awakening cont...1

So I discussed two common methods of awakening in the last post. But why is it that people have trouble realizing things like this? It is a common underlying belief that normal people do not become enlightened, however in history and in current times people become enlightened to one degree or another all the time. Non dual teacher adyashanti says that he personally has seen several hundred of his own students awaken right in front of him. Daniel Ingram, Kenneth Folk, Christopher Titmuss and Bill Hamilton have awakened to the very end of the path according to the standards and stages set forth by Burmese buddhism.
  Well, one issue with people not becoming enlightened is that westerners often believe it is wrong to talk about enlightenment. If no one is to talk about enlightenment, and supposedly all those on the spiritual path are working to that end, what the hell are they really working towards. It seems to me that they are working toward an airy fairy naive goal, what ever that goal may be. Unfortunately there are not many teachers willing to talk publicly, openly and concretely. The good side is that the teachers I previously mentioned have done just this. They (except adya) are not very popular and are definitely pioneers in the field of open accessible enlightenment. I would recommend to any one interested in spiritual awakening to check these teachers out as they are one of a kind in what they are doing in regards to enlightenment.
  One thing I have appreciated very much in these teachers approach, is that they not only teach effective methods for awakening, define awakening, but also teach stages and states in regard to awakening. The vast majority (if not all) do not penetrate every layer of perception in one shot. There are several identifiable major phases of awakening. Different meditation teachers are all at different phases of this process. If one has finished the first major phase, one is considered to be enlightened to a certain degree.
  Now lets not confuse the first major spiritual opening to be the completion of the first phase. The first opening is the real initiation to the first phase, after which one can never return to being a totally normal, completely dualistic human being. In the burmese description of awakening, the first opening is considered the fourth stage of the first phase,  the arising and passing away event. It is difficult to identify as anything less than enlightenment because it is so powerful, however there are still about 9 or 10 more little stages before one goes through the last three stages of that phase which are the enlightenment moments one has been investigating for. Im not explaining in detail these phases right now but will eventually come back to them.
   If your looking for open and concrete discussion, along with enormous detail check out the teachers I mentioned above. bye for now