Namaste. Once you find a living connection with the Divine Consciousness or the Pristine Nothingness that exists within, then your spiritual path will extend along the following lines. First one will enjoy absorption or various forms of absorption in the nothingness aspect in attention. Prolonged and extended absorptions lead to the deepest form of absorption which leads to dissolution. From absorption you go to dissolution, that is merging with the Divine reality, dissolving your individual mind into the Cosmic Being.
Dissolution finalizes the life of sadhana, of seeking and practicing and attaining. From dissolution arises permeation. Permeation allows for the dissolution aspect to arise and infiltrate the grosser aspects of Being, the body, the mind, the emotions, ultimately the environment. After full permeation, then radiation occurs. Radiation is the gift of the Divine through your Being to others. That’s the final phase which consummates the entire spiritual path. So, it ends in a magnificent form of offering, of the Self offering its Bliss in the form of radiation to the whole world unconditionally.
Each person will progress at a unique pace and go through unique experiences along the way that illustrate which stage they are at at any given time, and this will occur for however long it occurs. There’s no way to know beforehand since it’s a spontaneous voyage to the depth and then a return from the depth and then the final offering. That will vary greatly from person to person, and not everyone can and will complete that entire journey in a single human birth. Some people will only be able to attain to whatever stage is possible.
The most important thing is to simply abide in your dharma. Your dharma means your level of evolution. Not to envy or become disturbed over the fact that it has not gone as quickly as your intellect would have liked it to go. The more sincerely you are involved in your practice, in your sadhana, in your journey, then there should be less of a chance of feeling anything except gratitude, gratitude at every step of the way and the full involvement in your spiritual process. Not analyzing it, not trying to make it go faster, just settling into it and offering yourself to your own process. It’s the depth and innocence of your offering that allows this to go frictionlessly.
