Self-Realization Index

Four Levels of Reality

—- Person-World-Consciousness —-

—- Presence-Consciousness —-

—- Awareness —-

—- Infinity —-

Relaxation Notice: The Levels of Reality, outlined below, always already exist and co-exist within / alongside one another. There is never a “time” in which one of these levels is not. Hence, it is not so much about creating or achieving these levels of Awareness, nor is it about trying very hard to get to them; it is merely about rediscovering that they are always, already here, now. They are hiding in plain sight.

Stress will not get you closer to realization. So relax. And keep in mind that this index is meant as a general reference for you, so please don’t turn it into dogma.

“Take what resonates, leave behind what does not, and add what is uniquely your own.” Bruce Lee / Bentinho Massaro

Relaxation, and the confidence that you will recognize these already existent levels in perfect timing for you—are key. This way, you can enjoy where you currently are, while at the same time effortlessly accelerating your “natural expansion” by not putting stress on it.

“Person-World-Consciousness” Explained

This is the level of our everyday body-mind-world-relationship consciousness. Person-World-Consciousness is the level where Awareness is conscious of eating breakfast, brushing teeth, talking to partner and kids, going to the office, driving the car, logging into Facebook, reading this sentence, an so on. It is also the level where one is conscious of—and generates—thoughts and emotions that revolve around the idea of being a separate individual self. This level of consciousness is where Awareness is aware of (and usually identified with or attached to) the body-mind entity inhabiting a seemingly independent, external world. If Awareness is identified with this level, the world and the body seem like solid, real things that one is a victim of.

This is the level where we have created the greatest amount of our suffering, because Awareness’ identification with this level is the heaviest form of mis-identification; it is the furthest away from the truth, in a sense. The further away from truth (you believe) you are, the more you see yourself as separate, limited, isolated, and lacking. Believing you are lacking anything is the root cause of all psychological suffering. In the more expanded states of Self-Realization, one is less likely to experience as much of the illusion of lack and separation; hence, suffering is less likely to be generated.

“Presence-Consciousness” Explained

Presence-Consciousness, also called God-Consciousness, is where Awareness is aware of the sense of primordial existence in the present moment; the Here-and-Now-sense that “I-AM,” that Existence IS. It is Awareness aware of (and usually identified with or attached to) the Presence-Energy underlying all forms of Creation. Presence-Consciousness is the level of Creation Itself; it is Awareness aware of the substratum of All-That-Is; the Is-ness, or Beingness, that is shared by all things and which is prior to form, but appears as all forms.

Awareness of Presence, or Beingness, is Self-Realization of the Manifest Greater Self. When the recognition of Is-ness / Beingness is repeated enough times, or with a high enough degree of clarity, identification of Awareness with the Person-World-Consciousness is released and moved on to identification with the sense of Existence or Creation itself: the “IAM-Presence.” The level of Presence-Consciousness can be attained and recognized by almost anyone in any given circumstance or with any type of conditioning.

Presence-Consciousness most effortlessly shines forth when awareness of person-consciousness / world-consciousness is relaxed or allegiance to it is given up. Hence the instruction to “Relax all focus for 2 to 5 seconds, again and again, and recognize what remains.”

“Awareness” Explained

At this level, Awareness is aware (and usually identified with or attached to) the fact that it is aware. Awareness starts to recognize that it is aware of Presence / Beingness—which makes Awareness essentially subtler, more primordial, than Presence-Consciousness.

When the feeling of Presence-Consciousness is relaxed, yet one remains aware of being aware, Awareness can realize itself as free from anything but itself. Awareness itself is therefore waking up to the fact that its true identity lies forever beyond the level of Presence-Energy (beyond the Manifest Self). When Awareness wakes up to its true Self, it starts to feel back into its original Free Agency: Its freedom to move about all planes of Consciousness, to empower the individual, to amplify the experience of Presence-Energy, or to simply rest beyond it all, as it pleases. It is literally the Free Agent of The One; it is able to navigate and direct the entirety of The One’s Creation.

When Awareness realizes that it is itself aware of Presence-Consciousness, it becomes less identified with the now-seemingly-dense-feeling of I-AM. If waking up from Person to Presence is likened to shifting attention from feeling a single body to feeling the presence of the Earth, then waking up from Presence to Awareness can be likened to shifting attention from feeling the Earth to feeling like Space.

Awareness realizing itself as being purely Awareness—and therefore beyond Creation / Presence-Consciousness—is Self-Realization of the Unmanifest Greater Self.

“Infinity” Explained

When Awareness is “tired” of the constant presence of the sense of I-Exist, or even the constant nature of its own sense of “being aware,” it awakens an even deeper, more existential desire for merger with The One. Awareness then starts to collapse into the absolute Source behind All-That-Is and it starts to glimpse Infinity. When Awareness recognizes that it itself has a source—that there is something that enables the presence of Awareness—Awareness starts to dissolve into the One, beyond experiencing experiences.

The Absolute is realized to be beyond the recognizer of any recognition. The One is the Source of All-That-Is, and Awareness is its Free Agent—the dynamic bridge between the Absolute and its Creation. When Awareness realizes it is not the Absolute, but that there is an Absolute (beyond its own ability to recognize), then all identities, even the identities of I-Am-Presence and Awareness-is-Aware, come to an end—even if just for a “moment.” This momentary penetration of the veil of feeling “I-am-Awareness” is what can be described as a “black-hole experience.” It can be felt at times as if the substratum of Existence has been punctured, and all the substance of Existence is escaping out of this hole into a vast and indescribable Nothingness, or Infinity.

When Infinity, or Beyondness, is glimpsed, it leaves a permanent gap, or gateway in the substratum of Consciousness—a black hole in the space of Awareness that can then, at any time, be revisited if one so desires.

The Absolute is beyond Being and non-Being as we know them. It is beyond experiencing altogether— indescribable, inexperiencible, timeless, devoid of a recognizer. It is total peace. And yet, glimpsing it is essentially simple, here, now, and available to everyone. Realization of The Absolute One leaves Transparent Awareness with a trace sense, along the lines of:

“Nothing ever happened or mattered. All that does seem to happen and matter, does not happen or matter to me, but happens and matters to Awareness and Consciousness only, as the perceivers of experience. I—as the Absolute—am beyond experiencing experiences altogether. I am not even touched by Awareness. Everything that ever happens is an experience, and experience happens inside and due to Awareness only. Without Awareness, there is no experience. I am beyond Awareness, therefore, nothing that happens ever applies to me.” *

* See Stage 5, in “Six Stages of Self Realization,” below.

Six Stages of Self Realization

These are the six stages of Self Realization:

  • 1. Manifest Self-Realization—Presence-Consciousness
  • 2. Unmanifest Self-Realization—Awareness aware of itself
  • 3. Oneness, Nonduality, Inseparability—Awareness and Creation (Presence) are seen as Inseparable
  • 4. Dissolution into The Absolute—Awareness becomes aware of its source, beyond experiences of any kind
  • 5. Transparent Awareness—Awareness emptied of identity remains Transparent to The One
  • 6. True Simultaneity—Transparent Awareness interacts with all levels of Reality as simultaneously existent and equally valid

#4 = Deepest stage
#6 = Most mature/expanded stage


Explanation of Six Stages of Self Realization

1: Manifest Self-Realization

In this stage, the Adept realizes that he / she is not just a person inside of a world, but that they are actually omnipresent Presence-Energy. The Adept discovers a permeating sense of Beingness, or I-AM.

2: Unmanifest Self-Realization

In this stage, the Adept realizes he / she is pure freedom, that principle of Free Agency—non-solid, non-defined, unmanifest, unhooked, unattached, untouchable, unaffected, perfect: like space. The identity of the Manifest Self starts to disappear; the sense of Presence-Beingness is replaced with the sense of Emptiness-Beingness, or Spacious-Beingness.

3: Oneness, Nonduality, Inseparability

In this stage, the Adept realizes that Awareness and Presence-Energy—as well as everything included in Presence-Energy, which is everything that is—are not separate. One realizes that experiences cannot be found without Awareness, and in a sense, Awareness cannot be found without experience. The Adept realizes the non-dual nature of Existence. A feeling of Inseparability takes hold in the Heart of the Adept.

4: Dissolution into The Absolute

In this stage, the Adept realizes that Awareness is not the absolute, but that it has in fact a source that is “older” than it is itself. Awareness starts to become interpenetrated with the intuitive knowingness of something beyond itself: Infinity is realized.

5: Transparent Awareness

Transparent Awareness is Awareness post-“black hole experience.” It is what remains of Awareness after it sufficiently realizes that its identity, ultimately, is transitory compared to The Absolute. This ultimate humility leaves Awareness as potent as ever, yet free from the arrogance of believing itself to be real, or solid, or absolute. As such, Awareness retains its status of Free Agent, of being a bridge between Infinity and its Expression (Creation), but it now remains transparent to The Absolute.

6: True Simultaneity

This, in many ways, is “the final stage of Self-Realization” the Adept goes through, as described by Trinfinity Academy. This does not mean that the journey ends, because that is impossible. It simply means one has achieved a very complete and holistic view and experience of reality, which yet allows for any type of further expansion and realization to occur freely within this holistic understanding—or possibly even outside of it.

The journey will always go on, deepen, expand, refine itself, reveal more of Infinity’s infinite ways, but when the Adept reaches this stage of True Simultaneity, he / she is emptied out of all mis-perceived core identities. And not only this; the Adept is also empowered by the absolute humility and wisdom of seeing that all levels of Reality are equally valid in their Presence, that they all deserve to be treated as equally valid, and all are recognized as always simultaneously existent. One thing is never in the way of another. The principle of this-AND-that is seen to permeate Reality in countless ways.

The Adept who has become this proficient and refined in Seeing as Truth Sees, will no longer need to deny one Level of Reality or Experience in order to notice another Level of Reality. When True Simultaneity is realized, the Adept is absolutely free and untethered—never held back—by any one Level of Reality. Rather, the Adept shows great and equal care for, and attends his / her by-nowskillful Love-Light Presence to whatever appears that seems to be most relevant.

Graduating at Trinfinity Academy

Although one could rush through all the core courses in as little as approximately 11 months, I estimate that it will take the average person between 16 and 24 months to comfortably go through all the core courses within Trinfinity Academy and reach the end of the True Simultaneity course with actual direct experience and integration to back up his or her “graduation.” After all, it is not about reaching “graduation” as much as it is about becoming a fully awakened, realized and “crystallized” expression of Infinity that is tapped into Source, turned on by All-That-Is, and ecstatic to be one’s full Self in this life.

So, take your journey through Trinfinity Academy at your own pace. Always give yourself time and space to feel comfortable enough with your Self-Realization to move onto the next chapter, or course. This is, after all, a complete roadmap, an extensive and direct-experience-based encyclopedia of Self-Realization AND Self-Actualization. Two years to realize all of this—to actually experience every bit of it, positively integrate and balance out the radical shifts in perception that will occur for you, gain all the indescribable benefits, “handle” the unconditional love you start to become, and learn to give space for your dream life to manifest itself through you fluidly and blissfully at the same time—is still a record-time I would say.

So, don’t rush. A balanced, integrated graduation is more reliable, enjoyable, and beneficial in the end than a shaky barely-made-it-through type of graduation experience. Give yourself the gift of time, of more experiential practice, with each aspect of Trinfinity Academy. And have fun—loads of it.