Stages of enlightenment

Following is one way of describing the stages of enlightenment.

Within the parenthesis is also a note about how a person at each stage might view those at the other stages.

There is nothing higher: At first one is completely atheistic, whether due to being so engaged in external activities as to not notice anything higher, or due to abject rejection of anything beyond the world of appearances. (The one who says there is nothing else beyond the apparent world rejects everything except the day-to-day, and often rejects all of the other people who see differently.)

God is up there: Then one discovers there is something else, a higher reality, and as the eyes look upwards through the sky, with folded hands, proclaims that there is God, and He or She is there, above. (The one who sees God as being up there, or out there, cannot grasp the more intimate, inner relationship or being, but can see the atheists, possibly considering them to be misguided, and trying to convert them to their own views.)

God is beside me: In time, one comes to feel closeness, and finds that the God, which has been seen in that far distant sky, is standing beside me as a constant companion, ever guiding on the journey. (The one who walks with God can have understanding of the atheist and the proclaimer of God, but does not yet find that Lord within.)

The Lord is within: As the relationship and the guidance grows, the feeling becomes deeper and more intimate, when one then declares that God is within me, in the inner chamber of my heart. (The one who finds God, Lord, Truth, Reality within may understand the others, yet not know of, or be reluctant to surrender into the higher Oneness.)

All is One - I am That: At some point, one comes to feel such closeness that there seems to be a merging, wherein he or she cries out, "All is One," "I am That," or "The Father/Mother and I are one," like the wave awakening to the reality of being one with the ocean. (The one who discovers the truth of Oneness with the divine may well understand the stance of people on the other stages of the journey, and find himself or herself rejected by those others, though remaining in love with all, and excluding none.)