More specifically, self-realization is a manifestation of a certain human development, a development tantamount to the full maturation of humanness, which a human being may attain or arrive at.

The Work we do here involves both realizing the truth of reality and living according to that truth. The time we spend learning to function with presence fine tunes our consciousness. We learn the value of our realization by living the life of our realization, and in time our actions will embody our awake attention. It is our way of stabilizing and establishing our realization. We can live our lives with a clear and strong sense of presence. We learn to strengthen our spine not only by understanding what is true but also by acting in a genuine way. We perform our tasks even though we are aware of feeling inadequate and lonely. We practice attention in presence while we work, focusing our attention primarily on the tasks. Even though we are aware of our emotions and issues, we don’t waste our energy analyzing them. If we are aware of our inner state without blocking it in any way, our presence will continue transforming.

The certainty of realization does not mean there will be no more issues to work through. The certainty means that when the issues arise, you recognize they are issues; when vulnerabilities arise, you recognize they are vulnerabilities. And at the same time, you realize that what you are is not this vulnerability, even though that is part of what is arising in the moment. The certainty of what you are actually makes it easier for issues to arise because they don’t challenge you as deeply as when you are uncertain. So freedom includes working through further issues, which become opportunities to recognize yourself in new ways. When our self-realization is certain, life will continue to flow with discoveries, not because we are searching for them, but because that is how life expresses its joy and fullness—by spontaneously manifesting new revelations. In primary awakening, reality is awake to its primordial nature. If we recognize, respect, and heed this awakening, it will keep unfurling itself to disclose more and more of reality. All other awakenings, realizations, and enlightenments are a matter of seeing the further implications of this primary awakening. Living this awakening is lively and fun, it is profound and liberating, and it is endless.

Self-realization is identity with the Essence of the self, which is Presence.

In self-realization our experience of ourselves is a pure act of consciousness. We know ourselves by directly being ourselves. All self-images have been rendered transparent and we no longer identify with any construct in the mind. There is no reactivity to past, present or future. There is no effort to be ourselves. There is no interference with our experience, no manipulation, no activity – inner or outer – involved with maintaining our identity. We simply are. We are able to respond, feel, think, act – but from a purely spontaneous and authentic Presence. We are not defensive, not judging ourselves, not trying to live up to any standard. We may also be silent, empty or spacious. We do not have to do anything to be ourselves. We are whole, one, undivided. It is not the wholeness of the harmony of parts, but the wholeness of singlehood. We are one. We are ourselves. We are being. We simply are.

Full self-realization means the complete realization of the fullness of Being. By fullness of Being, we mean Being in its totality and completeness, including all of its dimensions and aspects. This is finally realized in the resolution of oral narcissism as the self-realization of nondual Presence.

In order for realization to become a permanent attainment there needs to be support for realization. This is the reason it is possible to achieve a state of self-realization and to lose it -- you don't have the support for it.

States of self-realization can occur in many dimensions. Self-realization can be on the individual level, on any of the boundless dimensions, or on a non-dual level. The basic element, common to experiences of realization in all the dimensions is a sense of not being concerned about reality, of not being concerned about who you are. There is a sense of certainty about yourself and about your perception of reality. It also manifests as a sense of completeness, as a sense of things making sense, as a sense of having meaning to yourself, to your life and to your world without necessarily knowing what the meaning is. Everything has an implicit sense of meaning, value and preciousness; there is no questioning of it. Your life originates from this sense of meaningfulness, significance, and preciousness that is implicit and not questioned. Your life, your action, your activity and creativity originate from the pure and certain sense of significance to your world and who you are.

To arrive at self-realization is not a matter of trying to get somewhere; it is not a question of working to actualize a specific state. If we engage in the process of self-realization from the perspective that there is an end-state to realize, we tend to interfere with the process. To attempt to generate or move towards a certain state indicates holding a particular conceptual position.

What we’re seeing here is that self-realization is ultimately self-annihilation. We don’t gain anything. Rather we are going to lose everything. We lose the concepts of our mind, one after another, one category after another, people, objects, values. When all the concepts and categories are gone, only the nonconceptual awareness, which is a field of pure consciousness, remains. This spontaneously dissolves into its underlying ground, absolute nonbeing, total absence of being. This nonbeing, when we recognize it as the ground and inner secret of all of reality, is the night of reality, the inner of the inner. This is the guest.

Realization and liberation require many things: dedication and commitment, love and devotion, awareness and sensitivity. But more than anything else, they require understanding. Understanding is the central faculty needed for liberation, especially when we go very deep in our experience and arrive at subtle places. That is because when we reach the subtlety of our true nature – the real depth – what is left is our understanding. Everything else, in some sense, has dropped away by then. All that is left is our subtle capacity for discriminating what is manifesting, what is true, and what is false.

The experience self-realization, of knowing oneself as self-pervasive consciousness, is felt experientially as an exquisite sense of intimacy. The self-existing consciousness experiences itself so immediately that it is completely intimate with its reality. The intimacy is complete because there is no mediation in the self’s experience of itself. We feel an exquisite stillness, a peace beyond all description, and a complete sense of being truly ourselves. We are so totally ourselves that we feel directly intimate with every atom of our consciousness, completely intimate with and mixed with our true identity. The contentment is like settling down peacefully at home after eons of restless and agonized wandering. Clarity and peace combine as the feeling of exquisite, contented intimacy, which is totally independent of the particulars of our situation, beyond the conceptual confines of time and space. The peace and contentment do not come from accomplishing anything, nor are they a result of anything. They are part of the actual feeling of being truly ourselves. We are not only intimate with ourselves, but our very presence is intimacy.

In full self-realization we experience the body as a transparent and diaphanous form of Presence. The form is seen to be more superficial than the ontological reality of Presence, which is beyond any form. This experience of the body is not easy to access; it involves a leap of consciousness that generally requires a great deal of inner work such as decades of intense meditation practice.