The Spiritual Nature of the Human Being (and Reality)
Essence
A.H. Almaas shares his journey of realizing essence, our true spiritual nature. Almaas contrasts essence with the egoic experience of lack and separation. He describes essence as the personal divine within, God’s qualities embodied in human form.
Almaas reflects on the suffering and divine discontent that spurs spiritual searching. This motivates heroes to retrieve the lost jewel of essence. He critiques approaches that treat this as a disease and seeks to silence it. Suffering intimates something vital is missing, fueling the quest to wake up.
He emphasizes essence must be tasted, not just intellectually grasped. Its truth is self-evident, with a palpable substantiality and luster. Almaas vividly depicts diverse essential states like majesty, humility, abundance, and clarity. Each manifests physically with distinct energies and postures.
Essence experiences eclipse emotions and thoughts. They engage the whole being in a new mode, touching a deeper origin. Almaas explores essence through the lenses of theism and non-theism, integrating their truths experientially.
Motivation shifts from alleviating suffering to devotion – loving essence for its own sake. Almaas no longer cares about his pain but only about connecting to the divine presence within. His heart spills over with gratitude and joy, beholding truth’s brilliant sun.
Almaas urges essence cannot be known conceptually. We must let essence reveal itself on its own terms. He inspires the reader to open and surrender, allowing spirit to unfold its magical qualities shining within.
This excerpt provides a fascinating glimpse of essence illuminating awareness with truth’s golden light. Almaas’s account quickens the longing to know ourselves in our radically intimate divine nature.
