There are ten different benchmarks that indicate our progress or lack of progress in our practice. These landmarks also point to our destiny in the next world.
The first point of reference is to know for sure that this manufactured personality of ours will not survive death. We understand this when we can see the personality for what it is, an invention based purely on thought and memory, a purely material entity that cannot survive physical death.
The second is to recognize the futility of relying on religious rituals, beliefs, or dogmas to get us out of our predicament here on earth, rather than hard work of self-investigation.
The third point of reference is when we no longer have any doubt that meditation and self-inquiry can free us, not only from physical existence, but from existence itself.
When these three very important benchmarks are reached, and we cannot reach them thinking that we have reached them, but after a definite shift in consciousness occurs in which, in many ways, we become a different person and see things. in a completely different light, then we will be reborn back into physical existence a maximum of only seven times.
The fourth and fifth benchmarks are a bit unusual in that simply weakening them propels us to a different destiny than conquering them completely. If we weaken them, we just have to be reborn into physical existence and all its complications once more. When we conquer these two landmarks completely, we will no longer be reborn into physical existence at all.
The fourth and fifth benchmarks are anger and sensory desires, which must first be weakened. This is where we still retain a certain sense of aggravation and annoyance, and also slight wishes for pleasant things to appear in existence. Then, after they are considerably weakened, and with a deep inquiry into themselves, they give up completely. Now we have no underlying fear that is the root of anger, and we have no desire for sensual pleasures. We simply eat when it is time to eat, we sleep when it is time to sleep, and we work when we need to work.
By conquering these first five benchmarks, we become wise in the eyes of the world, yet to become what no man or woman can comprehend, and go where no man or woman can imagine, beyond existence in both the world of form and the world of non-form, we must conquer the remaining five reference points.
These five that remain are the residual desires that remain after we believe that we have conquered all of our material desires, and they are quite insidious. The final five benchmarks are; wanting to be reborn in the world of form, wanting to be reborn in the formless realm, spiritual restlessness (still seeking), pride or self-righteousness (I know), and finally an enduring belief in an eternal self.
These last five are the most difficult to conquer because the one who struggles to achieve them must disappear completely but somehow remain and function in the world; This is the only way they can be overcome.
And for this to happen, one must be fully enlightened.