In Resurrecting Jesus, Adyashanti talks about the typical stages of a spiritual awakening process. Here is a brief outline:
Calling. The calling can take many forms, including as a curiosity of or a draw to Spirit, love or truth. For me, this may have happened in early childhood when I had memories of how it was before incarnation. (A golden light, sense of infinite belonging, wisdom, love, home, aka “heaven”.)
The awakening. The initial awakening, life awakening to itself as all there is. A transcendence of the ego. In my case, this happened “out of the blue” following a year of (what I now see as) a dark night of the senses. I was consciously a hardcore atheist at the time.
Trials and tribulations. Our new realization is put to the test. We find ourselves in situations that require us to act from our realization, from our deepest nature we have awakened to. Also, what in us not aligned with love and clarity surfaces to realign. This is a purification of our human self. This is what I am still in, it seems. (Jesus in the desert. Dark night of the soul.)
Abiding tranquility. An deep equanimity in the face of whatever content of experience happens to be. An inner unification. (Equanimity.)
Transfiguration. A further deepening of realization. Infused with radiance, vitality, becoming the radiance. This may include a clearer sense of one’s life purpose and path.
Relinquishment. Death of the ego. Feeling abandoned by God just before and as this happens. (Crucifixion.)
Transmutation. What relinquishment makes possible. Being truly selfless, in the sense of no self. What’s left is to be a benevolent presence in the world. Out of death springs a new life, a new orientation. (Resurrection.)
I assume some of these may happen simultaneously? And also that there may be previews of each of these.
For instance, in my twenties it did seem that there was a quite stable and deep equanimity, to the point where I (falsely) thought I could deal with anything. (Which seemed true, up to the point where I left myself due to shoulds and fears.) Following the initial awakening, I did experience all me being infused with radiance and becoming radiance, similar to how Adya describes transfiguration. Each of these were important in themselves, and may also have been – in a sense – foretastes.