The Stages of Unfolding Enlightened Consciousness
Perpetual Samadhi
The repeated experience of Samadhi eventually leads to it as a permanent and ongoing living, breathing experience. Said another way, the frequent experience of Samadhi ultimately reveals that the Silence is here and has been here the whole time. By repeatedly returning to the Now, our baseline reality shifts from living on the surface of life to permanently connecting to the depths of Pure Awareness. One of my favorite analogies for this transformation of consciousness is the old way of dying cloth. Through the practice of meditation, the cloth of the mind is dipped into the dye of Unbound Consciousness. When pulled out, the color at first seems dark, and then fades in the sun of life experience (our consciousness contracts due to the reemergence of our habits). However, some of the color will remain forever. This regular oscillation of expansion into Pure Awareness and contraction ultimately leads to a deep and stable experience of Awareness through all of our life experience.
One of the great markers of this stage is the experience of witnessing, called Prajna in Sanskrit. Without effort and even in the most dynamic of activities (cooking in a busy cafe provided excellent opportunities!) one begins to experience deep, restful Silence while simultaneously experiencing the movements of consciousness (thoughts) without the Silence being diminished. My first prolonged and profound experiences of this were like resting in a peaceful cave behind a running waterfall or remaining still within the eye of a hurricane. Some people, myself included, often have the sense of being in something "vast" that is somehow "behind them." Words here can be particularly clunky and not meant to be taken literally! Another wonderful thing about this witnessing, is that along with the detachment, there is an enhanced ability to engage in life. Being "in the flow" becomes an ever more frequent experience as the painful mental habits so central in most of our everyday experiences become less and less pronounced. Deep immersions in the flow state while engaged in activity are so often moments in life when we wander into this "room" in the house that is our nervous system.
Each of the states of Enlightenment is akin to a particular section of tension falling away, which naturally coincides with an ever more fluid and relaxed experience of life. In this initial stage, the tendency to identify one's self as the little wave in a sea of little waves relaxes and dissolves into the Silence of Samadhi. While thoughts and actions can continue on in many of the same ways as before, the relationship with them is fundamentally changed. We no longer identify as our thoughts and actions. They happen and we simply are- the vast sky that allows all movement, but is none of them in particular. While the content of life does change quite a bit with Enlightenment, the transformation is fundamentally one of context, not content.
For some, this development may take a great deal of time, for others this may dawn quickly. There are a few factors that determine the speed of this transformation: how frequently one enters Samadhi, how clogged the nervous system happens to be in the beginning, how willing one is to move forward, and grace. This is well illustrated by an old Zen saying, "Enlightenment is an accident, but spiritual practice makes us accident prone." The practice of Ascension is a truly wonderful way of becoming exceedingly accident prone. This state is just the beginning. Some experience it like a deep silent cave on the inside, paired with an outer world that goes on in much the same way.
While it is indeed sublime and liberating, there is frequently a marked duality in the experience. How could this be? Even as most of the previous habits of suffering is gone and burnt out the system, it is often the mind that has found its peace, while there are still tensions that remain in the emotional and physical strata of one's total being. These tensions serve to hide and obscure even more fundamental openings. Some may enjoy this territory of Self Realization for some time and not feel the need to go further. For others, that remaining sense of duality and separation can be a real burr in the side, and like the suffering induced by the less subtle egoic bondage, will spur many to continue ever further. And others, will very smoothly and quickly open into further vistas of the nervous system.
"God Consciousness", the Opening of the Heart, and the Perception of the Subtle and Celestial
When the mind settles down into the permanent peace and coherence of Perpetual Consciousness, the more subtle voice of the Heart begins to be heard. The previous mile post is a truly wondrous plateau of human development. Many often very reasonably think their journey is over. What more could there be? Thankfully, this state or transitional phase (like any taxonomy or road map, this is by no means the only way to break up a more nuanced process) has little to do with reason and everything to do with the expanding love.
Freed of the pressure of egocentric stress and the noisesome cacophony of habitual thought patterns, the heart is able to unfold into its natural state of boundless Love. Just as happens when one falls deeply in love, all of the senses, including intuition, become increasingly more refined, revealing ever more subtle dimensions of experience. This proceeds until the subtlest level of Reality, Infinite Consciousness itself, is perceived underlying, permeating, and shining through the people, places, and things of the world. Love anchored in the stable silent Awareness of Perpetual Consciousness transforms the world into the World, reality into Reality, and reveals what seems to be a sentient realm made of magic and not of rocks. Thus, it is also in this state that many people report sensing beings that most of us were taught exist only in the imagination. Faeries, angels, devas, celestials, elementals, and Teachers residing on other planes of reality are seen and communicated with by many of those who are opening to the radiant ethereal Light shining through the world. A fuller description of the many potential unfoldments of this state can be found in the third part (Pada III) of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one of the finest maps of Higher Consciousness ever produced. There are more than a few good versions out there, but I do highly recommend the translation and commentary written by the recent promulgater of my meditation practice, Maharishi Sadasiva Isham.
Not everyone partakes in celestial perception to a great degree, in the exact same way, or even as a discreet stage in the process of Awakening. In some cases, this type of experience doesn't unfold until well after Unified Consciousness is stabilized. In other cases, people will open to celestial perceptions and psychic abilities before coming to a clear experience of Awareness. For some, the opening to the Celestial can be a bit of a distraction, as there are that many more shiny experiences that can overshadow the subtler perception of the unmanifest Stillness. When this state is experienced after the stabilization of Self Realization, it is typically as a preparatory phase, helping to open and purify the nervous system to deeply and clearly partake of the next stage, Unity Consciousness.
Unified Consciousness and the Supermundane
Here duality is seen through. But, like the previous openings, this is no dry intellectualization. This is a fundamental gestalt grokking. Here, Presence has expanded and saturated to the point that the same Self is felt in all the forms of the world. The whole process, from the first conscious step into Samadhi to this Realization, is one of Presence expanding and permeating every corner of our awareness, especially those shadowy places that have been judged, locked away, and forgotten. Wherever we've placed a boundary, wherever there is a subtle tension, our expanding Presence and Love erodes, overtakes, and embraces. At some point, the Source that is perceived and felt in one's body, in one's partner, in the curtains by the window, in the garden, and in the kitchen table is realized to be one and the same. For many, the world can feel as if it were one's body, though the connection to the specific physical body is not sundered, and is very often made more sensitive due to a deeper relaxation. Neither are the personality or the sense of individuality lost. Often, the the flavor of the personality becomes more distinct, as so many of the tensions that have hampered authentic expression have now been dissolved. Some people have moved right into this experience after a long time of seemingly moving in and out of Presence. Other people will unfold in the kind of stepwise way that has been outlined on this page. When do a few grains become a pile? Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was once asked if Enlightenment was like a switch or more like a gradual progression. His smiling answer was that it was a "gradual switch." Some people report a more switch like transition while others seem to have the more gradual experience, most partake in both. The refinement and expansion do not end with Unified Consciousness. In fact, this is often considered the very beginning of human life, for here we are no longer resisting Reality. Evolution continues on and on, as the Ocean of Consciousness provides fathomless depths for exploration, enjoyment, and expansion.