“… Baba has used the following simile to describe the progress of an aspirant on the Path:
“He likens the Path to a house with three steps up to the front door, and these three steps are the first three planes.
“Thereafter, there is a fourth step up to the threshold at the front door. This threshold is the fourth plane, an awkward and dangerous place, where the pilgrim may lose his balance, and fall back down the first three steps if he is not careful.
“If, however, he crosses the threshold successfully, he enters the safe and level floor inside the house, which is the fifth plane. He walks along this until he reaches the other end of the house, where there is a closed door.
“When he reaches this door at the back of the house, a centre of vision opens in his forehead, which is represented by the opening of the door; and he now sees God, and is on the sixth plane. But as well as seeing God, he sees also an impossibly deep valley that separates him in his present position from the splendor of God beyond, and he does not know how to cross this great rift.
“It is here that he needs the help of a spiritually Perfect soul to take him across this last colossal obstacle, which is greater than the sum of all his previous obstacles on the Path.”
-The Wayfarers, by William Donkin, p114-115