Source Text
It becomes easier to look like an “expert” on the subject than to continue into the territories of real self-knowledge and the feelings such knowledge can bring up. But some of us cannot resist the deepening mystery, and we start to consider more of what is available through this work.
First, all essential qualities are states of Being with characteristics that emanate from the authentic presence of Being. We know them by immediately experiencing them in our bodies, in our consciousness, as a fullness or presence that is not physical. I am not referring to the ordinary meaning of being, as in being present with a focus of attention or awareness. Instead, we experience ourselves as a kind of medium or substance, a continuum that is not a physical sensation but actually consciousness feeling itself directly as a pooling that senses its own presence throughout the entire medium uniformly. It knows itself as that medium without being informed from the outside or by any remembered knowledge. This is unusual in ordinary experience, for our consciousness is usually not aware of itself but of something else, such as emotions, sensations, thoughts, external objects, or phenomena—all manifestations of consciousness.
Nowadays, when teachers talk of consciousness that is conscious of itself, they usually mean pure consciousness absent of qualities. From that perspective, it is infinite and boundless, pervading everything. This is the nondual way consciousness wakes up to itself, the presence of pure consciousness or awareness. While this is real and true, if we believe consciousness can only be this way, we deprive ourselves of the variety and richness of the mystery of consciousness. We can experience it in so many other ways that are authentic and useful for ordinary living at the same time. In the ordinary world of duality, consciousness can be conscious of itself in a local way, as in our body—belly or chest. In this sense, it can feel localized and not infinite, as a medium that fills the belly or the whole body without pervading everything. It might take form as a flow, a pool, a ball, or a shape of any kind. The salient point about spiritual experience in the ordinary world (in contradistinction to the nondual world) is that it is localized and particular, with a form and often a color, a taste, and a texture as well.
When we experience true strength, we feel strong because we are feeling the presence of strength itself—we are full of an energy and presence that is the essence of the life force. The most common experience is to…
sensitivity, but with a beautiful and magnificent…
In addition to a fire or flame, red strength may appear as flowing lava, a dense liquid coursing through the pelvis, legs, or the…
bloodlike fluid pulsing through the body and consciousness. Luminous and conscious of itself, it is a fluid of sensitivity that innately has the feeling of…
When first becoming aware of the essence of strength, many do not recognize that it is the presence of strength sensing and knowing itself. We tend to believe that we, as the ego personality, are feeling and knowing it. It takes curiosity and discernment to realize that we do not usually experience and know strength this way. The knowing of strength comes from the presence itself; it does not come from learned knowledge. Strength has its own sensing; we as…
Most humans know the common quality of physical or emotional strength, but few are aware that it has a spiritual origin, a heavenly counterpart. Now we see how this idealized aspect connects with the ego ideal. The latter is the common strength and assertive aggression that most people know without recognizing that their experience is a reflection and, hence, a distortion of something much more real and authentic, an actual presence.
Another associated characteristic we may experience with essential strength is the sense of expansion. We feel big in comparison to how we usually feel, bigger than our body, bigger than other people, even bigger than the room. There is no limit to how expanded we can feel, and this brings spaciousness and freedom, the absence of constrictions in mind and heart. Since point Eight is not in touch with this authentic expansion of being, the big feeling is often unconsciously understood as some sense of self-importance. They act expansively by taking up space with their physical energy and loudness, with uninhibited and capacious expression. Their belief that they have no limitations, however, is usually not true unless they are somebody in a position of power like Stalin or Hussein, whose expansion took sinister turns at the expense of many other human beings. This was not the expansion or expression of true strength because that strength disappears when the action of ego tries to direct it for unwholesome ends.
AI Summary
Keys to the Enneagram by A. H. Almaas presents key insights from the Diamond Approach tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
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