Nice thread Viking
It's worth pointing out two different kind of realities : relative and Absolute.
Any truth or reality that is relative depends on the standpoint (ie the person viewing it) so yes there will be massive variations.
But absolute Truth is the same for all. It is the timeless pure awareness that has no form, yet inhabits all forms.
Absolute reality is a reality independant from our own personal standpoints.
The Nondual Absolute Reality in Itself is the Supreme Ground of all Reality.
Its attainment is experienced as Liberation .
The opposite of this state is the world of phenomena, " Maya ", the relative truth, Illusion, Samsara, "the wheel of rebirth", subject to ignorance of one's true nature .
The lower, relative reality, is a juxtoposition on the higher, the Absolute Reality.
That's why the various Indian philosophies (Vedanta, Mahayana, etc) speak of the "Two Truths", the Relative and the Absolute Truth.
Hence Enlightenment (realisation of the Absolute) is not something to be attained, because one always was and is the Absolute.
Enlightenment is simply the realisation that you are the Absolute right now, and that there is no birth or death, future or past, self or other, but only the eternal present, the one universal "I".
The image I have for this is the one of the torus .
As Rareheart eloquently wrote to me the other day :
The image of the torus is one which I have also seen when contemplating the nature of time. Cycles which fold into themselves, in a sort of circular fashion, around a center which is void of 'matter'...in constant motion. The center is where we truly exist as one, while navigating the circles as solitary beings, in illusion, of course. We are blessed to realize this while we endure the illusion, it is the best of both worlds.
Love Always
mudra