This clarification of the individual consciousness involves an emptying, a letting go, and a dissolving of the occlusion and the thickness of the sense of self. The structures and history that support the ordinary sense of individuality are understood and digested. And as these are understood, the individual consciousness becomes empty, becomes more and more transparent, which means true nature is more free to express itself through that consciousness. The more transparent and pliable our consciousness is, the more true nature is able to express its infinite possibilities. Our consciousness can return to an original state of transparency, now with the addition of being awakened to the condition of true nature. – The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence, Ch. 8
Some of our capacities that we’ve had since birth can further develop, but others are discovered and can expand as part of the transformation of consciousness. As the individual consciousness clarifies, with old patterns and dynamics dissolving, it also grows, matures, and develops. Sometimes it is a particular obscuration or delusion that impedes our awakening, and at other times a specific kind of development is required for awakening to occur. In other words, some awakenings don’t happen for the reason that a particular issue blocks the way; and others don’t happen because we are still too young for them. The individual consciousness needs to mature for more fundamental kinds of realization and awakening and enlightenment to occur. Clarified of its structures, our consciousness becomes more capable of further and new awakenings and realizations. – The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence, Ch. 8
If we stay present and allow ourselves to continue to question and discriminate what is happening in the moment, then the content of what we are hurt by, feeling angry about, or disappointed in becomes clarified. Through understanding, we distill consciousness, in a sense, and are left with a purity, presence, energy. Sometimes we may recognize the loss of our connection to our nature, which can arise as a feeling of emptiness or of something lacking. In allowing this loss and the attendant feelings of grief and longing, we might discover and reconnect to the quality of Being that the emotion was cloaking, along with the liberated energetic dynamism of our aliveness.
The charge in our emotional experience is part of that thread of aliveness. Distortion of our true aliveness becomes emotional energy. If you clarify that emotion and you feel the energy of it, it becomes an energetic propulsion that drives you deeper into the real. This is the tantric way—don’t express, don’t suppress, just be with it. We are saying neither yes nor no to it; we are simply interested in understanding our experience: What is it? What does it mean? We want to discern the meaning and penetrate to the very last detail. As we discern and understand, the unshackled energy allows the process to unfold and take new forms. – The Power of Divine Eros: The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday Life, Ch. 10
At this point we can see the importance of clarifying your personal issues. It is difficult to see the ego activity as a whole when you are identified with one part of the personality which is engaged in unconscious conflicts. In this condition you are controlled by an unconscious issue that keeps you stuck in ego activity without realizing it. When the issues are clarified, it is easier to become aware of the movement itself, of the wheels in motion—not of what is being churned but of the actual churning itself. When you become aware that you are the machine in action and you are completely convinced that the activity itself is what is churning up problems, only then is it possible for the wheels to stop. When the wheels stop and there is no activity, there is also no defensiveness. You’re not defending yourself in any way because, as we have seen, the very basis of personality activity is defense. When the activity stops, you recognize that most of your thoughts and desires and efforts are resistance and what you have been resisting is the present moment, the now. – A. H. Almaas, Diamond Heart Book Four: Indestructible Innocence