Each step is likely to have a period of weeks, months, or often many years before the realisation deepens to the next level.

Taking the main point as an example, of there being only 'One' here: this requires only a certain amount of intelligence and, according to how clever the person is and how much reading they have done, they can convince others less clever that they have a good level of Self-Awareness. Of course it is not true. It requires no self-knowledge at all to understand much of what is said about the path to realising that all that exists is within 'one'.

Usually following some inquiry into the truth and a time of looking within one's self, a person can have an insight. This comes like a flash and can be very powerful, even giving the seeker the impression of really being 'home'. Like a shard of sunlight briefly glistening through the clouds before being obscured again, an insight is indeed a glimpse into the truth, but it is only a glimpse. It is gone as quickly as it occurred and, amongst the surrounding ignorance or darkness, it can feel like heaven itself. The insight can be wonderful, or it can be terrifying, but it is always a taste of what is possible. It is not uncommon after such an experience for the person to announce to the world they are now Enlightened, and proceed to spend much time describing their insight as it occurred, perhaps for many years to come. 

The insight passes but leaves an impression of the truth. As the person continues to live their life, facing the circumstances provided every day to test them and encourage them to go deeper, each time facing more of their self, the insight settles into a knowledge. This can take some years, if it ever happens, but at this point one can say 'I KNOW this'. It is no longer just an understanding, a belief, or even the regurgitating of an insight they had some time ago. Now it is a knowledge accessible at any moment. At this time it is common, particularly in men, to claim some accolade, not least of all Enlightenment itself. They often 'run around' telling the world they are Enlightened, trying to teach others, to help others, to become famous or at least to be recognised for their apparent accomplishment. It may be here that the idea came from, that a person wouldn't say they were Enlightened if they truly were. The person with just the knowledge of 'being the only one here' still has enough separation from the truth that they feel the need to 'be somebody' here. However, with this amount of knowledge it is very easy to convince one's self and others that one is living the truth and is THE Living Truth, without really knowing what that means.

After the knowledge comes the experience. First the truth was understood, then glimpsed as an intuitive insight, then known without a doubt, and now actually experienced. This is where it becomes 'real'. It is still separate, because if it were not, it could not be experienced, but the truth is now closer than it has ever been before. 

Many years and many flashes of insight and a deepening of knowledge later, and perhaps following numerous strange sensations and apparent experiences, one can have a big one of actually being everything here; that everything is within their own being. They have had glimpses of this previously, but this is stronger and more profound than anything they have had previously, each one of which had given the impression of being there. This is still just another glimpse into what lies beyond, but this time it is a glimpse into the experience of actually being the essence of the knowledge they have carried for so long. Beyond any insight-of-information, this is a real experience. This is most powerful and here a person is even more likely to announce, to themselves at least, if not all their friends and family and anyone else they come across, 'This is it! I am home. I am Enlightened!!!'

But be careful. You are not there yet. Like fireworks in the daytime, it can barely be seen when you are truly there already and are 'living in the light'. If you are having an experience of this nature, the mere fact that you are experiencing it means you are separate from it; hence the word ex-perience. You are feeling it, seeing it or touching it, but that means you are not it. Be careful in yourself not to allow the mind to take control and claim to be what it is not. There are many teachers who are, what have been called, 'phoney masters' and yet don't even know it (though I suspect secretly they do. They know there's still a sense of separation within them, despite their fancy words and claims to the contrary).

The rarest state of all. In this, one is beyond the insights, understandings, and even experiences, in the sense of becoming the truth. Here the person IS The Living Truth. The last experience of this nature passed, perhaps very many years ago, and 'I' have given up asking if I am nearly there yet. I have carried the knowledge and lived it in every experience for so long. I 'know' this space 'I am' is all that is here and the last experience was of becoming it, but that was then and has long since faded. Here and now there is no experience to speak of. I do not talk of an insight I had or of some knowledge I carry. All that I am is experienced here and now, each moment. Now I am indeed Enlightened, but if I state this, it is with no idea of any accolade of self-achievement. If I teach, I do so because it suits me to do so and not to get anything beyond satisfying the need to do it. I am aware I am responsible for all that happens, but more than that, 'I AM' all that happens. This cannot be understood by any mind until it has been experienced, and then gone beyond into the being of it, but I am indeed awake in my own dream. Before I had only known it was a dream and I thought knowing it meant I was awake. Now I am awake and live that knowledge as the dream continues. I hear others claiming to be Enlightened all around me having had insights or experiences, either recently or are still clinging to ones they had a lifetime ago. They don't want to hear they are not Enlightened as so many others are also falsely claiming it too, so they support each other in their pretence. It is a little like the blind leading the blind, but in a world of blind people, who's to know, or indeed care, who's blind or who isn't?

And what's 'my' role now? I just get on with enjoying the dream I have created. I am responsible for all those claiming to be Enlightened too, so I can't really complain. I offer to teach others who want to know, warning of the pitfalls and false achievements, but even these are part of the game. And what is it I teach? I teach you that this is your dream, your creation, which I too am a part of, as is everything you experience and have ever experienced. You can enjoy it or live it however you wish. When it is time to 'wake up' and become the dream itself, it will happen whether you are looking for it or not, whether you even want it or not. Until then, you cannot fail, as whatever you do is part of the experience of being separate; a separate entity within your own being. Enjoy the journey if you can. Live it as you will. You cannot lose.

by Nick Roach