There's a well-known old Zen story about the
pathless path to enlightenment. It says that before I took up
Zen, there were mountains and valleys. And then after I began
the practice of Zen, there were no mountains and no valleys. And
then with enlightenment, there are mountains and valleys.
The first “stage” is ordinary relative consciousness – the world
as we think it is, a collection of separate things, including
“me” who is “in here” looking out an external world “out there.”
The second “stage” of no mountains and valleys is the discovery
that there is no actual boundary between “in here” and “out
there,” that everything is one inseparable and seamless whole,
that there is no “me.” This is the realization of what is the
same in every different experience. It is the discovery of the
Absolute, the ever-present, the ever-changing. But this is still
not enlightenment, although it is often mistaken for
enlightenment.But in clinging to the absolute, there is still a
subtle dualism.
The third stage- With true enlightenment, there are mountains
and valleys again.
Joan Tollifson
Many have had a deep realization of their true nature, but very
few have embodied it so much that there are no gaps left between
the realization and its outer expression. This is what is
sometimes called embodiment or liberation. Embodiment happens
when the energy of our realization starts to filter through the
body-mind unit, clearing away old conditioning or “stuck places”
and actions start to flow from that which was realized.
Enza Vita