Enlightenment

 It is said no one can teach about enlightenment unless they're already enlightened, otherwise how can they know? But can you be certain if all such teaching is actually from an enlightened master, and if the information is good does it even matter?

However, if nothing more I can do my best to explain it, and a few possible routes closer to it, although of course there is no direct route or it would be universally taught. The second point is although it appears both students and teachers appear to be able to know when it's happened, it's different for everyone, and is not a state but a new level which continues to grow. The common feature is crossing from direct awareness of yourself as the body to being the awareness itself. If you close your eyes you lose the body, and look where your awareness ends.

So we start with our awareness, which is what watches your thoughts and feelings as Eckhart Tolle describes here earlier. That is our door to enlightenment. Meditation, quiet or active, focuses passively on awareness, and as a result makes you more and more aware of that and less of your body. In the end it is a natural process we have no control over, like sleeping, We can make ourselves in the best position to sleep but we have no control over when it happens, it is the same for enlightenment. Secondly, it can come and then go, in which case you know exactly what it is, but have lost it, while a master has it permanently.

There are many terms for enlightenment, but ultimately the closest to its nature is god realisation. This means instead of feeling we are only a body we become aware of our true nature as an aspect of god. Whether or not you believe god exists makes no difference if it happens, as if you become aware of infinite being that is the closest comparison to the nature of god. The next stage is the power of god. Of course, as the ultimate creator, god is omnipotent and everywhere at once, so this includes you and me, but we are not aware of it. But if you become aware of it, you realise directly as the bible describes, we are small versions of god. Not the other way round, god is not a large version of human beings, otherwise he would just be exactly the same as we are. But if we are all ultimately made of god, then surely what would follow is the creative powers. Anita Moorjani explains being aware of everywhere and everything at once, and many others describe suddenly knowing everything there is to know at once, as they have been exposed to the akashic records, which could be seen as god's diary.

Learning creative powers still needs practice, and do not require enlightenment to do either. We still have infinite power within ourselves if we learn how to use it, so having any level of powers means one way or another we have awakened that specific part and nothing else. Buddha was said to be able to translocate, jump from one point to another, as have many masters since. There is little need to work teaching these powers as you only need a few good classes on another site and can focus on those specifically. But enlightenment is about becoming aware of your infinite nature, and what you do with it afterwards will be fairly clear to you at the time.

Regular practice in a relaxed way (as effort blocks any abilities in the spiritual area), is the best route, and like most other skills besides weightlifting, changes could be gradual or you could work for months or years and nothing happens, then it all shifts at once. There is no pattern, everything is personal and it is impossible to learn your future progress or changes from what happens to others as everything is unique.

I believe eventually we can't avoid evolving towards enlightenment as a species. as this is the real nature of evolution, and when we become aware of other frequencies and dimensions Newtonian science will break down entirely and we will reach a stage where telepathy, dimensional travel, teleportation and returning after death will become normal. It will most likely happen on its own, but if you work on it individually you will speed up the process enormously.