Essence: The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization

The concept of essence is found in some spiritual tradition, such as Sufism and some schools of Buddhism, though the word essence is not always used. In more common usage, essence means that aspect of something most true, real, or substantial. It is the essence of something that makes it what it is. In the course of this book our usage will become increasingly clear, and it fact we will ultimately see that the spiritual and common understanding converge in a deeper, more subtle and yet simpler way than it is at first possible to appreciate. This book introduces a method for retrieval and development of essence, so that it can function as a transformative agent in the process of self realization. In the course of this movement toward realization, the stabilized manifestation of the qualities of essence leads to a surprising and unusual resolution of an age-old dichotomy, an unexpected redemption of the personal life: the realization of the pearl beyond price, described in Chapter Five, constitute a resolution of the apparent conflict between the life of the man of the world and that of the man of the spirit.