Oneness and its stages

 

I discovered this article on the web courtesy: enlightenment-online.com which describes various stages of enlightenment. This is in sync with what my guru says as well. The various states are as shown below. All info below is directly from enlightenment-online.com

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Stages of Enlightenment

The Witness state--

1.  No more inner conflict.  You witness the mind and thoughts for what they are and experience the world as it is.  You live moment to moment in the present.
2.  Includes stage 1, but with an ever present feeling of joy.
3.  Includes 1 and 2, but with a great silencing of the mind.

The Oneness state--

4.  Includes the first 3, but with the permanent feeling of being connected to everything.  You no longer feel separate.
5.  All of the above but often, or at will, you feel you are the observer, the observed, and the observation.  You become the song you hear, the dance you dance, the tree you see, etc.
6.  All of the above but often, or at will, you expand into Cosmic Consciousness and encompass all of creation.  You feel you have become all of life.

God-Realization--

6 +.  Your Inner Dweller, Higher Self, the God Within, etc., (whatever name you want to call it) comes forth and is very present in your life. Your life is a constant flow of Divine guidance.

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I love the explanation of various voices of the ego within us in the below Video. The transcript is below:

Would you please clarify to us the meaning of oneness?

Answer: There are several degrees of oneness.

• Let us first look at oneness within oneself.

Right now you are not an individual. You are divided within, you are a crowd inside, you who is the son, friend, father of so n so, you are the friend employer or employee of so n so. There are so many beings within who are all the time talking.

Then again there is your conscious and your unconscious self, your authentic and your inauthentic self all having a dialogue all the time. You are the dialogue. When the dialogue shuts down you become all one inside. Alone means all one. There is no more division.

• At the next level you would find oneness with your fellow human beings.
• At the third level you would discover you are one with the earth the tree, the water and the sky, you are one with nature.
• You discover you and the universe are one.
• Ultimately you discover you and God are one. You would discover You are God. I intend to take you step by step to the final oneness.

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It is so very true that there are so many voices within us. As the power of observation becomes more and more better within ourselves we being to perceive these voices. They are constantly happening within us even now as we speak. These voice are what are responsible from keeping us away from our true self, peace of mind or the energy within.