To understand these questions enables us to come into a deeper relationship with our own Presence of Being, to recognize the illusion of the material world and to begin the work of spiritual integration in order to direct the energies of the ‘Enlightenment experience’ toward our own Ascension.

What is Enlightenment?

Enlightenment itself is very simple. It is the profound realization that we are nothing other than Universal Awareness and that Universal Awareness is ultimately all that there is. To become enlightened is to realize that we are the Creators of the Universe and the Universe itself. Enlightenment is the recognition of our Immortal and Timeless Universal Presence and the realization that all other realities are illusions created by projections of the mind. Enlightenment is a realization of ‘BEING’. The Universe is just ‘BEING’ in our experience and the experience of the entire Universe is nothing other than a reflection of our own Being.

The simplicity of Enlightenment is understood when the primal error in perception (a belief in a self that exists in a state of separation from the Universe) is resolved and the illusion of duality is transcended. Duality is a fiction and a creation of the ego-mind, designed so that the ego-mind can perceive the world from a linear standpoint and make sense of it. The illusion of space-time is created so that the 3D mind can distinguish one form from another and project them in sequence into space-time. Once all forms are ‘projected’ onto the matrix of space-time – the world of separation is born. Everything is then seen as existing ‘out there’ and separate from ourselves. These projections are simply thought-forms and have no deeper external reality of their own.

No matter how real the world of matter seems – deeper inquiry will show that it does not exist outside of the five senses or our own Awareness. The sensory channels experience the apparent outer world through sensations and these sensations are then relayed to – and interpreted by – the mind. Whatever is seen, tasted, touched, heard or smelled is thus experienced by the mind and within our own Awareness. The mind projects thoughts externally (including all sensory mechanisms), sees what it projects and mistakenly believes the world of forms preceded the mind. This projection is the root cause of entrapment in Maya (illusion).

This confusion arises from the mistaken belief that forms exist outside of ourselves and thus outside of our own Awareness. Forms are then seen as solid and concrete objects, apparently existing independently from our own consciousness. The belief that they are separate reinforces the illusion and the belief in a state of separation from the rest of the Universe. This belief and the subsequent experience of separation then cause all the forms of suffering known to humanity. To unravel our erroneous beliefs enables us to become free from all suffering, aligned with the loving wisdom of our own Presence and presents the opportunity of resolving the karmas that led us to have a body in the first place.

Upon the resolution of all karmas – one transcends the human condition and is able to complete one’s Ascension.

The Illusion of Matter

Ultimately, we can discover through a direct meditative experience – that matter does not really exist, its appearance is only relative and thus illusory. The solidity of matter is only an illusion of our mind, reinforced by sensory information interpreted by the mind.

The form of our body is nothing other than an aggregate of sensations experienced by the mind. In meditation, we can investigate these sensations and discover that within the experience of apparent solidity is a vibration of Awareness – characterized by luminosity, formlessness, expansiveness, timelessness and a state of Omnipresent Being. This Pure Formless Awareness underlies all material forms and all worldly experiences.

In this space of Awareness that encompasses all forms, one can recognize that this Awareness is the Creator of all Forms and that the Creator is no-one other than ourselves. We are the architects of our own Reality. In this realization – there is no need for a Creator God, for it is understood that there is only One Universal Awareness that encompasses all forms and nothing can exist independently from that Universal Awareness. Awareness, being eternally present and outside of time – requires no beginning or anything else to precede its existence. The Big Bang did not then give rise to sentient beings that became aware of themselves and the Universe – rather it was sentience that gave birth to the Universe. The Big Bang can be viewed as the explosion of awareness into duality from the vibration of Timeless Singularity. Once this Primal Awareness had ‘fragmented’ into billions of individual ‘Divine Sparks’, the individual sparks (souls) began to create the Universe in their own way. The fragmentation was not total at the point of the Big Bang – in that each soul retained its connection to its Source. Upon discovering our connection to the Source, we become at One with the Universe again and reverse the descent into duality. We recognize ourselves and the Universe as a single entity.

Deeper self-inquiry will lead us to the direct Realization that this Universal Awareness is the only thing that there really is and that Awareness is nothing other than Awareness having an Awareness that Awareness is Aware!

In that Awareness, it can be realized that the entirety of our life experience is a dream created by our Higher Presence in order to awaken us to our true nature. From another perspective – the Universal Presence is dreaming and we are the dreamer. In truth – Oneness (The Universal Presence) is having a dream of duality so that it can realize and know itself. Ultimately, this is the existential reason as to why we exist. In the beginning, there was Oneness and only Oneness. Oneness had no perspective from which to ‘see itself’ and was thus oblivious to its true nature. Duality is a dream of Oneness so that Oneness can awaken and become conscious of itself through the experience of the Universe.

Enlightenment cannot be conceptualized or understood intellectually. Concepts and words can take us far up the mountain of Consciousness, but not all the way to the summit. Sooner or later, we have to release our attachments to concepts and discover the hidden place of Universal Presence beyond. It is pure, unstained, deathless and eternal. In truth, there is nothing one can say about it. One can only hint at it, for the deepest Truth cannot be spoken. The experience may be fleeting to begin with, but as we deepen our practice – we can arrive ‘here’ more often. We then discover that this is our true nature and when we are not in this experience, we are in illusion. Having an enlightenment experience in itself is nothing remarkable. The real spiritual work is to integrate the experience of enlightenment and to embody that realization in our daily lives. It is not enough to have an experience of Enlightenment if we cannot apply the ramifications of that Enlightenment in our daily lives.

Spiritual Integration

The process of Spiritual Integration enables us to embody the realization of who we really are in our daily lives. This is the real work and practice – being an embodiment of Truth on this Earth at this time. On the level of the Absolute – there is only the Reality of Formless Awareness. However, having realized that matter is an illusion – the illusion still persists and we are still here in corporeal form! Many will ask why one’s experience of form persists long after we have recognized the illusion of it. In other words, the dream continues despite having awakened and recognized the reality that this is a dream. Is it possible to wake up and have the experience of being released from the world of matter entirely? This is where we must apply the wisdom of Enlightenment to the practice of Ascension in order to obtain deeper clarity. Having an Enlightenment experience does not in itself result in the transmutation of our body. The Buddha after his Enlightenment did not ascend and instead experienced death.

There are three basic stages of the Path of Realization. The first two – the embodiment of Wisdom and Love – will result in an enlightenment experience in a physical body when they are in balance. One can remain in this balance indefinitely whilst in the human form with a lot of determination and effort. However, even when this is perfected – it is still only Earthly Enlightenment which does not free one from the human condition. It just enables one to become aware of the human condition and its causes.
To ascend the body (and thus become Immortalized / The Master Path) requires the recognition that the human condition in itself is not fixed and instead is simply a conglomeration of sensations, thoughts, experiences and ideas that give rise to the human experience. To ascend is to transcend the human condition and become a higher vibratory form of Being, existing in a dimension of consciousness beyond the physical body. We have a body because we are vibrating between two points on a vibratory spectrum.Beyond the lower point, we experience death. Above the high point, the body is Immortalized and we experience Full Ascension. This represents the ‘Ascent out of Matter’ that we would ultimately wish to experience once we recognize the illusion of form. Rather than continuing to remain in the world of illusion as an Immortal Being masquerading as a mortal, we would want to embody the deeper Truth of who we really are – for incarnating again and again in the world of form is pointless once we recognize the illusion of it and have learned the lessons that duality can teach us.

A direct experience of Truth will illuminate our Being to the fact that our bodies are nothing other than projections and thus we are not really here.

If that is so, where are we?

The practice of Spiritual Integration is a process of assimilating our realizations into our experience and by doing so, our experience evolves. The reality of Ascension is often perceived as ‘out there’, ‘elsewhere’ and ‘higher dimensional’. The work is to make that ‘there’ become the new ‘here’. For as long as those qualities of higher-dimensional wisdom, Universal Love and the Transcendental are projected externally – we remain in separation and thus have not ascended. To ascend is to realize that everything that we are and seek to become is already within us. To apply the wisdom of Enlightenment to the Path of Ascension ultimately calls for us to realize that we are the Path and we are already everything we seek to become – including becoming an Ascended Immortal. For as long as there is the notion of a Path, there is a search of some kind. When we realize the search takes us outside of our Truth of who we are, we will discover the wonderful realization that the qualities of an Ascended Being already exist within our Being. Once we recognize that, everything else takes care of itself and our reality will naturally change to reflect that level of Realization.

Ascension as a State of Being

Ascension is not a place but a state of Being. Ascension represents the complete transcendence of the human condition. Enlightenment is to realize that the human condition in itself is an illusion and the belief in its reality reinforces our attachment to the Wheel of Birth and Death. With this in mind – we are already Home. The work is not to try and ‘ascend elsewhere’ but to find that ‘elsewhere’ within. In the Full Realization of our own Presence – we are in all places, all times, all realities and all Universes simultaneously. We have always been and will always be, but in the descent into the illusion – we forgot and erroneously believed that we only exist here. Balancing the Path of Ascension with the Path of Enlightenment is ultimately very simple – it is about awakening to who we are (Universal Presence) – and doing that in the Here and the Now.

By ‘being’ in the Presence, the rest of the Ascension Process will take care of itself. Yes – there are many other beautiful worlds in the Galaxy and beyond, as well as opportunities to live amongst Immortal Star Beings and travel throughout the Universe as a higher dimensional advanced Being of Light.

It is possible to phase out of ‘space-time’ and leave the 3rd dimension entirely with the body. Those realities will become manifest for many of us as we awaken to our multi-dimensional nature existing in multiple reality-spheres throughout the Universe simultaneously. We will attract a reality in alignment with our internal state. However, for as long as those other worlds are seen as ‘places’ rather than ‘states of Being’ – they will elude us. When we recognize that Ascension is a state of Being – we will become it with ease.

In the mastery of Being Present Here in this dimension – in this reality – only then do the doorways to other realities open. We are Universal Beings and as the entire Universe is within our own Being, then naturally we can be present in these other dimensions as well. The deeper Truth is that Ascension is less about ‘moving our awareness elsewhere’ but becoming aware of that ‘elsewhere’ and bringing that Awareness into our current experience. The more we do this – the more multi-dimensional we become.