Few spiritual subjects have been so wrapped in legend and mystery as the term ‘Enlightenment’.
This partly has to do with the fact that few people have experienced it. It is always difficult to talk about something you yourself haven’t experienced at first hand, right? And then there’s some who say they have experienced it, while they haven’t. Perhaps they are very convinced that they have, but they are not as far as they think they are. Or perhaps their understanding of it is incomplete and they are confused about the meaning.
Then there are others who clearly have experienced it. What are their experiences like? What does this mean for their life right now? Are they finished living the human experience? Is my Enlightenment the same as another person’s Enlightenment?
On this page, I am going to clear up the conversation about Enlightenment. About what it is and what it isn’t.
Multiple levels
In reality, there are very many variations in paths towards Enlightenment. However, we can distinguish certain elements of similarity between all these paths, that indicate that in spite of these differences it is still possible to compare how far one person has progressed on their path, versus how far another person has. There are, therefore, different stages of Enlightenment.
Do bear in mind, though, that to truly be certain of any judgement in this matter, you have to have progressed beyond the stage where you think the person might be at. Even if this person is yourself. For many people is will be better to refrain from such judgement altogether. An doing so can become a serious obstruction on your path. But for others it will be very helpful to do so, and not doing so could become a serious obstruction on their path.
Choose for yourself, but choose wisely.
The Stages
These stages of Enlightenment, or perhaps better: stages of Awakening, are sometimes called initiations. Such an initiation awakens you into a new aspect of reality. One that has always been there already, but which you now have become aware of.
Any of these initiations is built up from a set of minor initiations. Each time one wraps up such a set of minor initiations, a stage of awakening is completed and one passes a gate or treshold, which is registered as a ‘major’ initiation. And just like in computer games, any time such a ‘new level’ is reached, the game changes a little bit and a new struggle starts.
These stages have different names in different traditions. For this page, I have chosen to describe them in the following way:
- Gate 1: Awakening to the Heart-body connection
- Gate 2: Awakening to the Heart-lower mind connection
- Gate 3: Awakening to the Heart-Mind connection
- Gate 4: Awakening to the Full Light of the Self / Self-Realisation (Svarupa Sthiti)
- Gate 5: Liberation from all negative karmas (Moksha)
- Gate 6: Liberation into Divine Purpose
- Gate 7: Liberation into Freedom of Choice
- Gate 8: Liberation from all virtuous karmas (Kaivalya)
- Gate 9: Liberation from the bounds of sensory perception
- Gate 10: Liberation from the cosmic physical plane (Avadhuta)
At each of these gates a new phase of initiation starts, of which the name I have given it is the theme. Behind some of them is the traditional Yogic term that I have understood to be associated with it. They are always a stage in which one moves from darkness into more Light. That is where the term Enlightenment comes from.
Let us now look into each of them briefly.
Gate 1: Awakening to the Heart-body connection
When the student passes through the first gate, the first initiation starts. The initial experience that ‘launches’ this phase is one of for the first time ever directly realising that one is in fact a Soul living a human experience. By direct realisation I mean realising it, not as a mere mental concept, but as a deeply felt truth. The Soul starts to energise the etheric-physical plane.
Very often, this experience of the Soul is so new that one rejects it’s truth nonetheless. However, there is no turning around. Even if the student will do all he can to work in the opposite direction, he will keep growing into a deeper awareness from now on.
Other people do experience it without rejecting, and start becoming active seekers of spiritual development. This obviously will have some benefits, but also many downsides that are easily underestimated. To understand this, consider closely that the student at this point is still completely new to this realisation and his/her judgement cannot yet always be trusted.
Today, very great numbers of people have reached this initial stage of spiritual awakening or are born having reached this stage in their previous incarnation. During it, the student has a series of experiences that awakens his awareness to the fact that the Light of the Soul truly exists, through the perspective of his body and its appetites, the physical/etheric aspects of daily living and service in the world.
On the level of matter, from the physical up to the etheric level, fulfilment of the desires of the personality will have to make way for the fulfilment of the aspirations of the Soul. The personality, that has until this point always been the guiding force in one’s life, starts to be overruled by the Soul more and more often, even though it will still be met with a lot of resistance. It is a conflict of interests and the student becomes aware of this, although he or she is often unable to put this into spiritual words. If even at all interested in doing so.
Spirituality, if actively sought, is still mostly experienced through physical plane lenses such as social meetings, events & festivals, spiritual communities, the green revolution, nutrition & diet, massages & acupuncture, purification of the body, many of today’s westernised schools of yoga asana & breathwork practices, organised religions, shamanic rituals, psychedelic drugs, etcetera.
Gate 2: Awakening to the Heart-lower mind connection
When the student passes through the second gate, the second initiation starts. The first phase has been wrapped up and its climax makes the student aware that the Soul can be experienced beyond the physical plane. There lies the layer that is often called the astral plane, which is related to the lower mind and the emotional experiences. A realisation comes that the Soul will have to bring its Light to this darkness as well. The Soul now directly energises this layer of consciousness.
Temporarily — and this may stretch across many lifetimes, still — this energising will cause more extreme behaviour on this level. Be it through more extreme emotions, deeper illusions or the effects of these emotions and illusions on one’s life. Both in ways beneficial and in a troublesome manner. More often now, the student is consciously using spiritual sources for the solutions to their problems. Or he/she more firmly than ever uses their beliefs to move in the opposite direction (agnosticism, atheism, etc.). Effectively, this changes very little to the unfoldment of Soul consciousness. The effects are only noticable in time, space and the colouration of one’s experiences. But it is still possible to to cause major delays or even reverses of the process.
In the world today, the number of people that are working on this phase is smaller than the number of people who are working through the first initiation. Some of them will take the rest of their life or even more than one lifetime to work through this stage. During it, the student has a series of experiences that awakens his awareness to the fact that both our emotions and our thoughts can gravely obscure our consciousness. And that the Light of the Soul needs to be called in here is well.
Ideals turned into idealism, personal desires, devotion & loyalty, fanaticism, emotions & emotional instabilities and psychological illnesses are typical problems in this phase. Also, actions based on illusions start becoming a prominent problem in this phase. All this needs to be transformed into Love and group service and this can only be done through the power of the Soul. This brings greater stability to one’s inner life and more likeliness of success to activities done for the benefit of humanity or other realms of nature. An interest in the higher senses (clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc.) often starts in this period, although it is unwise to actively seek to develop them.
Spirituality is now more often actively sought. It is still mostly experienced in sentimental and mostly personal ways. Many in this phase start experimenting with teaching or healing or with active participation on a collective level in making some aspect of daily living better. It is the last initiatic phase that can be completed without any active sense of spirituality.
Gate 3: Awakening to the Heart-Mind connection
During this initiatic phase, students — no matter their energetic structure —will have to come to terms with the fact of the existence of the Soul and consciously recognise it. At this point, many will have done so already, but it can no longer be avoided if one wants to pass through gate 3.
When the student passes through the third gate, the third initiation starts. The emotions and lower mind have been purified and their connection to the Soul has been stabilised……
