Realisation of our true nature occurs in three increasingly subtle dimensions. They go by many names but today I will use: intellectual, intuitional, and Real.
Intellectual is the base level (bottom of the mountain) mode of verbal or semi-verbal inner thoughts and dialogue. Strings of words and steps, often referred to as rational or deliberative thought. In this mode there is a regular experience of feeling a need for information and gradually uncovering it through inner chatter.
Intuitional (middle of the mountain) is the allowing of knowledge to appear in the consciousness in a flash. This happens without preoccupation with where the inspiration came from. There is still an experience of wanting and seeking information in this mode, and there is still the experience of inner dialogue that links flashes of information together.
Real is the experience of knowledge always being present as needed at all times. In this mode the experience of wanting to acquire knowledge is not there. The presence of all information required, in every moment, is taken for granted.
In this ultimate state the present moment is the only thing that exists, even as it reaches into to other places and times. There is no delineation made between past-present-future, rather, the present moment is experienced to be much larger than before.
The Indians use symbology of multi-armed deities to help the intellect understand this Real state. The centre of consciousness is awake, lit up, with the spiritual eye open. You can see more than the material. Your four arms are stretched out into chosen locations (loka) for the purpose of creating rivers of information between each place, all moderated by the higher you, the clairvoyant observer.
Some meditation styles encourage immersing yourself in a void or focusing on emptiness. This is a good first step, but it’s only one part of a repeating two-step process. To move up levels of subtlety in consciousness, the samadhi technique asks us to alternate between a target and a void. To do this, you intend and concentrate in a certain direction, and then you release and allow it to come to you. This cycle repeats as you develop the skills and go on your journey.
A meditation that only focuses on the void state is suitable as a kind of mental-health first-aid. In a world where there are so many attachments to material concerns, it may be impossible to immediately fix the attention on the transcendent will and follow the second step. But a complete spirituality is very active and not passive – it requires you to go further. We are asked to actively author our lives, as projects, from higher and higher vantages. All is embraced and nothing is denied.
Self-realisation is the process of discovering more of yourself, of realising your existence beyond small linear moments. While it may be necessary to close your eyes at the start in order to relax and enter a vast space, once there, it is imperative to then open your eyes and see. There is a cosmic ocean of nebulous forms and causes and imagery. There exists constructs of future, past, and many other places – all into the expanding present moment, simultaneously existing in a paradoxically peaceful creative state of action and non-action.
You can go further, open your eyes and see your creative self. You are the creator, you have been automatically creating 100% of your life, whether you believe it or not. You are so powerful that you can create a thing called a subconscious where you hide parts of yourself from yourself. But, at any time you can remove veil after veil and be a clear-seeing conscious selector and shaper of your own life.