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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