Soul’s Increasing Realization of Her Essential Nature

The Boundedness of the Ego-Self The soul’s increasing realization of her essential nature spontaneously puts pressure on this structure of separating boundaries, illuminating it and causing the soul to feel an exaggeration of the sense of separateness. One of the ways this inner pressure manifests is that the soul begins to feel constricted, even though she is deeply in touch with her essential nature. She feels limited in a way that causes existential suffering. She longs to be completely essential; she yearns to melt into the sweet juices of essence; but whatever she does, whatever practice she engages in, whatever attitude she takes, nothing works. She feels trapped inside her own skin while she strongly intuits, and frequently knows from direct experience, that her real condition is complete release and total marriage to her beloved, the truth of essence. She is filled with tears and deep sadness for not being in the carefree condition that she knows is her potential, and pained with the anguish of separateness from what she deeply loves. The resolution does not usually arise through an inner decision based on understanding. It cannot be a surrender based on a strategy. It is more that the understanding truly renders the soul helpless, and by finally accepting her helplessness she simply lets go and forgets her inner struggle. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 271

The Boundless Ocean of Light and Love

The important part of this new experience is that the soul begins to see that the delicate presence of this loving light is not only inside her. It is all around, everywhere, bathing and blessing all manifestation. All forms look as if they are melted and surrendered, softened and released. Everything looks luminous, beautiful, and in complete harmony. She recognizes that essence has now manifested in a boundless form, as the presence of oceanic love that is at the same time light and consciousness. It is conscious love, loving light, the coemergence of presence, light, and love in a soft and delicate ocean that suffuses everything and cleanses it from all her projections. All objects appear immersed in its grace, and all essential aspects manifest as sweet substances condensing from it. She may experience herself as the conscious sweet light, and in this state she is a witness of all phenomena without being any of them. She witnesses her body sitting, walking, and talking, but she is pure consciousness that is not the body. There are many variations on this state. One is to experience herself as an infinite and boundless sweet light that forms the ground of all manifestation. All forms arise from it and dissolve back into it. She is not the body and not an individual entity, but the boundless presence of consciousness. Another variation is to experience herself as everything, all manifestation, for this is the state of nonduality of manifestation and true nature. She is true nature, but since true nature is the substance of all phenomena, she is everything. This everything is a state of oneness, in which all forms make up one field, since they are constituted by the same indivisible ground. The Inner Journey Home, pg.273

 The Body of Light

As the soul comes to this understanding, her boundaries may begin to merge with the divine effulgence. She becomes part of the ocean, a big drop of the ocean. The drop is a dense liquid honey, or amber nectar, as if the ocean of light liquefies at the location of her body as a big wonderful drop of grace. She sees and feels herself surrounded by grace. Her essence feels like an inseparable part of the ocean, but denser than the rest. As this development began she was afraid of losing her experience; she sees now that the outcome is a more clear and free essential realization. She now sees the way out of the dilemma of boundaries: actual merging with the divine and losing the sense of individual experience. Essence becomes clearer, more lucid, and very graceful. The soul becomes a drop of grace, of full and substantial presence, but utterly free and fulfilled. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 275

Boundless Goodness

At this juncture, the soul is discovering an important feature of the timeless truth of true nature. She realizes that true nature is goodness itself, and the source of all goodness. It is unblemished goodness, incorruptible goodness, indestructible goodness. Goodness is a fundamental characteristic of true nature, a timeless potential that it might reveal at any time or any place. This divine goodness is not limited; it is not parceled out to individuals. It is totally boundless, unlimited and endless, for it reflects the transcendence of true nature that appears in time and space as boundless and infinite. It is boundless goodness. The dimension of divine love reveals that true nature is absolute goodness; it is inseparably both light and love. Its presence and impact on the soul is fundamentally that of blessing and grace, in all ways and in all dimensions. Such goodness is often not obvious or recognizable, but our lack of perception does not diminish or sully this goodness. The soul often does not perceive this goodness because of her obscurations; but although the goodness can be obscured, it is never destroyed. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 277

Origins of Heart

Divine love is the dimension of true nature responsible for the arising of qualities, feelings, and affects in experience. It is not only light, which is consciousness, but also love. Love is the primordial feeling, the source of all affects. Light differentiates into colors; love differentiates into various affects. Divine love is golden white, white for light and golden for love. It is typically experienced as an ocean of golden white, a homogeneous medium, but it can differentiate within this field into the various forms of manifestation, with their myriad shapes and colors. An important and special differentiation is that of the essential aspects, where the very substance of the medium assumes, either throughout the entirety of its manifold or in some local regions, different colors and textures. The differentiation of the field into colors reflects the prismatic differentiation of light, but it is also concurrent with and inseparable from the differentiation of the sweet feeling of love into the various affects that characterize the essential aspects. Each of these essential aspects manifesting on the dimension of divine love has the sweetness of love as ground, but with an added subtle differentiation. The emerald green divine love has the warmth and tenderness of compassion; the ruby red love embodies the spirited vitality of strength; the silver white love exudes the confidence and steadfastness of will; the luminous black love is deep with the stillness of peace; the luscious apricot love is redolent with the deep feeling of fulfillment; and so on. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 278

Ease and Surrender

A distinguishing characteristic of this dimension is a sense of being at ease and carefree. The body melts, as if it has been on a prolonged vacation in a tropical paradise, with one’s every need completely taken care of. There is not a worry in the world; instead there is complete security and safety, fullness and abundance. The soul lets go of all of her protective and defensive devices and strategies, for in this realm there is no danger possible, and the heart is so secure and serene that even the concept of trouble does not exist. It is actually quite similar to how the human infant feels when it is completely taken care of, completely loved and cherished, with abundance of loving care all around, unquestionably available. The infant is then totally relaxed, the mind peaceful and empty, with no care, no tension, and no frustration. The infant feels, implicitly and without cognitive discrimination, that it is totally and unconditionally held. It is held physically, emotionally, energetically, and in all other ways. Similarly, the soul in this dimension feels the same, as if the universe is its loving and totally caring mother. The real world here, manifestation suffused by divine love, actually feels like the loving and caring hands of one’s mother. One feels in good hands, with all states of fulfillment. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 281

Self-Realisation and Personalisation

In this chapter we have discussed mainly the issues relating to the discovery and characteristics of the dimension of divine love. Besides what we have discussed, the soul goes through two long and difficult processes in her relation to it. The soul goes through these processes each time she comes upon a new dimension of true nature: as a new dimension arises, first the soul works through the identifications, structures, and positions that function as obstacles to this dimension. Part of this work is the understanding and penetration of all obscurations that are associated to the characteristics of the particular dimension of Being.

Then two intertwined processes ensue that determine the development of the soul in terms of integrating the new dimension and absorbing its wisdom. The first process is realization, as we have begun to discuss in the issue of Jabba the Hutt, with regard to the dimension of divine love. This process involves dealing with the narcissism related to the dimension, that is the particular related expression of the inherent narcissism of ego. We discuss in The Point of Existence this narcissism that reflects the soul’s alienation from its true nature, and we detail the process of working through the associated ego structures, which culminates in the self-realization of whatever dimension of Being the soul happens to be integrating . . . . . .  

The second process that the soul goes through in relation to all the boundless dimensions is their personalization. The central element of this process is the transformation of the soul from a separate entity into personal essence on the particular boundless dimension. The soul learns that she is a personal manifestation of the particular dimension of true nature, as a form that expresses it while being inseparable from it. To use a familiar metaphor, in the self-realization of the boundless dimension the soul realizes that her identity is the boundless ocean. She is the ocean of Being. In the personalization process she learns she is a particular and unique wave in this ocean. She regains her form as an individual soul, but not her separateness. She is an extension of the ocean, part and parcel of it, expressing it personally, giving it the possibility to walk, talk, and function as a person. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 289, 290