View source for Stages of Attainment

{{navmenu}}
<h1 class="customtitle">{{FULLPAGENAME}}</h1>
<blockquote class="definition">The '''Stages of Attainment''' are the stages of psychological, emotional, and spiritual growth achieved while walking an [[Authentic Spirituality|authentic spiritual path]].  
</blockquote><!-- -->

==Related LP Terms==

[[Stages of Attainment]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related LP term::Stages of Attainment]]}}

==Non-LP Related Terms==

[[Stages of Attainment]] > {{#ask:[[Is a related term::Stages of Attainment]]}}

==Notes==

Complicated and esoteric systems of awakening/attainment are not required. A simple five-level representation is suitable. Each level or stage thus represents the "condition" of the physical unit at the time of evaluation. The condition of the PU may be represented by the [[Consciousness Quotient|CQ]] (a dynamic, '''qualitative''' measure intended to give a rough indication of the "level" of consciousness in the body at a particular moment), and an empirically displayed level of mastery over reality. Attainment of each stage points the individual towards an increasingly complete and powerful [[Awakening and Activation]] of the [[Physical Unit]]. The stages of attainment  can be summarized as follows:

*[[Novice]] - One who has begun to question. 
*[[Initiate]] - One who has begun to practice.
*[[Adept]] - One who has begun to understand.
*[[Master]] or Magi - One who has begun to know, particularly through direct and pure [[Connection Experience]].
*[[Avatar]] - One who has begun to teach.

# '''Novice:''' On the LP, you are considered a novice when you no longer take the childhood and adolescent truths provided to you by parents, teachers, and priests for granted, but instead have begun to question the materialist ''or'' religious truths and fundamentals taught to you as a child and young adult. For example,
## On the religious side, you might begin to question your Catholic or Hindu upbringing, the portrayals of God as a violent patriarch, religious hypocrisy, and so on and so forth
## On the materialist side, you might begin to the materialist assumptions of most scientific systems of knowledge, the dismissal of spiritual and anomalous phenomena as fantastical, or even the common assumption that all scientists are necessarily materialist and atheist.
# Anything that causes you to question your conceptual and archetypal foundations, anything that causes you to doubt the Big Question answers you have received from authority figures, anything that encourages you to begin searching for new information to try and explain things you ''thought'' you understood, places you at the novice level of development. Thus we say, a novice is one who has begun to question.
# '''Initiate''': On the LP, we consider you an initiate when you begin to engage in Connection Practice. Note that being an LP Initiate is more than just sitting in a lotus position and practicing connection. Connection Practice here includes not only the use of Connection Supplements, Connection Appliances, and actual Connection Techniques like mindfulness and drumming, but also any necessary and important work you do, like clearing misconception, expanding your understanding, healing your mind and body, and engaging in Flow Purification and Flow Control.  As a reminder, your Connection Practice should be consistent and persistent, meaning you should do it every day, or at least three or four times a week. We have already discussed Connection Practices in an earlier lesson in this course. In addition, the SpiritWiki contains a list of various Connection Practices from various traditions.
# '''Adept''': On the LP, an adept is someone who has begun to understand human spirituality and human spiritual practice at a deeper level. An adept is someone who can achieve and handle powerful Connection Experiences, who has had some success in expanding their Consciousness Quotient, and who has begun to understand spirituality, spiritual practice, and all the reasons why our human understanding of spirituality is so mucked up. Note, this understanding includes an understanding of The System and the role this planet's [wiiki]Accumulating Class[/wiki]es have played in undermining humanity's understanding of and ability to attain and maintain strong Connection between the Spiritual Ego and Bodily Ego. This understanding of The System is very important. If you do not understand how the elites have interfered with the spirituality of this planet, your understanding of spirituality will be superficial and even caricatured. You can learn more about The System in the LP course, LP 131 - The Regime of Accumulation.
# '''Master''': On the LP you are considered a Master when you have a thorough and deep theoretical and practical understanding of all things spiritual. This includes an understanding of the nature of Consciousness, the nature of the Spiritual Ego and Bodily Ego, the nature of Connection, as well as an understanding of Connection Experience, Connection Supplements, Connection Techniques, the importance of Healing, the significance of Flow Purification, Flow Control, the reality and significance of chakras, kundalini, energy, manifestation, and so on. A Master is essentially an educated and professional spiritual scientist, someone who combines external knowledge with the expanded awareness and insight provided by connection in order to develop a complete and sophisticated understanding of human spirituality and spiritual systems.
# '''Avatar''': On the LP, you are considered an Avatar when you begin to use your advanced spiritual training and expertise to help others understand, heal, prepare, and connect. There is nothing particularly mysterious about being an Avatar. An Avatar is basically a knowledgeable, well round, and ''connected'' spiritual teacher. Note, books and reading are important, but an avatar grounds their expertise solely in book learning. Avatars always combine science with connection experience to provide a well-rounded, grounded, and sophisticated teaching framework.
# Keep in mind, having one or two powerful and profound Connection Experiences does not make you an Avatar. It doesn't even make you a novice in LP terms because a novice is someone who questions, and not everybody who has had a Connection Experience or two learns to question things. In order to properly and safely teach others, you must pass through the various stages of attainment. Along the way, you ''must'' develop a solid, grounded, and deep understanding of Connection, Connection Techniques, Connection Practices, psychological and emotional pathology, Toxic Socialization, social class, The System, and how the Accumulating Class have interfered with this planet's spiritual knowledge with the express purpose of undermining, containing, and corrupting our collective capacity to attain and maintain strong Connection. To be sure, you can intuit a lot of this stuff when you have profound Connection Experiences, but if you do not study, work it out, and ground it, your understanding will be superficial, or even mistaken. If your understanding is superficial and mistaken, if you operate as a spiritual teacher with only minimum Connection Experience, you may do more harm than good.
# As a side note, if you are looking around for a good spiritual teacher, pay attention to their connection history and the amount of work they have done to ground and understand. An individual who has a connection experience or two and then proclaims themselves a guru/expert/Avatar is probably not worth following because doing so will almost surely confuse you and make it harder for you in the end. If you as an individual want to make solid forward progress, make sure you find a competent, grounded, experienced, teacher who has had more than one or two Connection Experiences, and who has done the work to create a proper and grounded foundation.
# Note that levels of attainment are not the only way to assess progress on a spiritual path. You can also assess an individual's (or your own) level of consciousness. We won't discuss levels of consciousness at this level of training but if yo are interested, check out the SpiritWiki page Levels of Consciousness for some tips on where to look.



It should be clearly understood that these stages do not refer to the condition or quality of the [[Resident Monadic Consciousness]] (a mistake often encouraged by those who would keep power for themselves), but to the extent to which the physical, neurological, and conceptual apparatus of the [[Physical Unit]] has matured enough to allow significant inflows of [[Consciousness]]. Thus these are a measure of the extent to which [[The Vessel]] has been prepared and higher consciousness has settled into the [[Physical Unit]]. 

It should be noted that the mere influx of consciousness is insufficient to assess one's "level." High levels of [[Awakening]] can be associated with confusion, disorientation, and even madness, especially when [[Awakening]] occurs without [[Lightning Path|proper guidance]].

It should be noted that proper maturation of the [[Physical Unit]] depends not only on the individual's own efforts, but the efforts of those around him, from parents, through schools, media, government, to society. Proper nutrition, a loving, nurturing, and stimulating environment, are pre-requisites that not only enable healthy and strong maturation of the [[Physical Unit]] but also its full [[Awakening]], [[Activation]], and [[Ascension]].

There are two basic categorizations of attainment in Buddhism "...the ordinary person, called “the uninstructed worldling” (assutavā puthujjana), and the wise follower of the Buddha, called the “instructed noble disciple” (sutavā ariyasāvaka).<ref>Bodhi, Bhikkhu, ed. In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Wisdom Publications, 2005. p. 19</ref> According to Buddha, these two classes of people react differently to the things of the world. 

{{courses}}

{{lp101}}

{{lp150}}

{{endstuff}}

[[category:terms]]
[[category:lightningpath]][Is a related term::Connection| ]]
[[Is a related LP term::Level of Consciousness| ]]