What is the Difference Between Enlightenment and Ascension?

Posted by Steve Beckow for 31 August 2012 

A listener of InLight Radio has asked to have the differences between Ascension and Enlightenment clarified. Please allow me to do that here. 

There is no difference per se between Ascension as a generic process and Enlightenment or Illumination. 

The Ascension we’re going through on Dec. 21, 2012 (or later) is an Enlightenment. However, it has some extra features about it that make it different from the generic process of Enlightenment associated with it, that persuade me to call it “Enlightenment Plus” and I’ll get to those differences below. 

By the same token, there are many levels of Enlightenment stretching all the way up to the final mergence with God. That comes to us so many lifetimes down the road that we have no conception of that event. 

In just the Third-Dimensional range, there are at least four stages of enlightenment: 

(1) spiritual awakening, which occurs when the Kundalini reaches the fourth-chakra, 
(2) Savikalpa Samadhi, when the Kundalini reaches the sixth chakra, 
(3) Brahmajnana or God-Realization, seventh chakra, and 
(4) Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi, spiritual heart or Hridayam. 

We can have each of these enlightenment experiences and still remain in the Third Dimension. But Ascension will mean that we leave the Third/Fourth Dimension of our physical and spirit lives and migrate to the Fifth Dimension. This is a difference between Enlightenment per se and our present Ascension. 

If we were on the spirit side of life, an Ascension would involve the passage from one dimension to another. So, when we pass from the Astral Plane (Fourth Dimension) to the Mental Plane (Fifth Dimension), we’re said to have ascended, because we’ll shed our astral body for our mental body. But when we pass from the Middle Summerlands of the Astral Plane to the Higher Summerlands, we’re not said to have ascended, because we retain our astral body.  Movement from one subplane to another does not involve Ascension. It is movement from one dimension to another that does involve Ascension. 

That is why Shankara would say: “When all the five coverings are removed, the pure Atman [the Self or Christ] is revealed.” (1) By successive Ascensions, we remove the five coverings or bodies associated with the previous plane or dimension until, well after the experience Shankara is referring to, all that is left is God Himself/Herself. We have uncovered or revealed God by successive Ascensions. 

In our Ascension on Dec. 21, 2012 (or later), we’ll ascend with the physical body, which is a first and new development in Ascension. Because we will, we’ll need to raise the vibrations of that body gradually as it changes from carbon-based to crystalline-based, so that it can exist in the higher vibrations of the Fifth Dimension. But in all Ascensions on the spirit side of life, we would have simply shed the previous body. 

But where our Ascension on 21/12/12 resembles all other Ascensions is that we’ll pass from one plane or dimension to another; in this case, from the Third/Fourth Dimensions associated with our usual physical and spirit lives to the Fifth Dimension. So, because it represents a dimensional shift, we call it an Ascension. 

So, yes, it does involve a process of Enlightenment. Whether that is the Enlightenment associated with the seventh chakra, which is called Brahmajnana and does not result in a permanent heart opening or liberation from rebirth or the Enlightenment associated with the spiritual heart or Hridayam, known as Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi, which does result in a permanent heart opening and liberation, I don’t know. I should probably ask Archangel Michael about that. 

That’s my understanding. There’s no difference between Ascension and Enlightenment in many respects. But our 21/12/12 Ascension is Enlightenment Plus, because in it we also get to take our physical bodies with us (renewed, of course), need not die, get to leave the Third Dimension for the Fifth (whereas in ordinary enlightenment we would not get to leave), etc.

Footnotes
(1) Shankara in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher lsherwood, Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1975; c1947, 56. There are countless levels of enlightenment beyond the one Shankara is discussing here.

The deeper meaning of Crucifixion

The Arcturian Group for 8 April 2012 

We come today to wish you a very happy holiday–that is holy-day, for Easter represents the journey each soul must take as they move into enlightenment and out of the lessons of the third dimension. 


This journey is that of life lived as best an individual can, based upon their personal belief system and governed by current rules of duality and separation. Life continues “normally” until at some point in an individual’s spiritual evolution there comes the crucifixion. The crucifixion is that time in which everyday life no longer works as it always has. What up to that point has been predictable, suddenly comes to a screeching halt either through some particular experience, experiences, or a new unfolding inner awareness. To outside observers as well as the individual himself, this period may appear to be one of absolute failure, loss, and something dreaded. To those still fully immersed in third dimensional values, it is indeed seen as loss and failure, but to the experiencing soul it is movement; the death of that which is now finished and the birth of the new. 


The crucifixion is a series of painful experiences often accompanied by humiliation and judgement from the individual, as well as those around him, who are only able to see from the concepts they may hold of successful living. These experiences can vary in degrees of intensity or loss, because some individuals only respond and learn the hard way through painful experience, while others do not need great intensity in order to move forward. However, know that all souls are prepared and ready for the experience of crucifixion, or it would not happen, even though most are not consciously aware of this. 


After a time of adjustment, resting, being tempered by experience, and letting go, a new state of consciousness begins to emerge. The new man is being born, one strong and more self-complete; one having released much that heretofore held him in bondage to third dimensional concepts of love, life, success, health, and all the issues of daily living. A new and more perfect man is being born and this is the resurrection, dear ones. 


It is a surrender, a death to all that is finished. Lessons on earth were meant for learning, but were never intended to go on forever. The crucifixion experience can be and usually is very scary as the mind struggles to plan and plot solutions according to what is already known, and yet the individual is forced by circumstances to live in the now moment. Low and behold out of this intense fear arises a new experience–the sky does not fall down and life goes on in new ways in spite of the dire predictions of those observing from their place of duality. 


The crucifixion and resurrection are not experiences that took place to only one special man 2000 years ago. All will and many are now, experiencing crucifixion and resurrection and through it are moving ever more quickly into Ascension. Jesus seeded a dense human consciousness with truth, adding light to a human matrix of world beliefs which then in turn allowed those ready, to access new ways of seeing and being. He brought to mankind a level of understanding that many were ready for, but most did not understand. His experience reflected the experiences of all mankind. Jesus was the way-shower for a struggling world, because always there will be teachers, way-showers, and healers for those ready–mankind is never abandoned or left completely on their own. 


After crucifixion and resurrection, one then also becomes a way-shower, helping others now ready to move out of the false concepts of duality and separation. Many are way-showers now. The Light on earth is becoming increasingly bright. You are soon to manifest a New World, a world in which all life is respected and seen as an expression of the one Divine Life. 


This is why you chose to experience duality and separation, dear Light Beings, to see if you could find your way back home in spite of the intense experiences manifest by the un-illumined state of consciousness. You are doing it now! You have moved through lifetimes of darkness and are quickly moving into the Light. 


This is the true meaning of Easter–the crucifixion and resurrection out of darkness and into Light of Ascension. 


Blessed Easter every day. 


We are the Arcturian Group. 


http://www.onenessofall.com/Home.html

Cosmic Harmony - The State of Enlightenment

Source: http://www.cosmicharmony.com/

"The Universe has been called the Cosmic Form of the Divine. All the beings you see here are mani-festations of the Cosmic Form. This means that all are inherently Divine."

What is enlightenment? What is that state of Cosmic Consciousness, the ultimate awareness called variously - Enlightenment, Nirvana, Satori, Samadhi, Self-Realization, Rapture, Salvation, Ascension, Unity Consciousness, Voidness, and many other terms by many various religions? It is the goal of life, the ultimate destination of every individualized being. It is brought about when the individual personality ascends beyond the illusionary perception of self separateness to merge in the Universal Self from which it originated so very long ago. Spiritual evolution towards this goal takes place over ages, but the final ascent of Spirit can happen in an instant of time. 


The gate was opened to me ... in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years together at a University ... I saw it as in a great deep in the internal; for I had a thorough view of the Universe, as a complex moving fullness wherein all things are couched and wrapped up. (Jacob Boehme, Mystic) 


Our true nature is not limited ... it is like the vast ocean. ... When we touch Supreme Consciousness through meditation, then we are boundless, we are everywhere, we are eternal. (Amma Karunamayi) ***God-Consciousness is 10 million times more blissful than sexual experience. (Sage Ramakrishna Paramahamsa) 


To the enlightened one, the world as he knew it ceases to be, and everything now stands enmantled (shrouded) by a shining vesture of divine effulgence, hitherto invisible to his normal vision. (Swami Chidananda, Light Fountain Divine Life Society) 


If I were to spend years and years imagining how to invent anything so beautiful, I could not do it, and I do not even know how I should try, for, even in its whiteness and radiance alone, it exceeds all that we can imagine. (Saint Teresa of Avila) 


Everything that occurred to me while I was in this state of consciousness was vastly beyond anything that I had ever experienced and yet at the same time it was familiar - as if I had always known of its existence. Even now when I try to describe something so beautiful I am mute with awe. There are no words in any language to describe such grandeur. (Anonymous, Unbounded Light) 




How to Achieve the Goal? 


How does one proceed from the normal human condition to the goal of enlightenment? The easiest way to achieve this Ultimate Goal is to follow in the footsteps of those who have passed this way already. The sages, saints and ascended masters of all times have found this path - sometimes through their own unaided efforts, but more often by following the written or spoken guidance of a previous Teacher or Guru. The enlightened master sees the grand achievement and encourages others to find the immense treasure within the reach of every sincere seeker. They point out the path, warn of dangers, offer encouragement, and elucidate the methods of advancing on the way. 


Short of direct guidance by a living enlightened one (a rare piece of good fortune), there is no better way than to read the lives of saints and pay close attention to their words. These powerful beings are alert on the other side, watching for the seekers, waiting to help and remove hindrances in the path of all those aspiring to the higher life in spirit. 


Read their stories. Draw forth their grace. Create that subtle link of consciousness with them. Their photographs are full of power; their words highly instructive; their stories saturated with the essence of enlightenment. Meditate on their actions and you will approach their subtle perfection. 


This is a very special time during which spiritual evolution is being immensely accelerated. Powerful beings are working behind the veil with all who are consciously cooperating to change Earth and bring us into a radically new pattern of human attainment. Never before, even small efforts on the spiritual path have been so greatly rewarded. So, do not miss this rare opportunity. It may not come again for a long time. As it says in the Upanishads, Arise! Awake! From this very day vow to become the Self that you really are and join the army of lightworkers that are even now transforming the planet.

Swami Sevaratna

Yogaspirit, Λαοδίκης 34, Γλυφάδα, Τηλ: 210 - 96 81 793
* If you live in Athens, I will be very glad to have you in one of my classes of Real Yoga