THE INNER JOURNEY IS MANY THINGS. It is a journey of adventure and discovery; a journey of maturation and completeness; a journey of truth and authenticity; a journey of love, devotion, passion, and union; a journey of compassion, giving, and service. It is a journey of realization of the nature of soul and reality; a journey of insight and learning; a journey of fulfillment of life and human potential; a journey of liberation from suffering and limitation; and a journey of inner freedom. – A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home, Epilogue
We can view the inner journey home as comprising two parts, the journey of ascent and the journey of descent. The journey of ascent includes the journey to presence and the journey with presence, as described in chapter 15. These two journeys include the discovery of the soul, that of essence in its aspects, and finally of the diamond vehicles. The last part of the journey of ascent is the revelation of the five boundless dimensions. The integration of each of the five dimensions is like a journey on its own, similar to the two first journeys. It includes understanding the body, emotions, and thoughts on this dimension. It also includes the integration of the soul, essential aspects, and diamond vehicles. – A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home, ch. 16
WE HAVE SEEN THAT ESSENCE is central to the process of the soul’s inner journey of liberation and development. From the perspective of the relationship of the soul to essential presence, the inner journey can be divided into three subjourneys: the journey to presence; the journey with presence; and the journey in presence. – A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home, ch. 15
In the journey of ascent, the individual soul penetrates the various dimensions of creation and manifestation, which are the garments in which the absolute was hidden. The journey of descent, however, is the conscious donning of these garments by the absolute. The ascent is like a movement inward, while the descent is a movement outward; in the first the absolute regains its conscious awareness, and in the second it retains this awareness within manifestation. Hence, the descent is into manifestation, but not into exile and alienation. Therefore, just as the journey of ascent is that of shedding and separation leading to the simplicity of singlehood, the journey of descent is that of integration and union leading to the richness of wholeness. – A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home, ch. 22
During the first journey, in the initial phases of the practice of inquiry, the fabric of experience is our thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, actions, and all of our life situations. Later, in the second journey, the fabric becomes more continuously colored by presence itself. By the third journey, there’s nothing but the fabric of presence. Then all experience is presence, with the various discriminations in it. So the immediacy and intimacy with experience is complete only in the third journey. During the first journey, we only see isolated parts of the fabric—a pattern here, a pattern there, but with gaps in between. In the second journey, we recognize that there is presence as well. This presence is inherent consciousness that is part of these patterns and moves through them as the most meaningful thread. In the third journey, we recognize that presence pervades all the patterns. In fact, we recognize that the patterns are nothing but patterns in the presence itself. Then the immediacy is complete. Then we are the understanding of our experience at each moment. – A. H. Almaas, Spacecruiser Inquiry, ch. 15
The journey in presence includes this part of the journey of ascent, i.e., the integration of the five boundless dimensions, but also the journey of descent. The journey of descent includes the integration of the five boundless dimensions into a unified whole, recognizing and understanding them as dimensions of the same true nature, coemergent in such a way that they simultaneously structure the full experience of nondual self-realization. In the journey of ascent the soul climbs up the ladder of Reality until she reaches the most subtle dimension of true nature, the absolute. Then she descends by going back and integrating the various dimensions she has passed through in the journey of ascent into this most subtle dimension. – A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home, ch. 16
We sometimes view our path as including two major journeys—ascent and descent—a journey toward enlightenment and a journey toward becoming a complete human being. The journey of ascent is a matter of realizing one dimension after another, all the way to the absolute dimension. We recognize and experience that dimension as the nature of reality in its vastness and mystery and clarity, as the ground of everything. Then the journey of descent is a process of integrating all the dimensions and qualities and vehicles into that absolute reality. The path of descent is actually a matter of integrating our lives into our realization. – A. H. Almaas, Runaway Realization, ch. 11
Through the recognition of the soul we develop the vessel of the inner journey, the consciousness that goes through the clarification and purification. The second phase of transition from the first journey to the second journey is the activation of the subtle centers of the lataif, which is a system of centers through which the primary essential aspects operate.1 We activate the lataif through concentration meditation and color visualization with music, in the context of a guided process of inquiry into the relevant elements of one’s experience. These methods can open the soul to the arising of essence in its various aspects, and to her recognition of essence as immaculate and perfect presence. We have discussed in detail this process of the discovery and experience of essence as presence in our books Essence and Diamond Heart, Book 1. The recognition of essence as presence is the fundamental insight of the first journey, without which we cannot move to the second journey, the journey with presence. In this recognition we directly and immediately experience and know what our true nature is, beyond mind and history. – A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home, ch. 15
In the first journey, your identity is on the ego level, which is the familiar sense of self-recognition. This identity is a reflection of the particular ego structure that defines you in relation to your experiential field. In the second journey, the identity is the Point, the point of light and existence, the Essential Identity. In the third journey, the identity is the mystery of Being itself, the Absolute. These differences create some variations in the nature of the thread in each journey. – A. H.Almaas, Spacecruiser Inquiry, ch. 10