A Visual Transmission of True Nature, Essence, Presence, and Existence
This image is not a conventional diagram—it is a phenomenological map, a symbolic field designed to evoke an intuitive understanding of the spiritual reality that underlies human experience. It emerges from a luminous void—a blackness that is not mere absence, but the fertile nonbeing from which all being arises. What unfolds from this darkness is the radiant expression of the Absolute in differentiated form: True Nature, Essence, Presence, and Existence.
The Absolute Ground
The surrounding blackness represents the Absolute—not simply the absence of form, but the unconditioned, timeless, spaceless source from which all qualities emerge. This is True Nature in its transcendent mode, prior to any differentiation. It is silent, ungraspable, and paradoxically both empty and pregnant with all potential. From this mystery arises the luminous ground of creation—the movement of Being toward manifestation.
The Boundless Radiant Field
At the widest circle of light, we encounter True Nature as an infinite, luminous field. It is the unified ground of all existence—not a thing among things, but that which is before and within all things. It is not local, personal, or bound by identity. It includes both its transcendent purity (Being/Non-Being) and its eminent manifestation (Being with qualities). This golden field does not represent one person’s inner world—it represents the very substance of reality. Everything—stones, trees, thoughts, galaxies—arises as differentiations within this indivisible radiance. It is awareness itself, inherently luminous, inherently whole, inherently alive.
The Differentiations of Being
Within this vast light appear shimmering, multifaceted jewels—each one a specific Essential Aspect. These represent Essence, the substance of True Nature as it manifests in the individual soul. Essence is not a metaphor. It is a subtle substance, directly experienceable as density, viscosity, taste, color, clarity, and texture. It is love, not the feeling, but the living substance of love. It is strength, not the belief in it, but its tangible, grounding presence. Each aspect—Clarity, Joy, Peace, Will, Truth—is a perfection of Being, crystallized in the individual as inner richness. These jewels are not separate from the golden field—they are it, made visible. They represent how True Nature individuates into the soul’s deepest reality. The soul is not merely a witness to Being—it is composed of Essence, shaped by these divine jewels.
The Immediate, Luminous Field of Awareness
Moving inward, the diagram reveals a glowing sphere labeled “Presence.” This is the direct, self-aware, experiential field of Essence. Essence is experienced as palpable, substantial Presence—not an idea, not a belief, not a sensation, but the very beingness of Being. Presence is always now. It is the immediacy of realness, the ontological hereness/thereness of awareness. It is what allows one to say “I am here now” and mean it beyond thought. It is not content—it is the very medium of experience, a continuous, indivisible field of aliveness. Presence is how we know Essence. It is the interface between the undifferentiated ground and the phenomenological experience of it. Through Presence, we contact the various qualities of Essence and recognize them as aspects of ourselves.
The Irreducible “I AM”
At the very center is the most concentrated point of light: Existence. This is not a concept. It is the felt sense of “I AM”—not “I am this” or “I am that,” but simply, purely, and profoundly I AM. This point is the core identity of Being, the most fundamental aspect of Presence. It is the irreducible fact of existing, prior to narrative, prior even to form. In the Diamond Approach® teachings, which inspired this image, Existence is the primary qualia of Presence—its definitive experiential quality. Without this, nothing can be known, sensed, or experienced. All arises from this shining core.
The Structure as Revelation
What this image conveys is not a hierarchy, but a process of emanation and return. From the dark Absolute, Being begins to radiate. It unfolds into the golden field of True Nature, undivided and luminous. It differentiates into Essence, the articulated richness of the soul. It becomes Presence, the living field of self-aware awareness. And at its center, it rests in Existence, the inmost spark of identity. Each layer flows into the next, not as steps, but as interpenetrating realities. True Nature is not far from Essence; it is Essence. Presence is not other than True Nature; it is the felt fact of its reality. Existence is not a thing in the middle; it is the concentrated truth of all of it, shimmering in its most direct form.
The Invitation
This image is not just to be understood—it is to be experienced. Let your eyes rest on the light as it emerges from darkness. Notice what awakens in your field of awareness. You are not outside this image. It is not describing someone else’s spiritual system. It describes you at your most essential, radiant, and genuine nature. You are the field. You are the jewel. You are the light of Presence. You are the “I AM” at the center of everything. And you always have been.
John Harper is a Diamond Approach® teacher, Enneagram guide, and a student of human development whose work bridges psychology, spirituality, and deep experiential inquiry. He is the author of The Enneagram World of the Child: Nurturing Resilience and Self-Compassion in Early Life and Good Vibrations: Primordial Sounds of Existence, available on Amazon.