The Citadel gives one a sense of solidity and support, with no grandiose ideas. One is clearly aware that it is an essential Presence, and not a physical or mental power, that it is a support for Being and not for ego.

As the Citadel is realized, it provides the soul with all the essential aspects as specific supports for leading a life of truth. We call it the Citadel because it can manifest as an enormous, solid presence – like a mighty fortress – that supports and protects the truth as it manifests in our life. The various defensive ego functions that have helped us operate without the ground of our true nature are replaced by this immense and powerful support of Being itself. The more we learn to bring our awareness of truth into the functioning of our life, the more we gain access to the essential grounding, guidance, and protection of the Citadel. To activate this new dimension, the process of exploration needs to extend into all areas of our life. We begin to explore our work, our relationships, and our behavior in terms of whether they reflect truth or not. This process brings in an integrity, a self-respect, and a valuing of the truth – all of which invite the arising of the Citadel dimension.

The soul discovers that to truly move toward the inner essential truth and to live the life of essence means abandoning her normal identity and its various external and internal supports. The soul’s experience actually shifts to another experiential universe, where she will need to find different supports for her new identity and its life. Abandoning her old supports brings up deep fears and terrors, while discovering and implementing the new supports is usually counter to her habitual stances. Allowing the fear that arises from this and other issues connected with the citadel, particularly issues related to ego deficiency and the need to accommodate the desires and needs of other people, the soul can enter into a clear black space devoid of defensive functioning. The soul’s allowing this space brings the possibility of the emergence of the true support for the path, the citadel. As the citadel vehicle begins to manifest within the immediate field of the soul we become aware of its immensity, its forbidding power and deep immovability. Its upper part is diamond solid gold, and its base is diamond platinum. The sense is of solidity and immensity, power and invulnerability. It can fill the whole body, or become as immense as a mountain. Gold is the substance of essential truth; diamond gold is the objective wisdom of essential truth. Platinum is the aspect of universal will, the will of true nature toward optimization and realization, so its diamond is objective wisdom of this support. Thus the central body of the citadel is objective universal support for objective truth, and its teaching is the recognition how to live one’s life in a way that harmonizes with true nature’s universal will, which is inseparable from objective truth. The citadel is an immense presence, dense and immovable.

The aspect of the Citadel provides guidance for how to live one's life according to the Truth of Being. It is referred to as "objective conscience", for it is like the conscience of Essence. It gives one support and protection that is present and available, only when one is living according to the Truth of Essence. In other words, its presence (realization) is equivalent to living according to the laws of Being. Realizing this aspect means many practical things. One must change one's practical life in a way that supports essential life, rather than impeding it. One's activities, interests, associations, relationships and so on, now have to be according to the Truth, in the service of, and in harmony with, Essence.

Realizing the Essential Citadel and absorbing its perspective is a big shift in the process of essential realization. It is a movement towards greater actualization, which precipitates numerous changes in practical life, as well as many further essential experiences and perceptions. In one’s environment, one’s work and one’s personal relationships, Essence becomes the primary driving force, the central inner reality. This naturally puts pressure on the ego sense of self, the identity of ego, which has been based on a life of images and inadequacy. The ego self becomes increasingly ego alien; it is felt to be the central source of psychological contraction and suffering. This ego self becomes the focus of the work of understanding the personality. Living according to objective Truth automatically exposes the part that is unwilling to live in this way. This part is the ego self, whose development involved the increasing cathexis of physical reality and the abandonment of Being. So this self becomes the main identification system challenged by this level of development. Exploring this identification precipitates the entry into the fourth objective dimension, which is the experience of Essence as objective knowledge. It is knowing by being, rather than through mental activity. This dimension is also that of the teachings of Essence; it makes possible the understanding of how the perspective of each aspect can be a whole teaching, a path for essential realization. All existing teachings regarding Being become comprehensible in this dimension.

While the aspect of the Citadel gives one a sense of solid support and formidable protection, one feels it is okay to be. The presence of this aspect gives one the feeling of being grown up, able to take care of oneself and live one’s life the way one chooses, in a real, undefensive manner. As far as we can tell, this aspect seems not to be available in early childhood, which might partly account for the fact that, in the process of cathecting the body, Being is decathected. This point needs more exploration, but this aspect does feel like such an immense and solid sense of presence that it is difficult to imagine the toddler’s organism being able to embody it. When the Citadel aspect is present, it gives the individual the possibility of looking at ego inadequacy in an objective and unemotional way. One feels so supported that the state of inadequacy loses its threatening property. The Citadel gives one a sense of solidity and support, with no grandiose ideas. One is clearly aware that it is an essential presence, and not a physical or mental power, that it is a support for Being and not for ego.

The realization of the Citadel actualizes the Merging Essence right at the site of the inadequacy. This then brings about the Presence of the Personal Essence, along with the heart qualities and the Diamond Guidance. This resolution is not final, because it is not complete... Nevertheless, the state becomes much less intense, less significant, more understood and easily tolerable. Basically, with this resolution, one attains a much greater measure of disidentification from the state of inadequacy.

The experience of this new dimension of Will is of being supported in a specific way. One feels one does not need ego defenses, because one now has the real “defense.” This aspect of Essence is sometimes specifically experienced as the defense of Essence. This is one reason why we call this aspect the Citadel. The sense is of being supported, protected, defended by a Presence that is as formidable and invulnerable as a citadel. It is the presence of Essence as the defender of the Truth.

So to recapitulate, we need objective perception to see, to understand, that Essence is the answer, is the fulfillment, is the Ridwhan. And from that will result the true value of Essence, in yourself, in others, everywhere. And then, with that understanding and valuing, there will arise the true discipline, the true protection, for your Essence and for the essential life. The world we live in does not support this. People around us do not support this. There are pressures everywhere against this orientation and when you do experience Essence, it needs to be protected. You have to find your own citadel, your own fortress. Your citadel has to do with the true discipline, is the true discipline. There is an actual aspect of Essence, which we call the citadel, which is the protection for who you are and your Essence, so that it will be preserved, so that it will develop, so that it can be used for others. This is the right way of living. It has to be there. It’s not that you’ll experience your Essence and you automatically get out of the swamps. You have to take action, to live your life in accordance with the truth, the truth of your Essence, the truth of who you are, your situation, who you happen to be, what your limitations are.