In recent years, it began to dawn on me that most Buddhist practices, such as those on devotion and loving-kindness, lead meditators through four distinct stages. The first stage, which I call the Outer Buddha, is to see the Buddha before oneself with devotion. The second stage, which I call the Inner Buddha, is to find the Buddha’s unconditional love within oneself. The third stage, the Universal Buddha, is to awaken to the Buddha everywhere: the whole universe arises as his love. The fourth stage, the Ultimate Buddha, is to be in oneness with the Buddha’s love. I talk about love because that’s my subject here. But any enlightened quality could be substituted for it in this four-stage model. Although the Four Stages are conceptually distinct, each leads infallibly to the next. We can flow from one stage to another without needing to stop and shift gears.
The Four Steps of Buddhist Practice