Consciousness, assuming ever new identification along the lifeline of the soul, is the way of man’s ascent to perfection.
The more one rises, the closer one comes to the realization of the highest purpose of one’s being.
To be sure, only very few people are ever privileged to reach these highest levels
And even when they do reach them, it is not to remain, but to experience an occasional flash of awareness of the higher existence within.
Only the greatest of men achieve this level where the self exists, in terms of consciousness, in the world of emanation.
The rest of mankind lives on the level of the world of action or scarcely above it.
They can rise a little-if, indeed, they manage to do so at all-only by virtue of their choice, their deeds, their sincerest efforts.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz