Victimization

12:19 - 1 (healing): Responsibility

16:38 - 2 (wound): Arrogance

21:38 - 2 (healing): Compassion & Generosity

24:01 - 3 (wound): Fakeness

25:50 - 2 & 3: root of those wounds

29:50 - 2 (arrogance) healing exercise

31:14 - 3 (fakeness) healing exercise


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Keywords:

Meditation, consciousness, esoteric wisdom, nonduality, spiritual awakening, spiritual practice, mindfulness, psychology, ego-death, meditation, new age, bhakti, buddhism, christianity, hinduism, indigenous wisdom, energy healing work, ancient wisdom, sangha

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Olivia Frazao:

What does it mean to be a spiritual person? What does that mean? What is a quality? Or let's say, what are the top three qualities of a spiritual person? If you see someone, if you interact with someone, how do you know to say, wow, that's a spiritual person. Welcome to the Ground of Love. I'm your host, Olivia Frazao. This is a podcast for people who are deeply dedicated to the spiritual journey. You are here for self-growth care, for others, and being of service to the world. This podcast is in service to you to help you remember who you are and why you are here, you will receive inspiration, clarity, and no BS Love. We are walking each other home. Let's begin. In this episode, are talking about spiritual mastery. We'll begin by first asking what does it mean to be a spiritual person? Then we will look at three qualities that people who are on a spiritual path, who call themselves spiritual people, might still be living in, that are qualities that I would say are the opposite of what we are calling spiritual mastery. And instead, we will look at the three qualities that are of spiritual mastery, is the healing of each of those previous three wounds. fYI, I just want everybody to know that these next two episodes, this one and the part two that's coming next week, these are fiery episodes. You remember how I've said that every episode is going to be some kind of a transmission today, and next time it's gonna be what I would call more of a fiery transmission. Okay? So buckle up and just know that everything that I say is I'm kind of wielding this sword here a little bit. So I want you to know that it is all out of love. And we can enjoy ourselves. Hopefully you'll laugh sometimes, and I want you to know that all of this is Meant to be something that's helpful, inspiring, caring, and hopefully memorable in a good way. Something that you can take forward. Into your life. Okay? So I really deeply, deeply hope for this to be of service. And so I'm just telling you now, it's a little bit spicy. Okay? So I'm just getting you ready. Okay, So let's begin. What does it mean? To be a spiritual person, just consider right now, if you were to ask someone on the street or just think about it yourself. If I say, oh, that person is a spiritual person, what are some things that come to mind? What do you think that means? Obviously this is a monologue, so I'll answer this myself rather than wait to hear your response, but feel free to write in the comments. I would love to hear your response to all of this in the comments. So here we go. The qualities that our culture usually uses to say that someone is a spiritual person, I would say are twofold. One, the person has some kind of a belief system related to God or divinity or some kind of cosmology. That's, you know, some type of esoteric philosophy, right? They have, oh, this is what happens after you die, and this is, why life is the way it is, right? They have certain beliefs, I don't care. You can call it beliefs and you can call it direct knowings. I'm not even only talking about the level of belief, right? I'm talking about people who just have a cosmology in general, whether it's from a book or they heard it from someone, or whether it's actually from direct experience. Either way, same bucket. Okay? The other quality would be having some type of a practice, something related to this belief or direct experience or interest in these aspects of divinity. For example, prayer, meditation, yoga, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right? Something that you do that relates to or matches your beliefs, then you would say, oh, that's a spiritual person. Why? Oh, they always go to church on Sundays, or they go to synagogue or they pray to their, their deities or whatever, right? Okay. New definition, everybody. New definition. Let's now consider the life of someone on a spiritual path. they have this cosmology where probably the end game of all these practices and what they care about because of this cosmology is awakening, healing, and eventually enlightenment. So what is this path? It is a path in which the egoic self, the self that believes itself to be a separate self made of wounding and projections is dismantling over time and what shows up in its place. Is unity and oneness and unconditional love. So we are softly undoing ourselves. We're softly undoing, and so all of us who are on a spiritual path, meaning anyone who is truly dedicated to healing from wounding and seeing through the eyes of unconditional love and living in that way and knowing oneself as union, as oneness, we are all in an experience right now, which is uneven development. Some parts of us are still present. We have blind spots, we have triggers. We have places where we're not clean. We have places where we still don't see clearly. Meanwhile, other parts of us, other aspects of us, are beautifully resplendent. We are emanating, we are in our hearts, we are grounded. We are in the true power of presence. Maybe one thing shows up at one point of the day and another part of the day, another aspect of of us ends up showing up. So we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to not only have this belief of this is my cosmology, to not only have the spiritual practices that we have in order to help us clean up and awaken. Not only to have the desire for awakening and enlightenment and the value, and not only just valuing that, but the most important piece, which I'm finally gonna say here, what do we do in the meantime? What do we do before we attain enlightenment? Who are we? How are we acting? How are we showing up in our lives to ourselves and others? What do we do between meditation sessions or prayer or visits to the temple or whatever? Who are we being and how are we dealing with the fact that we are in a stage of uneven development? How are we holding responsibility for that? There are amazing masters who have come before us and some who are even grace in the earth at this moment, who are able to actually reveal to us what it is to be an unconditional love 24 7. I wish that I could say I am an unconditional love 24 7 and I bet that you wish that you could say that too, right? And that's where we wanna get to. But what are we doing now about that fact that we're not there yet? What are we doing about that? We're in like this middle ground, right? So how do we deal with the middle? So now we're gonna get to the three qualities. That are traps that we fall into that are not spiritual mastery. They are traps within the spiritual path. as we are in the spiritual path, we're falling into these traps. And then what does spiritual mastery really look like? number one, victimization. Now we have thrown around this word a gajillion times, all of us, I'm sure, but the truth is that we still experience it quite often if we're gonna be honest with ourselves. And so it's not about being like, oh no, I don't feel that. Right. We're not denying here, we're not shaming ourselves like, oh, I'm not a real spiritual person because I fall into victimization all the time. No, because that's not how we are defining being a spiritual person. We are not defining being a spiritual person as a perfect person. As an enlightened person. We're getting to the definition, so stay with me 'cause I keep talking about what it's not. We're getting there. So let's look at victimization. What's that really about? There are a lot of ways we can define this. I'm just gonna give one. Okay. I'm just giving, I'm gonna give one facet of the diamond of victimization, which is I am relying on you. To be different so that I can feel, okay, I am relying on the outer world to be different so that I can be okay, and because you're not different or because the outer world is different from what I need to be, okay, I'm screwed, and because I'm screwed. I'm resentful about that. I'm afraid of that, and I'm grieving that and because I don't wanna feel resentful, sad, and frustrated, I wanna have whatever the thing is that I need now, I'm gonna try to control you and control the world, right? Or I'm gonna turn into a puddle and fall onto the floor. It depends. Either the victim stays victim or victim turns into some type of potentially perpetrator, right? If I'm being. Controlling in a, in some kind of a, a violent way. And again, violence doesn't necessarily, it's not necessarily physical, right? But we're, we can be out of integrity by wanting to manipulate the world around us in order for us to be okay. That's kind of like a second step that, that's not always included in victimization, but it can happen a lot. Right? And then guess what? When we're doing that, the other person is probably gonna feel controlled and invaded and manipulated and whatever, and then they're gonna feel victimized and we're in this beautiful spiral with each other. That's really annoying that all of us know really well. So when we're victimizing, we're putting ourselves under somebody else or something else. And then we're kind of like pushing up against that thing that feels like it's pushing us down. So we're, now, we're in a fight with it, right? But we are the ones who put ourselves there. No one can make us a victim. Yes, people can treat us terribly. But we are the ones who give ourselves our identity. Victim is an identity. It's not something that's happening. It's the way that you see yourself. So you can actually get up. You can get up. You don't have to be laying there under the pressure of whatever it is, whoever, whatever. Right? That event or that action, that kind of imposed outer thing that's coming towards you or at you or onto you or whatever. I'm not denying that. And I'm not all, I'm not, I'm also not saying that any of this is easy. I I own as much as anybody else. I hope. 'cause the whole point is ownership here. That's another one of the categories that I land into victimization all the time too. So we're talking about remembering something that we need to practice over and over and over again. And I hope that the way that I'm saying it today, it just provides a little bit of clarity so that when we see these things happening, we can have maybe a new vantage point or some more tools or something to deal with something that we're dealing with all the time. Right. Realistically. Or at least that comes up more often than we wish it did. So we can actually shift into our spiritual mastery and know our own self-sufficiency. There's the outer world and there's the inner world. So what is the weather in the outer world and what is the weather in the inner world? Because we get to decide, right? You know who I said. We're gonna do three qualities of what is not being in our spiritual authority, and three qualities of what. Is rather than doing all three of the knot and then all three of the, what is I'm actually gonna do the wounding and then the healed, the wounding, and then the heeled aspect, the wounding, and then the heeled aspect. Okay. So you don't have to just listen to a whole bunch of negativity and then a bunch of awesomeness at the end. So we're gonna get a little bit of like ups and downs throughout. Okay. So spiritual mastery, what is it? What is the opposite of victimization in this case? Just using this one, this one pillar. It's gonna be three pillars. This one pillar, we're going from wounding to healing. So what are we looking at? How do we get out from under? Because once we have gotten out from under, we feel powerful. But how do we get out in order to feel powerful? There's a step before all of a sudden feeling powerful. It's the step of ownership. Ownership, oh, I have responsibility, it's ownership. So whenever we're stuck in victimization, one helpful way to get out of it is, where am I not wanting to take responsibility? Where am I making excuses? Because actually there's a convenience here for me to not fully own my power because there's something I don't actually feel like being responsible for. And then we can look at that. And when we take full ownership and full responsibility, full accountability, first of all, for our side of the court of whatever mess we have made, but also for the fact that we are the ones who are gonna pick ourselves up. And not only is that on us. But it's a, it's a thing to celebrate because it means no one can take it away from us, which means that it's currently available. Currently available now. So let's, let's, let's make this actionable. Okay. Just play with me here. Don't make this into a whole big thing. Like, oh, I'm gonna do it later. No, we're gonna do it now. Okay. We're, let's keep it really simple. We'll do it for like 30 seconds. Okay. And it's okay if you're driving or cooking or whatever. Let's just think really quickly, what is the last time that you victimized yourself? Was it this morning? Yesterday. Last week? What was it About? Some moment where you resented somebody else. That's a good marker for finding where we're victimizing ourselves. Right. Did you find something? Just pick just anything that you remember recently. Let's just play with this. Is there anywhere where you. Didn't want to or still don't want to take responsibility for something related in, in relation to this whole story that, that you found yourself in. What is it that you don't wanna own or that you don't want to accept? Because if you had to, then you would actually have to change our own behavior rather than waiting for the other person to change their behavior and resenting them for not having done it. What is something that you can own right now? Right now? Just like not, oh, I'll do this later. I don't, I'm, I don't, I'm just listening to Olivia kind of, you know, half listening. No, just take the opportunity. 30 seconds. Let's go find the thing where, is there something that you could accept, something that you could own, something that you could stand for, or live up to, or let go of? Or acknowledge or accept or admit? Like what's the thing. Between the current victim stance and the empowerment that you know is waiting for you, that you know is actually who you are. And it might be a tough pill to swallow. So that's kind of a fun little secret about victimization, right? That's a good hack. It's like life is tough, things happen, and how can I find my empowerment? Let me look for the place where I can take responsibility, ownership, acceptance, et cetera, about something that will help flip that switch. It'll help me get back up on my feet. It'll help me find my center and my groundedness and my empowerment, and my voice, and my dignity, and my choice, and my self-love, and my self-sufficiency, and everything that comes from empowerment rather than victimization. So again, just one little hack, one version of a definition. We could talk about these things through so many different angles. Okay. I'm doing a little, a little drive by. A podcast can only be a little drive by, right? Because this is a lifetimes and lifetimes of work. Okay, let's go to the next one. Let's see. I'm actually gonna go all the way to the other extreme for our next pillar. Okay. So why would someone sometimes not want to come out of this kind of power under position? Why would someone, I'll say this in a different way now, on a spiritual level, why would someone not want to enter into what I'm personally calling spiritual mastery or a spiritual authority? I'll say this in a different way. Is anybody here triggered by me talking about spiritual authority? And if you're triggered, then maybe, um, that trigger is pointing to what I'm trying to point to right now, which is, here's what authority is not, but what sometimes we worry that it might be, or you worry that this is what I mean, and then you're turned off. Which is being an a-hole, which is being arrogant, being controlling and being righteous. So what happened here? We just went from power under to power over. Now in this new example, now we're talking power over. We are talking about how our culture, the authority figures that we see out there are, let's just say most of them are the opposite of what I actually, um, who I actually hope to be. Does anyone else feel that way? Right? So some people might feel allergic to the feeling of being in our authority because what we are shown by our culture, or by our, let's say political scene or business world or whatever, is people who have power over other people and control, and are using it for basically using other people and Mother Earth and other beings while we're at it, right? This is not what we're talking about. But we need to also let, let's look at this for a second. Where are we potentially being righteous? Where are we being, full of ourselves? Like, Ooh, I'm a spiritual person, which means that I know more than you, I'm a spiritual person, which means that I'm more evolved than you, or, I'm a spiritual person and so I know things and you don't, or I can't even hang out with you, or whatever other super arrogant, ways that you kind of puff up your own feathers and exclude other people or put people under you. Okay? This is not a quality of acknowledging one's spiritual maturity or spiritual authority. This, ironically is this is spiritual immaturity. And this usually only happens for people who are in the beginning of the spiritual path because it's such a huge hit that you get in the beginning, right? When you go from being totally clueless about all these esoteric things to starting to live in a world that's more multidimensional, there is a high that happens there where you're on your total high horse. Meanwhile, you've actually gone further away from the goal, which is dissolving the ego. It's like your ego gets even bigger, right? So this is the opposite of what I'm actually talking about when I talk about spiritual authority. Spiritual authority has humility at its center, at its center, not as one of the aspects at its absolute center. What does that mean? What does it mean for humility to be at the center of who we are and what we do and how we experience the divine and how we experience our own becoming or better set our own undoing? It means that we're not the, uh, protagonist here of the universe. It means that we are held by that which is greater, and we are humbled by the great storms of life, and that we are offering a hand to those in need because we are also in need, and we have also been in need. We know ourselves as one with the great stars of awesomeness of the universe and with those who, feel most lost from themselves because we have all that stuff in us too. So here's a little fun fact. This is, someone's gonna love this. Who in your life is using their spirituality to be righteous? And act controlling towards you and arrogantly kind of, um, be dismissive of you or condescending towards you because don't fall for that, if any, if anybody's falling for that, this is for you. Okay? Yay. Not an aspect of spirituality and aspect of immaturity. Great. And we're talking about this on the spiritual level, right? Like using kind of your spiritual experience to all of a sudden be full of yourself. But obviously righteousness control and arrogance are showing up everywhere in the world, regardless of whether it's within a quote unquote spiritual context or not. Everybody knows that. Okay? Now, Now this is interesting because I'm looking at the pillars and now we gotta do the healed version of this pillar, right? The way we get there is the same way that we're gonna get there with the next pillar too. So I'm gonna save that for later. But let's just talk about the outcome. So what's the opposite of this? Being compassionate and being generous. So when you see someone out there who is open-hearted. And you know that because they are seeing others through the eyes of compassion and they are treating others with generosity. So their perception and their behavior are compassion and generosity. You have just found a spiritual person. I don't care what their cosmology is, I don't care if they have any beliefs about the divine or if they're total atheist. I don't care if they do any spiritual practice or not. this person is living a life of compassion and generosity towards themselves and towards other people, and not only like the select people who are exactly the way they like them to be, or who give them what they want or whatever, but in general, towards everyone. And not only people, but all beings. You have found an extremely spiritual person. That is a real spiritual person. So, yes, what I have just said is that let's say an atheist who does not believe in God, whatever God is to you, who is compassionate and generous, is a spiritual person and another person who goes to church or temple their whole lives, quote unquote, believes in God and does, you know, prayer or whatever. But who is someone who is not compassionate and generous? I'm gonna say that that person is not a spiritual person. They're not. They're not being it, and they're not living it. So I don't care what they believe and I don't care what kind of, you know, I don't care what they do on Sundays or whatever. You know, whenever they do their spiritual practice, because spiritual practice is life itself. And if they're not compassionate towards themselves and other people, and if they're not generous towards themselves and other people, then what are we doing? So, yes, that's my definition of spiritual person. Let's So I'm gonna pause here. This is going to be the end of this episode, which is spiritual Mastery part one, and next week we are going to do spiritual mastery part two. And we will finish the list and we will come out with what is the true quality of being a spiritual person who is in the middle of a spiritual path, not a fully enlightened person, because we already know those qualities, unity, oneness, et cetera. But being a spiritual person, as someone who is on a spiritual path, we're gonna get to this final top quality in the next. Episode. So stay tuned and check in next week for when the episode drops. thank you for being with me in The Ground of Love. You can follow this podcast to receive the next episodes, and who is it that comes to mind to share this episode with? Who Could Benefit? Is it a family member? Is it a friend, a client, a colleague who would be inspired, reminded of what matters to them by being in our energy that we've shared here today. So please go ahead and pass this along to them and go ahead and leave a review or a rating if you wish. That would be great because that's how I end up being seen on these platforms, like Spotify is when people leave ratings and reviews. So if you'd like to support this, if you'd like other people to see it, leaving a rating or a review is very helpful, and I thank you for that. For more information on other offerings that I provide, you can go to the ground of love.com and see other projects and work there. I also provide one-on-one healing sessions meditations, and a group membership. All of that is on the website, the ground of love.com. Blessings to you. May you be protected, held, generated, centered. And taken forward with all light, love, truth and highest and best health and wellbeing on all levels and taken forward to make the greatest, most beautiful impact doing exactly what you're here to do. God bless you. Protection, grace, protection, grace. So it is