It is very common to see people besotted with "methods" and "techniques" in the spiritual path. Learn x, y, or z methods/techniques and you will get enlightened/Self-realized, or you will gain power, etc.   But no method/technique has the ability to give anyone enlightenment. Enlightenment is simply the realization of One's Self-nature/True Nature.  Very rare are those individuals who only practice methods/techniques and become Self-realized. Because of the way the world works, Self-realization requires someone pointing/telling us what our True Nature is. Without these pointers, it is very difficult indeed to get Self-realization.   But don't consider this post as knocking methods/techniques. They certainly play a big part -- but only towards the purification of the mind. Why is the mind so important? Because it is the primary organ of knowing (yes, I called it an organ, albeit it is a subtle organ). If the mind is cluttered, scattered, or dirty, the truth cannot be seen, no matter the words that point to it. Similarly, even if the mind is pure, clear, and focused, without the words, there is usually no impetus towards Self-realization.     I think of the methods as the vehicle to allow the mind to become clear and transparent, so the Self is known as it is, without the employ of phenomenal objects of knowledge.    One topic that seems to be a source of much contention is that of the "levels" of realization/enlightenment. Some worthies think that if you realize your "True Nature" it is not enough, because you have to TRANSFORM completely into that True Nature (or however else one chooses to articulate this graduation process). Therein lies the biggest drawback of not having direct experiential knowledge -- because if one realizes True Nature, then it becomes very clear that there is nothing else left to transform, because every "thing", every phenomenon, is made up of that True Nature through and through. It is akin to stating that "I realize the Table is made of Wood, but this realization won't become completely REAL until the Table is fully transformed into wood!"     What a preposterous idea! How can the Table become any more wood than it already is? Similarly, how can something made of True Nature become more True-Nature or Completely True-Nature? There is nothing other than True Nature -- period.     P.S. For the sake of sanity, please don't make statements like, "The wood needs to be transformed back into the tree, then the seed and so on". That raises questions (at least in my mind) about your intelligence     That brings me to the topic of "Rainbow Body". When I ask someone, "what is the purpose of developing a rainbow body?", pat comes the answer, "to become immortal", or perhaps, "To completely transform into True Nature". Inquire for a while, what is it that needs to transform into "True Nature"? Is there anything that is "not True Nature"? If there is already the realization that this world of names and forms is merely an appearance within True Nature, then where is the need to become "immortal" and "transform completely into True Nature"? What purpose does transforming the physical body into a flash of light serve? Where will such a being go? What would they do? Isn't that just a misunderstanding of True Nature? Who wants to be 'immortal' in that way?   But that doesn't mean that transformation is not real. The transformation that is meaningful, is the dropping of behaviours and tendencies of the mind which keep veiling True Nature from the mind.