Almaas - Essence ;with The elixir of enlightenment: the diamond approach to inner enlightenment

First published in 1998 by

Samuel Weiser. Inc.

Box 612

York Beach, ME 03910-0612

Copyright 1984. 1986 A-Hameed Ali

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Samuel Weiser, Inc. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Originally published by Samuel Weiser in two separate volumes as Essence: The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization, 1986, and The Elixir of Enlightenment, 1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Almaas, A. H.

[Essence]

Essence ; with The elixir of enlightenment / A. H. Almaas.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-57863-044-4 (paper : alk. paper)

I. Spiritual life. I. Almaas, A. H. Elixir of enlightenment. II. Title.

BL624.A4617 1998

291.4dc21

97-43966

CIP

Printed in the United States of America

BJ

05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets all the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.

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Essence: The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization was first published in 1986 by Samuel Weiser. This edition is published in 1998 by Samuel Weiser and collects Essence and The Elixir of

Enlightenment into one volume.

Copyright 1986 A-Hameed Ali

Chapter One
Presence and Essence

Chapter Two
Essence

Chapter Three
The Loss of Essence

Chapter Four
The Retrieval of Essence

Chapter Five
The Development of Essence

Dedicated to the Three:
The Sage, The Mage, and The Seer

AS HAS BEEN WRITTEN A THOUSAND times, the ultimate nature of essential reality cannot be communicated in words. However, this reality manifests in pure essential forms of consciousness and experience, in what we call the aspects of essence, such as love, strength, peace, compassion, awarenessto name only a few. The experience of these aspects is completely palpable and subject to keen and precise discrimination. It is this fact that allows the verbal descriptions and analyses that this book undertakes.

The concept of essence is found in some spiritual traditions, such as Sufism and some schools of Buddhism, though the word essence is not always used. In more common usage, essence means that aspect of something most true, real, or substantial. It is the essence of something that makes it what it is. In the course of this book, our usage will become increasingly clear, and in fact we will ultimately see that the spiritual and common understanding converge in a deeper, more subtle and yet simpler way than it is at first possible to appreciate.

Beginning to understand essence means beginning to see through our illusions. This book describes the way many things are mistaken for essence in spiritual and psychological work. This book also describes the loss of essential qualities, and the subsequent separation from true being, that occurs during individual ego developmentthus shedding light on the whole story of personal suffering that has sprung out of the illusory reality of the individual ego identity. The lives of most people involve a constant effort to prop up, defend, promote and improve this identity, whose status as a mental construct is never challenged. Thus the liberation and joy of knowing our true identity is lost, unless the desire for a deeper or truer experience of being is allowed to manifest, and we have an opportunity to search effectively for the truth about ourselves.

This book introduces a method for the retrieval and development of essence, so that it can function as a transformative agent in the process of self-realization. In the course of this movement toward realization, the stabilized manifestation of the qualities of essence leads to a surprising and unusual resolution of an age-old dichotomy, an unexpected redemption of the personal life: the realization of the pearl beyond price, described in Chapter Five, constitutes a resolution of the apparent conflict between the life of the man of the world and that of the man of the spirit.

N GENERAL, PEOPLE RARELY have, and never recognize as such, the experience of essence. So we will begin by looking at a related quality of experience that is more commonly felt and talked about: the quality of presence. The expression I am present is often used in spiritual and psychological circles, with an assumption that its meaning is understood. We ask: what does this expression mean? What does being present actually signify? Most of the time the expression is not used in a very definite or clear way; most people, if asked, are unable to explain what they mean by present.

But there must be an actual condition that warrants using the expression I am present. What is that condition? The expression literally means that there is an I that is present at the time. Is this literal meaning accurate?

Obviously, when we say I am present, we don't mean exactly that we are aware, otherwise we would say so. There is a difference between the meaning of I am present and the meaning of I am aware, although the two can and frequently do coincide. What is the difference? What makes us say present instead of aware? What is in the experience of I am present that is different from the experience of I am aware? What is the element that accounts for presence?

We want to inquire into the meaning of presence by contemplating and analyzing the actual experience of presence. Let us examine a familiar situation, the aesthetic experience. My eyes catch the sight of a beautiful red rose. Suddenly, my sight is clearer, my smelling is keener. I seem to be in my seeing, I seem to be in my smelling. There is more of me here, seeing, smelling, and appreciating the rose.

This phenomenon is not simply one of increased awareness, so that more of the rose is experienced through my eyes and nostrils, so that more of the rose is experienced through my perceptual system.

In the experience of increased presence, it is as if I meet my perceptions midway. It is as if something of me, something more or less palpable, is present in my eyes and in my nose. Something in me besides my perceptual channels is participating in the experience of the rose. And this something is not memory, not past associations with roses.

In a sense, my greater awareness actually enhances the presence of the rose, or of any aesthetic object, such as a piece of music or a painting. Sometimes greater awareness enhances only a certain quality of an objectthe beauty of the rose, its color, its smell, or its freshness. But sometimes the rose as a rose, as a presence in itself, is felt. If that experience is deep enough, our own presence is enhanced. I seem to be more here, the expression goes. But what is this presence? Is there really an I that is more present, or what exactly is it?