Comment by Ted Thompson:
There is a world of difference between parokshanubhuti, or indirect verbal knowledge, (even backed by intuition, insight and understanding) and aparokshanubhuti, or direct experience of the Self.
The Self is what it is, nothing new is created.
But when ignorance disappears, the Self is revealed, in a burst of glory or in merely a simple noticing or acknowledging of what could have been obvious all the time.

Magdi:  Joy-full noticing, joy-full acknowledgement of the Self.

LT: Are these Buddhist terms Magdi? I’m not familiar with this language.

Magdi: I had to look it up Lisa…
The Aparokshanubhuti (Sanskrit: अपरोक्षानुभूतिः) is a famous work attributed to Adi Shankara. It is a popular introductory work that expounds Advaita Vedanta philosophy. It describes a method that seekers can follow to directly experience the essential truth of one’s one nature. Thus, the work is literally titled Aparokshanubhuti, or Direct Experience.

Magdi: Ted is pointing that there is a world of difference between direct experience and academic understanding

LT: I’ve tried methods before they seem not to be successful for me. At least in the long run.

Magdi: Direct experience can be measured by its end game effect: causeless and unshakable peace, freedom, joy, happiness and beauty.
If the perfume of realization is dull, the realization is dull.

LT: Yes intellectual understanding and direct experience are two different animals.

Magdi: Once you exhaust methods, you end up with the Self undiluted by the mind.
A teacher appears to guide you and you will find yourself drawn by the perfume of the Self.
Intellectual understanding is an important interim stage since it cleans out misunderstandings in the mind.  But the revelation of the Self goes beyond that.

LT:  Music to my ears Magdi. I’ve become exhausted myself. It starts to sound like blah blah after a a while. I’m certainly grateful for my teachers though. Really.

Magdi: It is important that the adept does not get stuck in the intellect. It is the full-on experience of happiness, causeless and unshakable, peace and bliss that matters.
Or else, it is just talk. Empty talk without the perfume.

DS: “The word Aparokshanubhuti is a compound. Paroksha means ‘what is far away.’ When ‘a’ is added it means ‘what is near. In this case it refers to the ‘nearest of the near’, one’s Self. Anubhuti means to realize, to experience. So the word means ‘Self realization.” It can also be translated as ‘direct realization’ or ‘immediate realization’ meaning realization without the need of ‘media’, objects.” (objects includes experiences).

From Aparokshanubhuti:
123. Dhyana, meditation, is the independence from objects brought about by complete confidence in the thought “I am limitless Awareness.’ It produces supreme bliss.
124. Samadhi, also known as Self knowledge, is the non-attachment to thought brought about by complete identification with the thought “I am the Self, limitless Awareness.”
125. This Samadhi reveals one’s natural bliss which arises spontaneously as one clings to the thought “I am limitless Awareness.”
126. This leads to the understanding that the Self can never be objectified, practice stops and the realization of one’s natural freedom ensues