What does it mean when we say the Essential Identity has no limitations on the Being level? This is not an easy point to grasp if one does not directly experience the Essential Identity. One way of describing it is that the Essential Identity is an element of the self that shares with Being-as-such the characteristics of being indestructible, eternal, and absolutely positive. Its truth transcends our common sense of time and space, so it is a timeless reality. This timelessness makes it something to which we cannot apply the concepts of destruction or limitation. It is also the self ’s true ontological source of love, goodness, intelligence, compassion, power, and so on, and hence, one feels the limitlessness of these qualities when one is the Essential Identity. This limitlessness is usually attributed to God in the various theistic traditions, and to the enlightened person in the Far Eastern religions. These characteristics are really the attributes of pure Being, and the Essential Identity is the reflection of this pure Being in the human self. However, we cannot say that the self in general possesses such attributes, for the self has mental and physical manifestations that definitely do not possess such attributes. The degree to which an individual truly possesses such attributes, meaning the degree to which he can actually feel and express them, depends on his level of self-realization. Even then, one does not experience this limitlessness on the physical and mental level, for these dimensions are simply unable to manifest these characteristics completely.

In other words, from the perspective of the supreme reality of the undifferentiated aspect of Being, all aspects of Essence are seen to be conceptual (as well as, for that matter, the entirety of the physical world, including the body). Only the unqualified Being exists, and differentiation and discrimination are only appearance, ultimately unreal. This is the nature of the experience of the nonconceptual reality of Being, of Being-as-such. This experience also feels so real, so profound and so comprehensive that it has a flavor of finality to it. It is experienced as an objective fact.

Presence is what characterizes true nature and sets it apart from all the other categories of experience that fall within the realm of the ego, which is to say, the ordinary consciousness. The experience of presence negates all the fears and conflicts that the ego habitually engages in. The primary turning point on the path to enlightenment is the realization of oneself as presence. This experience begins the whole process of realization, development, and liberation, which continues until one comes to see that presence is everything, and that everything is presence. When you experience everything as presence, then you are experiencing Universal Being, or Divine Being, or Being-as-such. But whichever way you experience it—personally or universally—the important thing about the experience is the fact of it being presence, an actual beingness. So, I want to discuss briefly what presence means.

It is possible to see the Personal Essence as a concept, as not having a final reality. This is the perception of the nonconceptual aspect of Being, the supreme unknowable ground of reality. It is the experience of absolute oneness in which there are no discriminations, as Lao Tzu says above. All forms are seen to exist only as concepts, and hence are taken not to have a separate existence. All duality is absent in this realization. However, from this perspective, not only the Personal Essence is seen to be a concept, but so are love, compassion, consciousness, awareness and so on. In other words, from the perspective of the supreme reality of the undifferentiated aspect of Being, all aspects of Essence are seen to be conceptual (as well as, for that matter, the entirety of the physical world, including the body). Only the unqualified Being exists, and differentiation and discrimination are only appearance, ultimately unreal. This is the nature of the experience of the nonconceptual reality of Being, of Being-as-such. This experience also feels so real, so profound and so comprehensive that it has a flavor of finality to it. It is experienced as an objective fact. In the theistic traditions it is usually equated with God, the Supreme Being.

So, just as the first journey starts with the experience of Essence and ends with becoming the Essence, the second part of the journey goes to another dimension, which is called the Supreme level, the dimension of pure Being. Essence is Being; however, it is qualified Being, in the sense that it has various aspects, which can be experienced in and as the human being, even though a person still believes she is separate from the rest of existence. The dimension that deals with and eliminates the sense of boundaries is Being as such, Being without qualifications, which we call the Supreme. The experience of the Supreme corrects our perspective on reality and reveals to us the unreality of boundaries; it is the experience of oneness.

Also from this perspective, it is not only that there is no person; there is also no life and no humanity. All are concepts, appearance, the dance of maya or the dream of God. This is a very profound dimension, which shows us our ultimate nature. This level of realization is required for complete freedom from ego identifications. It is, nevertheless, only a part of the true potential of the human being. In a sense it is the ultimate dimension, but it is not the only dimension. There are other dimensions of Being, the dimensions of Essence, those of the differentiated Being.