[Gem]

There's two aspects with self realisation being one and purification being the other.

The former is something that can't be expected or anticipated, and there is no timely way toward it, because it is essentially you just as you are right now. In logic we'd say you don't exist as the menory of yourself nopr as the self you imagine becoming in the future, so this you is the real you, and that is the 'true state of consciousness'. Thus there is no approach to it. It is non-volitional, so there is nothing one can do.

The latter is regardless of the former. It pertains to purification of the life form, the healing, the resolution of past karma, the expiration of sankaras, or other way of describing it. That is a process of unfurling, and as the conditions for unfurling it arise, it manifests to the conscious awareness and dissolves. This is also non-volitional, but it is a volitionless process...

Some refer to the enlightenment as the former, but it's probably better to consider enlightenment to be the completion of the purification where one dissolves completely, having released all the potentials of their past volitions and ceased productions completely. That is upon final death at the end of birth/death cycles.