The sense of nobility and royalty is not only an association with the richness and abundance of essential experience, the manifestation of what Zimmer referred to as Teh; it is an actual feeling of royalty and nobility, a state where one feels of royal origin. Once in a while, a student reports the experience of the Personal Essence as accompanied by a feeling of royalty or regalness. One feels not only present as a real person, but because of the purity and preciousness of this reality, one attains a sense of being noble and royal. One feels oneself to be relaxed, settled, accepting of one’s nature, and secure. One is not only carefree and absolutely secure, but lives a life of value, preciousness, fulfillment and abundance. One feels like a prince or princess, a king or queen, master of one’s life, which is one’s dominion. The inner experience of Essence, with its richness, abundance, fullness and beauty is not envisioned by the ego, except in the stories of ancient royalty. However, it is an actual reality, a living experience, when the Personal Essence is realized.

To go back to my original definition, nobility is, from the perspective of Essence, living from the truth of Essence, according to the truth of Essence; to be a person, a human being, living in accord with the truth. It is understood that a person of noble character doesn't let social or political pressures sway him. In that respect, to be a noble character is not to let your superego, the part of you that is always judging you critically, or other people’s superego’s, sway you, but to act according to the real truth. There might be a kind of suffering involved in this way of living.

Man is of royal origin, because his origin is Being. And the one who knows the realm of Being knows that there is no preciousness, no abundance, no nobility and no royalty that approximates that of Essence and Being. The values and archetypes of nobility and royalty have their origins in the experience of Essence. The roles of king and queen, prince and princess are universal, in almost all human civilizations. Royalty are always dressed in gold and silver, precious gems, silk and velvet, with abundant color and ornament. Why is royalty associated with gold, gems, and abundant ornament? These images of kings and queens, princes and princesses, and other nobility, must be archetypal, for they are almost universal. These images symbolize to man his royal origin, that of the magnificence and abundance of Being. They also symbolize to him, and beckon him to, his potential, his possibility of attaining true royalty; the individuation of his Being. In ancient mythologies and fairy tales, royalty were not only rich and powerful; they were also the embodiment of wisdom and sagacity, justice and benevolence, which are characteristics of Essence.

Student: In one of my classes at school there was a discussion about nobility and its relationship to suffering. There’s an idea that to suffer is noble. I’m wondering what you have to say about this. AH: Nobility and suffering? Well, let’s see. Here we look at everything from the perspective of what is real in us, Essence. The most important thing is to see and value our essential selves. So when we look at any issue—such as nobility and suffering, pride, humility, courage—we always consider it from the perspective of Essence. If we look at it from the perspective of the superego or the personality, it will appear very complicated. We would never find an answer, because there are no answers from the perspective of personality. From the perspective of Essence, things are much simpler and clearer. Only the perspective of essential truth will give us the understanding we need for our work here. We can look at nobility and suffering from this perspective and see where it leads. I see that nobility has to do with being and acting according to the truth of Essence.

Being noble, living according to the truth, will get you to this place. You need to be willing to let go of everything—everything you have, everything you believe, every idea you have about yourself and everyone else, every feeling. Without this, you are filled with ideas, desires, and attachments instead of yourself. You must be willing to let go of them in order to see the truth. At the deeper stages, you have to let go of even your body, even pleasure and happiness, for the sake of truth. You need to let them go so that Essence can fill you. From this discussion, we can see that there is a kind of sacrifice to be made for the essential life, and this sacrifice, this putting the truth before everything else, can involve a certain suffering. This is another connection between nobility and suffering. Yet what is really going on is that suffering is being exposed. Nobility involves forbearance for the truth. In the Work, people sometimes go through intense pain and suffering, exposing the lies of the personality and seeing the truth of the suffering that is already there. It is not that suffering is noble in itself or valuable to the Work as such. We suffer because we are not in touch with ourselves; often we are not even in touch with our suffering. We can see our suffering as noble if it is part of our movement toward our essential selves, toward the truth. Nobility is valuing the truth even if it includes suffering, valuing the truth over the distractions and external values we try to substitute for Essence. Thus nobility might involve a kind of suffering, but when you move toward the truth, the fulfillment and joy of Essence make you see that what you valued before was nothing.

Most people don’t understand this. They think they can achieve contentment, love, and happiness by getting this or that. They want the right kind of body, the right kind of lover, the right house. When you see what you can experience in the realm of Essence, you see that these things are peanuts. Absolutely nothing. It’s a degradation of human life to prefer these things over what is possible for Essence. When you align yourself with the truth, then beauty, majesty, nobility, fullness, pleasure, joy, and love are all available to you. The more you see your essence, the more you see that what you wanted before was nothing. When you get deeper and deeper into your essence, you enter into the universal levels of essential reality where the beauty, fulfillment, and possibility are beyond human imagination. There is no way for the mind to grasp it. As you actualize your Personal Essence, you can bring that fullness into your life. Then everything in your life—your work, your job, your relationship with your lover, children, friends—can become filled with Essence rather than substituting for Essence. The point is to realize Essence in your life; that’s why we’re here. We’re not here to suffer. We’re not here just to work or raise children. We’re here to completely fulfill our potential. We are here to learn what it’s like to be really human. It is very rare to know what it’s like to be a complete, mature human being. Fulfilling desires that arise from the unconscious is not the same fulfillment as we experience in essential life. The unconscious believes that fulfillment has to do with what others give us, think of us, or feel toward us. The unconscious is rarely focused on being itself. It is focused on the mind’s desires, expectations, projections, and memories. When we look at the deepest level, what is actually there? Existence, presence. Existence and presence are not the focus of the unconscious or the ego. But Essence knows what is there; Essence knows what is real. When you feel happy, it has nothing to do with what others think of you or what you think of yourself, whether you’re good or bad, big or small, sexy, ugly, smart, stupid. If you’re happy, you’re happy—that’s it. If you’re valuable, you’re valuable. Your being is unconditional.