Yoga and the Self Perception of Consciousness

I. have a problem with the idea of making progress towards this path because it seems to me like either i'm making the mistake of confusing consciousness with the content of consciousness which is not very helpful. Do he have an account of how there could be stages along the way towards this ultimate goal as opposed to just having kind of having a flickering in and out identification of the self with consciousness? The pattern jayoga sha starts with a definition of what yoga is  and then numerates different stages in in which the mind can operate distracted state dull state state in which concentration is not possible at all. Then it comes to the state of one pointedness concentration on one on one point and