To clearly understand one owns fault by itself is spiritual progress. However, this understanding must be precise and clear.
Liberation is not possible without a Guru.
A disciple cannot understand many of his experiences. Progress is always there (especially true if you have a liberated Guru) but the experience can be best understood and explained by the teacher. For eg. Spiritual experiences often occur in sleep. The disciple may think it is a dream but in reality, they are experiences in different spiritual planes.
Meditation is easy. All that is to be done is to observe (and allow)bwhat the awakened shakti does. Awakened shakti is recognized as either light, sound or a force. This simple equation means complete surrender and to give ones heart completely to the Divine and let her do what she thinks is right. This is stated in the bible as Man should love God with all his heart and all his might. (Might meaning with all his prana). Complete surrender means every part of the being (heart, intellect and physical body).
Prana and desires are generally mixed together. Pranayama helps seperate out prana and desires. Once that is successfully done, it becomes easier to not let desires interfere with the surrender during meditation. Desires are more difficult to relinquish outside meditation.
There are many secrets known to the enlightened souls but they keep them from us in our own best interest. The mind can be very imaginative and knowing certain facts, it can project an image which is still an imagination of Para brahma and not Para Brahma itself. That is why it is advised to meditate more and read less. Just follow the very few basic rules and you can reach the goal.
Bhavin