There are three paths you may choose to follow in your lifetime: the first two lead to Enlightenment and Liberation, and the third to the circle of life and death or Samsara.
The first path is the most direct, but very few could follow. It is the Buddha's comtemplative path, which serious Buddhist followers and meditators have been practicing rigorously. Through mind training, the meditator gradually recognizes the ultimate truth of emptiness while observing the body, the feeling, the mind and all other phenomena. Seeing no self, no subject-object distinction, and no duality, the meditator dwells in the Buddha nature, or the vast space that embraces and unites everything. Having unveiled his/her ignorance, the meditator now can see all phenomena as they really are --having no substance, interdependent, just like a mirage or a rainbow. At the end of his/her life journey, s/he leaves the body behind calmly, and arrives home in the vast space, from which the meditator is free to leave, and to enter any realm s/he wants to in order to help other beings, or to carry out his/her vows.
The second path also leads to liberation from Samsara or suffering, but it could take a practitioner's many many lives of hard practice in order to get to the destination. The practitioner could use other methods the Buddha taught for self liberation and for accomplishing his or her vows. Depending on the individual's spiritual level, s/he could benefit from listening to the Dhamma (the Four Noble Truth, the Law of Dependent Origination....), or from following precepts, and developing wisdom through comtemplating on the Buddha's teachings. This second path differs from the first, because in the second path the practitioner is not quite able to stop his or her conventional dual way of perceiving phenomena. Hence, for a long time the practitioner remains attached to the self, the distinction between subjects and objects, and the familiar way of perceiving reality.
The third path is the path the multitude follow. It is the circle of life and death, or Samsara. One lives with one's false perceptions about oneself and others. One is driven by ignorance, or sensual pleasures, taking forms and designations as real, not knowing that none has any substance in itself.
In your own lifetime, the choice is yours. Whether you want to continue to dwell in Samsara, and to be trapped in the perpetual circle of life and death and sufferings life after life, or you want to be liberated and attain enlightenment to fulfill noble goals of serving others, and helping to stop their sufferings, it is a matter of your decision and resolution. One thing is sure, liberation and enlightenment can be accomplished right within your own lifetime as proved by the Buddhas and true Zen masters.
