Here then we see that there is a deeper connection between mind and heart beyond the personality; in fact they are one. You can experience clear nectar or a clear diamond, or blue nectar or a blue diamond, or golden nectar or a golden diamond, and so on. The diamond form is experienced as consciousness or clarity. The pearl in the heart is experienced as true personal conscious presence. You can experience both at the same time, since they are one; however, within different traditions different perspectives are emphasized. In the Far East the spiritual systems emphasize looking at things in terms of the perspective of the head, of consciousness, and the result is enlightenment. In the Middle Eastern theistic tradition the perspective of the heart is emphasized so it is viewed more as a love affair. It is the same thing.

We see here the unity of epistemology and ontology, for this aspect is a presence in which the beingness is itself the knowingness. When knowing splits off from being, we end up with ordinary knowledge, a knowledge that is not sufficient to reconnect us with our Being, no matter how useful it is in the practical world. Such understanding reveals the necessity for stillness, silence, slowness, and solitude in the initial stages of any inner path. Otherwise, it will be difficult for us to settle down and for our mind to abide in its primordial being. And without this abiding, we have no other way to truly know ourselves. The Blue aspect is the quality of our true nature that is responsible for direct, immediate knowing. This capacity is essential in inquiry to give us contact with the truth of our experience in the moment. Therefore, though we do not necessarily experience the Blue Essence in our personal inquiry, we still retain its contribution as a basic implied capacity. Each moment that we know our experience directly, we are feeling the action of the Blue diamond of the Guidance.

Knowingness—the capacity to know through direct contact with an element of our experience—is related to a particular essential aspect. It is related to the operation of the Blue diamond, which is the Blue Essence in its diamond presence. The Blue Essence is usually called the aspect of pure consciousness, but it is also the aspect of knowingness. Even intellectual knowledge is based on this capacity; without inherent direct and intimate knowingness, ordinary knowledge would not be possible. Direct knowingness is what gives us the data necessary for our mind to think and spin out its knowledge. Without knowingness, we have no data.