Awakened? Or Just Rebranded
Magda Zielinska
Awakened? Or Just Rebranded
You paid to escape. But the cage was velvet
“The Factory of False Light” A collaboration between Turkish Bazaaar and ChatGPT. © Turkish Bazaaar. All rights reserved.
Uplifted in the 21st Century
Being “spiritual” is hot right now.
Everyone wants to be “awakened,” or better yet, “enlightened.”
The Earth is crawling with people who claim to have woken up.
And with them come affirmations, intentions, yoni and lingam massages, aura cleansing, aura photography.
There are yogis and goddesses, shamans and quantum healers.
Menstrual-blood paintings.
Courses on how to become a truly “spiritual person.”
Some theories wear science as a coat, but only to sell a fluffier version.
You can access it all — if you’re willing to pay an astronomical price, of course.
Retreats. Seminars. Workshops. Ceremonies.
All shapes and sizes. Depending on the creator’s imagination and willingness to hustle.
Our civilization’s been here before.
We’ve had our share of fake gurus, messiahs, spells, pseudoscience, sacred rites and silly rituals.
This isn’t new.
It’s just back — like an old trend that never fully died.
Searching for Oxygen
Yes — people are searching.
For themselves, for purpose, for stability, for a story to hold onto.
Because the world is beautiful.
But also harsh, cold, brutal.
A place where having has more value than being.
Where consumption is a machine,
and people build walls — physically and emotionally.
Where it’s harder and harder to find real kindness,
and you’re often left to face the chaos alone.
So naturally, we want something else.
Some oxygen.
We want to throw out what hurts and replace it with something better.
That’s natural. That’s healthy.
But when I look at what people turn to —
how they change, how they transform —
I feel something uneasy rising.
Because often,
they just switch addictions.
It’s like replacing one drug with another.
The packaging changes.
But the loop stays.
Balance Between Worlds
It has nothing to do with peace.
They fall into a different hole — one that slowly grows into a black hole.
To me, balance is being able to live in both worlds — material and immaterial.
Drawing one line through both.
Not running. Not floating away.
Just standing in between.
You don’t need to change your environment.
You don’t need to announce it to the world.
Awakened people don’t scream about it.
They don’t want followers.
They want peace.
But what I see are people caught in new boxes,
new roles, new labels.
Running toward the latest identity.
You can do that forever.
If Buddha was here, he’d probably burst out laughing and scratch his head.
Pain Is Not the Enemy
They try to bypass pain and suffering.
Live in a bubble. Love & peace ☼
But pain is necessary.
Pain and struggle shape us.
You can’t just cut them off. You can soften them. But you can’t delete them.
Otherwise, you’re just stuck —
in fantasy, in sugar-coated stagnation.
No Costumes. No Theater.
To me, enlightenment is mental calm.
Harmony.
Without the costumes. Without the theater.
Without another Instagram persona.
It’s clarity.
Acceptance.
It’s not fighting life.
It’s showing up to it — even when it breaks you.
With presence. With grace. With a quiet mind.
It’s joy without craving.
Gratitude even when it hurts.
Curiosity instead of judgment.
No expectations.
Just taking life as it is —
a mystery, not a problem.
Being Real
You can live life in many styles.
Play many roles.
Take on a dozen missions.
But to me, the only thing that matters is this:
Being real.
Open.
Elastic.
Present.
Learning.
Evolving.
Becoming.
A better person.
A better friend.
A better neighbor.
A better human.
Sharing what you’ve lived through.
Cutting the Boxes
Enlightenment is seeing things across layers.
Looking at people through many lenses.
Not just one dogma.
It’s asking questions.
And having the guts to be yourself.
It’s cutting the mental boxes we were stuffed into by parents, culture, church, school, tradition.
It’s deprogramming how we’ve been taught to think — and replacing it with our own voice.
You don’t need crystals.
You don’t need mantras.
You don’t need aura cleansers.
You don’t need spiritual influencers.
You already have it.
It’s there.
You just have to remember.
Work with it.
Practice.
Shape it.
Commit.
You are what you repeat.
And you can learn calm — even when life hits hard.
Not by suppressing emotions,
but by knowing them.
Naming them.
Guiding them.
Emotions are just the children of thought.
And thoughts can change.
Which means you can choose how to react.
That’s your greatest power.
The Real Kind of Beauty
We all carry something intangible.
Something spiritual.
Maybe even divine.
We are emotional creatures.
And those emotions live in the invisible.
That’s why we need beauty.
That’s why we need art.
That’s why we need music.
But not the fake kind.
Not cheap trends or aesthetic garbage.
Not grotesque spiritual marketing.
Not blood-painting TikToks.
We need music that stirs something.
Something real.
Because only then can it raise our awareness,
our culture,
our species.
The Quiet Awakening
I believe life with pain is deeper than life lived in denial.
Some people try to escape the mess.
They buy a villa in Bali.
Do yoga. Follow their guru.
Host workshops for an astronomical price.
They call it balance.
They call it happiness.
They call it peace.
But these things can’t be forced.
The more you try to catch them,
the more they vanish.
Real awakening comes quietly.
It happens when you’re ready.
It grows from experience.
Like Archimedes shouting “Eureka!”
Because it’s pain that teaches us.
Pain that humbles us.
Pain that opens our eyes.
We stop fearing the dark side —
and start understanding it.
We stop running from it —
and start seeing it as part of life.
Some people isolate themselves.
Or build communities around the fantasy that everything will now be perfect.
Until life shows up —
and cracks that shell.
Because life is messy.
Life, Unfiltered
If they were truly enlightened,
they wouldn’t be chasing sunshine.
They’d sit calmly in the storm.
They’d understand this:
Life is wonderful.
Then it’s horrible.
Then it’s wonderful again.
Then ordinary, boring, and quiet.
Breathe in the wonder.
Hold your breath through the horrible.
Rest in the ordinary.
Life is all of it.
And it is, above all else,
breathtaking.
And never forget:
Life is a cosmic joke.
It writes wild scripts.
Often pure Monty Python.
So don’t take it too seriously.
Don’t believe everything you think.
The world needs love.
But it also needs clarity.
And a very sharp knife called common sense.
This piece is part of the ongoing series “The Human Condition” — published on Wednesdays.
The quiet observatory of human patterns and gentle breakdowns.
Tender, ironic, and aware — written for those who still notice themselves.
© Turkish Bazaaar — All rights reserved
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Posted Oct 31, 2025
A reflective piece on modern spirituality and enlightenment.
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