Those insights that inspire one to change touch a deeper part of our being. They resonate with the inherent knowing that resides at the core of our being beyond the intellectual mind. When the heart and soul are touched we're never quite the same and change becomes inevitable.

What makes the difference is that trigger, that something that touches your soul and sets it on fire ... an event, an intuition that clicks into place and you feel impelled to put your whole being into action like your life is in danger

in short a deep inner tension

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/What_is_Enlightenment

The difference is the experience of it.

Many gurus can speak of many difference experiences but unless one "experiences" it themselves, then it will just be a conceptual understanding and not a realization.

OR, we can stop chasing around experiences and Service Others and receive joy from doing that = )