Previously, we have covered a lot of ground going from the amorphous to form and structure, from Self-realization to God- or Origin-realization. Now it’s time to bring it all together with these questions: What is enlightenment? Can you be realized but unwholesome as a person? When are we transformed and liberated? What are the stages of spiritual development?
What are the stages of spiritual development?
There are many ways to define spiritual development. Different wisdom teachings describe different steps or stages on the path to enlightenment or karma-free existence or liberation.
Some people understand human evolution through these four stages of identity:
- Life happens To Me (with me as a victim of circumstances, reacting to circumstances).
- Life happens By Me (with me directing my intentions and thoughts to manifest things).
- Life happens Through Me (letting Spirit move through me, an instrument/vessel of God).
- Life happens As Me (realizing We are One with God and all of creation, it’s Spirit as me).
Gina Lake (“In the World but Not Of It”) also described four stages of spiritual development:
- Stage One: This is the fully immersed soul, who identifies with the character they play that has a body-mind and personality with drives, preferences, and programmed reactions to life. The ego is mostly in charge, so the personality becomes a vehicle for the ego/false self, not the divine self. They don’t question this. There is no awareness of anything else.
- Stage Two: This is the person who through meditation, spiritual practices, psychoactive drugs or grace has an experience of their divine self or Presence. But they don’t know themselves as Presence, so they go back and forth believing they are the character. This is the case with most spiritual seekers, who get a glimpse of Presence, and then “lose it.”
- Stage Three: This is the awakened person, who is self-realized and knows themselves as Presence. They have one foot in the play and another foot in Presence/awareness. They are aware that they’re watching the play of life, and participate as the character they play as well. Their personality becomes a vehicle for the divine self, but has remnants of the ego.
- Stage Four: This is quite rare, because the journey from self-realization to full enlightenment is often not achieved in one lifetime. Some spiritual masters may spend most of their time absorbed in meditation, while others may work with disciples or behind the scenes. This person is both completely at home in their humanity and in the world, but not of it.
What is meant by awakening vs. enlightenment?
In her brilliant book, Gina Lake wrote about how to tell when you’re ego identified, how to transcend dualities, how to move into and stay in Presence, how to overcome habits and addictions, spiritual pitfalls, how to purify your personality, and more. She explained:
- Awakening or self–realization is only the beginning of the process of enlightenment. There is a permanent shift in identity from the false self to the divine self with self-realization.
- But enlightenment is the completion of the process of embodiment of the divine self (see What Are Siddhis Or Divine Gifts? – Big Picture Questions.com).
She said spiritual seekers often mistakenly believe that self-realization or enlightenment is like a nonstop spiritual experience, when it’s actually a very ordinary and functional state. Staying in Presence is our natural state, not an altered state of consciousness.
Can a person be self-realized but not wholesome?
“To be in the world, the divine self needs a costume. It needs a body-mind, a personality, drives, talents, tendencies, preferences, and some ego in order to play a role in the world and to function. All this is accomplished through programming. That programming is destined to go eventually, which is what the process of enlightenment is all about.”
Lake wrote that someone can be self-realized, but they may still have a lot of healing to do. Their behavior will not appear all that enlightened, especially when stressed or challenged.
- Yet the same unhealed person may be a magnetic spiritual teacher, who can activate Presence in others (e.g. Chögyam Trungpa, an alcoholic Buddhist master).
- How much suffering the person experiences and/or causes to others depends on how much of their personality has been purified of the ego and the wounds caused by it, such as fear, anger, blame, self-doubt, jealousy, revenge, greed, fault-finding, confusion, etc. (see How To Dissolve Your Victim Patterns? – Big Picture Questions.com).
- But we will never be 100% free of the ego, because we need some ego programming to function in human form. The ego can re-emerge even in the most spiritually advanced people. These ego remnants can get triggered by others, so we won’t always be patient, kind, sensitive, etc. Forgive yourself. You are meant to be both human and divine.
She said once you realize your true nature, you’ll wear your costume more lightly, and your relationship to that programming changes. You’ll evolve from expressing the ego to that of your divine nature. You’ll still be human with the same personality and some imperfections.
“When Christ consciousness shines through the human, the human self doesn’t become perfect, but it can become a vehicle for good.” – Gina Lake
Final Thoughts
As you can tell, I love and really recommend this particular book by Gina Lake, because it consolidates many of the topics that I’ve been blogging about for almost three years now.
The same core teachings seem to appear in different guises described from different angles by different authors. Her book validated Richard Rudd’s “Gene Keys” describing the 64 Gates, each with its own spectrum of frequencies (from shadow to gift to siddhi levels) that correspond to unpurified vs. purified versions of human personality traits.
Her book also validated what Guy Needler has told us about the ego vs. soul personality, form/formlessness, self-realization, pure awareness, and many other topics in more detail.
The main message of her book is this: “The ego needs to take a backseat now for humanity to evolve more quickly.” The ego is not a mistake. But “being in the world but not of it” means being NOT of the ego. For us that means working on our victim patterns, which in turn means embracing our shadows, releasing our gifts, and embodying the siddhis as much as we can.
That is what purification is about – transcending the ego to become the best possible self (given your personality) in this lifetime. Quoting Gina Lake:
“Life is like a play. It is your play. You are doing it all. No one is doing anything to you. You are the divine scriptwriter and the human actor. The difference between a play and life is that, over the course of hundreds of lifetimes, the Divine succeeds in infusing its magnificence into each human character it plays. You evolve and become glorious by the end of all your lifetimes. You become Christ-like, a master…in the end, the divine self shines.”
“Stay Light, Be Light, Light the way for others.” – Guy Needler
For more information, please see:
Gina Lake: In the World but Not of It: New Teachings from Jesus on Embodying the Divine, 2016 & Radical Happiness – Gina Lake – Living in the Now – Awakening & Newsletter Signup
Richard Rudd: Gene Keys, 2009 & Gene Keys Network | Living Library (website)
Guy Needler: Home – Guy Steven Needler | The Dawn of a New Age of Science (new website) & 6 books: The History of God, Beyond the Source – Book 1, Beyond the Source – Book 2, Avoiding Karma, The Origin Speaks, 2015, The Anne Dialogues, 2016
What Is a Spiritual Ego? – Big Picture Questions
What Is Your Spiritual Type? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Basic Awakening? – Big Picture Questions.com
Gina Lake 4-13-16…”In the World But Not Of It” – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is the Big Picture? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Bridge Science and Spirituality? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Are Source Entity Level Ascended Masters? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Are Human Root Races? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Your Life’s Work vs. Soul Purpose? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Dissolve Your Victim Patterns? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Are Siddhis Or Divine Gifts? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Reframe Your Life? – Big Picture Questions.com
How Does Event Space Change Your Perspective On Life? – Big Picture Questions.com
How Detailed Is the Soul’s Life Review? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Spiritual Bypassing? – Big Picture Questions.com
Where Is Our Consciousness Located? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Amplify Your Connectivity With Source? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Meant By Self-Realization vs. God-Realization? – Big Picture Questions.com
Is There Something Beyond God? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Emptiness Or Pure Awareness? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is the Amorphous? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Self-Awareness versus Sentience? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is a Fully Immersed Soul? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is the Ego vs. Soul Personality? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Are the Evolved White Children? – Big Picture Questions.com
When Will Humanity Ascend From 3D Earth? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is the Difference Between a Universe, Multiverse and Omniverse? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Old and New About Meditation? – Big Picture Questions.com
How Does Waking Up Differ From Growing Up? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is Meant By Soul Age? – Big Picture Questions.com
Are We Having Accelerated Lives? – Big Picture Questions.com
How Does Reincarnation Work? – Big Picture Questions.com
Why Is This Multiverse Cycle Different? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Know Thyself? – Big Picture Questions.com
Do Enneatypes Reflect Soul Blueprints? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Is the Law Of Gender? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Nurture Yourself? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Remove Karma In This Lifetime? – Big Picture Questions.com
What Are True Ascended Masters? – Big Picture Questions.com
Is There a Manual On How To Become a Spiritual Master? – Big Picture Questions.com
Why Are So Many People Still Asleep? – Big Picture Questions.com
How To Defuse Duality and Transcend Misguided Thoughtforms? – Big Picture Questions.com
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Thank you, Gopal. Blessings to you.
Conditional love alone is ego which is the biggest reason behind all our mental sufferings and the only reason behind all our moral mistakes and unconditional love for all beings including oneself forever alone is egolessness or enlightenment which is the state of pure joy forever which we all want. We had pure joy as small children not because then all our physical needs like food, clothing, shelter, etc. were satisfied by adults – because then almost all adults also get their physical needs of food, clothing, shelter, etc. satisfied but are still not happy like small children – but because we were in the state of unconditional love for all beings including ourselves as small children. Let us reclaim this enlightened state as grown ups also by developing unconditional love for all beings including ourselves forever as then we will have pure joy forever which we all want.
Unconditional love comes first!
With unconditional love for you now and forever!
Your friend,
Gopal
That’s wonderful, Morene. Please share whatever you can at this time. We’d love to hear more.
I absolutely understand Cosmic Consciousness. I am a 70 years old female, who experienced Cosmic Consciousness in 2001. I am publishing a book this year “The Evolution of Consciousness. I would love to share my experience and own spiritual growth and development, which led to Cosmic Consciousness.
Thank YOU dear this is just a tremendous bit of awesome inspiring and insightful sharing!!!
Namaste
Barb 🙂