🌅 Roadmap to Full Enlightenment 🌅
The Path of Wisdom and the Path of Light
This piece lays out a practical method for attaining full enlightenment within one lifetime.
As you will see, it is a method that is actually working for regular people around the world, from various walks of life. You could be one of them!
Have you considered this possibility?
That you could become fully enlightened in this very lifetime?
If no, take a moment to ponder your potential … what stories and beliefs might be blocking you from claiming your birthright as a fully awakened being?
If yes, read on!
We begin with the distinction of TWO PATHS of spiritual practice that, both completed, culminate in full enlightenment. Fuller and richer than if you only completed one of these paths.
Each path consists of different practices, and people around the world using them to reach the goal of full awakening within a matter of years. Part of what makes this possible is having a very good map of the territory. It is a very exciting time to encounter such teachings.
The claim that ordinary people can do this is, of course, a radical and controversial claim. But it is completely possible and I will share some evidence – and guidance – towards achieving it yourself!
I’m certainly not claiming this attainment myself, though I do know that I am “on the path”.
I’m simply re-presenting the teachings of a modern awakened master, Amrita Baba, who has laid out this roadmap with wonderful precision and clarity. Listen to his story here. LINK
So buckle up – and prepare to practice!
This is revolutionary stuff – groundbreaking research conducted by a global sangha (practice community) of ordinary people with jobs, kids, houses – and hearts, just like you.
Within the “Amrita Mandala” sangha of about 65 practitioners there are now 21 people who have completed the awakening path, the path of wisdom and clarity opened up by Buddhist teachings and practices.
That is a very high, almost unprecedented success rate! And this is the core reason that I’m writing this post… because I sense and trust the integrity of these people, this teacher and the practices being offered. And because I sense the readiness of many people – perhaps including yourself – to enter this vehicle and complete the practice(s) in question.
To become fully enlightened mahasiddhas, in this very lifetime.
Ready?
Let’s go.
We begin with this foundational idea of two different yet complementary paths:
The Path of Healing and Light
which works on a subtle body called the “astral body”.
and
The Path of Wisdom and Clarity
which works on a subtle body called the “causal body”. Also called the “awakening path”.
So in addition to the physical body, we have these two subtle bodies:
- the astral body, made up of “meridian”energy channels
- and the causal body, made up of “nadi” channels and energy centres – chakras and bhumis. More on this shortly!
The astral body / meridian system is like a bridge between the physical body and the causal body.
The physical body is the grossest body, the causal body is the subtlest, and the astral body is between the two. Both the causal body and the astral body are non-physical. (Materialists, deal with it 😉)
This “two paths” idea is about purifying and activating both of these two subtle bodies to their fullest extent.
The big discovery and innovation is that we need different practices to achieve these two goals (related but distinct) goals – some practices that purify the causal body and others that purify the astral body.
Amrita Baba discovered this after completing the Wisdom and Clarity path and discovering that he still had karmic reactions occurring in his system. After some research and experimentation he found that these reactions were coming from developmental trauma(s) stored in the meridian system / astral body, which evidently had not been purified by the practices of the awakening path.
Listen to this podcast for an overview. LINK
From these learnings we actually get a novel definition of full enlightenment, which runs something like this:
Full purification and activation of the causal body,
combined with full purification and activation of the astral body (an attainment also called lightbody).
Undertaking such thorough purification practice, “no stone is left unturned”.
No part of the psychophysical complex is left hidden and obscured. All of one’s subconscious mind and karmic energy is illuminated: is seen as no other than primordial awareness itself, and is therefore purified (or self-liberated).
If you do the right practices, that is!
The Amrita Mandala body of teachings are a method for doing exactly this, thorough purification of both subtle bodies.
I’m not trying to sell you on the idea that this is the only way to awaken: it’s just a very pragmatic, rapid and effective way. It is clearly working for a bunch of regular people who are interested in awakening.
I have been personally convinced to try these practices out due to the strong anecdotal evidence (mainly interviews) from the 21 practitioners who have used these methods to fully awaken along the. wisdom and clarity path (with full lightbody realisations in the pipeline).
- Book: Buddhas Among Us
- Podcast: Mahasiddha Interviews on the Lion-Faced Guru Podcast
I sincerely thank Amrita Baba for presenting these practices with such precision and clarity. It is a wonderfully pragmatic and no-nonsense approach to awakening.
What follows is a summary representation of his main teachings; I lay no claim to ownership and am simply seeking to share the gold I have discovered (in the endless wildernesses of internet).
So let’s look at each path in turn.
Note that you can walk one before the other, or even work on both simultaneously according to your circumstances.
However, it is recommended to work on Wisdom and Clarity Path first, so that the trauma-processing of the Healing and Light Path is held within a thorough awareness of emptiness, and is therefore easier to deal with. Either way you’re in for a bumpy ride. And either way, it’s going to be worth it!
Another key thing to realise is that progress along one path doesn’t necessarily entail progress along another: one could fully complete the wisdom and clarity path (the path of awakening), and still have a fragmented astral body / meridian system due to developmental trauma. (That’s what Amrita Baba experienced).
On the other hand, you could have fully activated and cleared up your meridian system – fully completed the path of healing and light – but still not have awoken to the emptiness of all phenomena. In this case a sense of separation from reality will remain due to dualistic confusion, and full lightbody (i.e. full enlightenment, both paths complete) will not be attained until the causal body is also purified. As Amrita Baba notes, many Hindu devotees get stuck in “gross bliss”, enjoying the fruits of a clean, glowing and energised astral body, but without clearing through the subtle mental habits of reificaiton and self-contraction that are opened up by the Wisdom/Awakening path.
Now we have this distinction (between the two subtle bodies and two paths in question), we can avoid this outcome. We are empowered to practice towards an even fuller enlightenment than was previously possible.
I will now summarise each path as best I can:
💫 The Path of Healing and Light
- Works on a specific subtle body, namely the astral body, or meridian system (which becomes fragmented due to trauma). Meridian channels are roughly 1cm thick and distributed throughout the body in tight bundles (like hay bound by rope). The meridian system is non-physical but is the same shape as the physical body, actually extending just outside the body by about 1cm – this is the sense of radiance one may perceive in awakened masters.
- Full purification and activation of the astral body culminates in realisation of the “Lightbody”. But full lightbody, I full enlightenment, requires that the awakening path is also completed.
- This path is the focus of many Hindu, Daoist and Christian practices, which generate great and boundless joy, love, devotion (Bhakti). Indeed, Jesus’ resurrection and final ascension is cited as a demonstration of his Full Lightbody realisation (meaning that he did his yogic homework and purified both his nadis / causal body and his astral body). To me, this only adds to the amazingness of Jesus – the Mahasiddha! More about that in my recent post “Jesus was a Yogi”.
- There are indeed reports of lightbody dissolution by various Christian monks, especially in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, though suc accounts are shrouded in secrecy.
- Interestingly, it is said that there are many examples of people who perfected bhumis 1–6 (out of a total 13) and purified their astral body, and they demonstrated dramatic shrinking of the body after death. Just not full rainbow body dissolution. So clearly, full enlightenment (full rainbow body) requires full astral body purification AND full causal body purification. Difficult but doable!
- Amrita Kriya Yoga (as opposed to other, less effective forms of Kriya Yoga) is a fast-track method for achieving this, and involves practicing Guru Yoga with a mahasiddha (an awakened being, a fully-accomplished one) in order to purify one’s astral body / meridian system. Hindu, Christian and Daoist mahasiddhas generally “vibrate” at a frequency tha purifies the meridian channels, while Buddhist masters – and their mantras, through which Guru Yoga actually operates – vibrate at (slightly higher) frequencies in order to purify the subtler nadi channels. Amazing! And there is no reason that we cannot work/practice/connect with both of these lineages of masters, in order to fully purify and activate both our astral and causal bodies. More on Tantric Guru Yoga here.
- Due to the “closeness” of the meridian system to the subtle body, this path will also involve physical practices such as asana yoga, and zhan zhuang, the classic “standing like a tree” practice from qi-gong.
💫 The Path of Wisdom and Clarity
- Works on the causal body which consists of nadis and bhumis (energetic channels and centres). So bhumis are really a sub-type of chakra where many nadis congregate. Nadis are like energetic threads that emanate from one being’s body, out to all the beings with whom they are karmically connected. Samsara – a tangled mess, in other words!
- Hundreds of thousands of nadis make up the aura, which extends around the physical body like a big egg of subtle energy.
- Nadis are very thin, hair-width. They have an inside and an outside. It is on the outside where karmic dirt (prana) collects, distorting our view of reality, making us perceive things in dualistic terms (self and other). This confusion is what is purified when opening bhumis. The inner layer of the nadis remains pure (so pure prana flows freely).
- Thoroughly cleaning one’s nadi system is how you establish “wisdom-as-basis” and come to “rest in zero”: to abide in the perfect primordial emptiness of all phenomena, free from all dualistic confusion. At ease in the natural state, all appearances are seen to be simply the non-real energetic display of non-dual awareness (rigpa in Tibetan).
- From this enlightened vantage point, “Nothing really arises as anything at all!”.
- Ahhhhhhhhhhh.
- So this the great Buddhist specialisation: a path for realising the emptiness of all phenomena; the unbounded openness of the natural state, primordially pure and unborn. Practices for opening and activating the causal body is where Buddhism really excels and is the emphasis of most Buddhist practices.
- A precise and measurable way to track progress along this path is through the opening of “bhumis”: subtle energetic centres inside and above the body, each relating to a certain layer of selfing (that is, of dualistic confusion).
- There are 10 of these karmic layers (or “grounds”) to cut through; doing this, one sees through to rigpa itself. Beyond this karmic material there are 3 “mahasiddha” bhumis which are primordially free of all karmic material. Baba himself figured this out with the help of Mahasiddha guru Thirumoolar. While Buddhist Tantric lineages still talk about 13 bhumis, the teaching has become disconnected from any reference to actual locations in the subtle (causal) body. Possibly this was known previously but later become a lost or diluted teaching. Anyway…
- Opening and perfecting all 13 bhumis equates to having purified and activated the entire causal body. This is first stage of buddhahood, enlightenment, awakening – with full enlightenment occurring with (you guessed it) the additions purification of th astral body / meridian system. Completing this path, you now have full realisation of the emptiness of all phenomena (since you went through your entire causal body and found nothing that isn’t the empty display of primordial unborn awareness… no appearance that was discernable from natural state). Then, if you also purify your astral body, you can go ahead and rainbow! 🌈
- Attaining the rainbow body means that after full awakening (full emptiness realisation) there is further to go. One now enters a stage of purifying the physical body itself, “including blending the body and its cells with the natural state”. Baba further writes: “Gradually, one’s own body is able to sustain the strong blessings, light and energy that one has felt from mahasiddha gurus many times during exceptionally powerful darshans, or meetings, (lit. sights). It is not only that one’s whole being becomes like a diamond that shoots out colours of rainbows, but also that there is immensely a powerful current that comes with it. Because it is so intense, it makes it very demanding for the physical body and consequentially requires lots of rest and sleep. It is as if we become a garden full of life; hummingbirds, butterflies and bees with countless rainbow-coloured flowers in full-bloom, with a controller that regulates the voltage of the energy in the whole garden, all lifeforms included.”
- Only don’t worry too much about this advanced practice for now, because…
- The number one priority in getting started on this path is opening the first bhumi. This “initial awakening” and is readily achievable with a suitable meditation method. I want to emphasise that it’s really, really doable. The two-part formula is one such method which will directly reveal and clear the energetic knot of tension behind the eyes – the first bhumi. This knot. equates to what Baba calls the “subject self”, the basic feeling of being behind your eyes looking at an external world. Get started with this article. Worked for me! (Neat fact: Amrita Baba didn’t actually invent this method but remembered practicing it in a past life. He has since verified that it is a preparatory practice (a “semdzin”) in the dzogchen tradition).
Links and Resources
The Path of Healing and Light
- Basic Course
- Amrita Kriya Yoga Course (free download)
- YouTube Intro video
The Path of Wisdom and Clarity
- Start with the Two Part Formula to open the first bhumi.
- After that, Rainbow Body Yoga will take you all the way to first stage of enlightenment (13 bhumis open and perfected). Within a few years (such are the results of successfully accomplished practitioners). This is pretty unprecedented hit rate, in any awakening school. After assessing the available evidence, especially the anecdotal evidence of Amrita Mandala practitioners in these “Mahasiddha interview” podcast episodes, I am convinced that this is really happening: that a small movement people are achieving full awakening within a matter of years due to the profound potency and efficacy of Amrita Baba’s tantric practices. But, as ol’ man Shakyamuni Buddha said: “don’t listen to me – see for yourself!”
Thanks to Nataraja for the helpful suggestions and proofreading. Amrita Baa for the teachings. And to the Mahasiddha family of awakened masters for guiding and blessing us, every step of the way.
May these practices bring you swiftly to enlightenment!
Love,
Will
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