How do you personally picture infinity?

[Steppingfeet]

So the first step, from my point of view in terms of seeing "beyond" the subject/object illusion is to polish the mirror of self so that it becomes a pristine and accurate reflector of spirit. Afterall, the reflection in the mirror can only be as accurate as the mirror is undistorted, so the more distorted our mind complex is, the more distorted the material reflection will be.  This appears to be what many "sages" advocate, based on my research.  

I think this "polishing" is akin to the process of polarization. Eventually the reflection becomes so pure that one can't help but consciously recognize the ultimate congruency of mind, spirit, and matter on a visceral and fundamental level. This naturally collapses the ego structure and frees the consciousness from its artificial subdivision.  This process can take billions of years, or a single lifetime. I think there are no hard and fast rules. We have all eternity.

And I think this is what is termed "enlightenment".

I agree wholeheartedly with the basic gist of "polishing" the mirror. I have been working with that assumption for some time as well.

I however prefer the slightly differently nuanced version of seeing the mirror consisting of water, and seeing it becoming pristine, and, (to use your analogy) "polished," through stillness.

When the water (consciousness, or mind/body) is turbulent, the waves reflect choppy fragments of the unified whole. We get variously distorted, fragmented pictures of who we really are.

When the waves subside (through self-knowing, self-accepting, balancing, polarizing, and eventually the disciplined indigo work of stillness), then the true self is seen in reflection on the water.

What is seen in the reflection? What is seen is (what we might call, but is probably ultimately a misnomer) emptiness. The placid, still water reflects an image of no content, not quality, no boundaries. An image of vast openness is reflected back to us. And we realize/see for the first time that we are that.

This is liberation, insofar as I understand it. We realize that we are not the small self and all its confining experiences. We are, and always have been, freedom itself. Vast, boundless, choiceless awareness. The is-ness of the I am. The I Am of the isness. Mystery-clad beingness.

But while the waves are turbulent and in motion (blocked, unactivated, and imablanced chakras), we don't see the boundless witnessing awareness that we are. We become identified/attached to/confined by the waves of form.

Ultimately emptiness and form are non-dual. But the path of realization involves, so far as I am aware, liberation into emptiness first.

Either way, it is only through the door of stillness that we recognize what we always have been, and already are, right now.

I have a quote from Ramana Maharshi written on a sticky note on my computer that says:

"All that is required to realize the self is to be still."