So the teaching is happening in every way that experience appears. As you may have noticed, when you are inquiring, you discover at some point the meaning of what you are experiencing. Everything has meaning, and meaning is always there. Nothing is haphazard. Everything has a precise order. That is why I tend to agree with Einstein that reality is not probability, that God doesn't throw dice. Everything has a precise order, every single little thing has a meaning in the order of things—and all of it is revealing the truth of reality.

The ego personality deals with the loss of a sense of meaning by creating a sense of meaning. As we have seen, the usual personality or ego way of trying to create meaning is by having goals and aims that you will attain one of these days. The meaning of your life becomes the attainment of those goals. For most people life has meaning only in terms of these long-term goals and hopes. Ego's way of dealing with the loss or absence of realization is too relegate it to the future.

So as you see, there is always a continuity of meaning for each of us, if we’re really practicing being where we are. This continuity of meaning I call the personal thread. A lot is happening in the universe. The universe itself is flowing and moving and changing, and everybody and everything that comprises it is moving and changing as well. Within that shared reality, each one of us is having our own personal experience in terms of where we are—our personal thread. Recognizing our personal experience, being with it, feeling it with immediacy and awareness and understanding—brings not only meaning but a thread of meaning, a continuity of meaning. And this thread of meaning is our own individual unfolding journey of truth.

Ultimately, the desire for meaning and significance is a search for identity. Our activities are meant to give us a sense of who we are. "What gives me significance?" When we explore this we find that it has something to do with a sense of self. "Who am I?"

I am focusing on the word “meaning” because I think it will help us better understand what it means to be where we are. In the condition of realization, the meaning we are experiencing is not the conceptual meaning; it is the very presence of reality. When we experience it, it is the meaning of existence. It is meaningful to the soul and to the heart. Or we could say: The soul and the heart feel that existence is meaningful. Existence got meaning. What’s the meaning it got? True Nature.

When you know yourself, when you realize your true identity, the meaning of life does not come to you in the form of a conceptual answer to a question. It is not an answer in your mind. It is you. The Presence, fullness, and intrinsic preciousness is directly experienced; it is not in reference to anything else. It is complete autonomy; only the experience itself can give a taste of this satisfaction. This experience of self-realization is the answer, in the sense that it ends the drive. It is true absence of seeking.

As we learn more and more how to be where we are, and as we follow our personal thread, at some point the meaning of what is happening at any moment becomes nonconceptual. We are in the presence—we are presence—without the concept of presence; we are being here without thinking, “I am here.” Now that is not to be confused with being distracted. You can be “not here,” in the sense of being disconnected, and if someone points it out to you, you will recognize that you were somewhere far away. What I am talking about here is when you are quite aware of what is going on, but you are not self-reflecting in that place, not discriminating. And it is not that you don’t have the capacity to discriminate; it is just that sometimes it is not necessary to do so. In the presence of that ground of nonconceptual being, reification simply does not happen; it actually can’t happen because reification requires some kind of cognition. Any knowingness—even immediate knowingness, such as when we know the strength quality of presence by being it—has a conceptual component to it. But the strength essence can also appear without the cognitive capacity labeling it. The strength and the feeling of capacity and the inner heat are there, but your mind is not saying, “strength,” “capacity” or “heat.” Your mind is not saying anything. You just are strength. And, it is not lifeless or pale; it is alive, and it is glistening.

In the dimensions of Essence there are experiences of self-realization in which meaning is based on the presence of the realized state in the present moment, rather than being based on the future. This eliminates the dependency on the future. Goals and aims become less and less important. In other words, the aim becomes the present moment, and the present moment is its own significance, is its own preciousness. The present moment is not different from the self-realization, which is not different from the self that is realized, which is not different from the reality that is precious.