Let’s apply the Taoism Pyramid on human consciousness. Let’s suppose that before we are born our consciousness is there, but it is empty, like the state of Wu Chi. Right before our birth, our consciousness begins to stir up, like the state of Tai Chi. When we first open our eyes after birth, we see light. From that we know dark. We can then differentiate light from dark, hot from cold etc. Like that of the "two poles", yin and yang can now be differentiated. As we gain more experience through the interaction of the physical world, our consciousness expands like the Taoism Pyramid: from Two Poles to the Four Symbols, from the Four Symbols to the Eight Trigrams, Eight Trigrams to the I Ching, and beyond.

As we go through our lives, our consciousness expands and spreads over different areas and subjects. An average adult in our modern society has to worry about his/her career, family, relationship, education, health problems, rents, insurance, bills, and the future etc. So our consciousness is spread out at the bottom of the pyramid. The problem is that our consciousness is not focused and concentrated, but thin and spread out. This way we cannot see things clearly, so we are easily confused. To go on, with our lives, like that will only make matters worse as the consciousness keeps spreading out like that of the pyramid, turning it into a big meaningless "mess". In order to gain insight through matter, we need to see things more clearly. To do so we must stop the thinning and spreading of our consciousness.

Upon the realization of this "mess" is enlightenment. We will call this the first stage of the "First Enlightenment". After this realization, we might go on and try to find a way out of this mess. We might get into religions and start meditating. But without knowing it, as soon as we start contemplating on this Enlightenment, our consciousness starts to rolling and spreading again. We are then cycled back into that big mess! Until one day we realize this phenomenon is happening, and notice how it is repeating itself into an endless cycle, we will never get out of this big tangling mess. The realization of this is the first stage of the Second Enlightenment.