Inquiry is a science in the sense that it can be very objective, very precise. It goes beyond merely inquiring into facts in order to find the truth; it is also an art that needs an organic, wholehearted, comprehensive kind of responsiveness that is not rigid or bound by rules, concepts, or positions. Inquiry is a dynamic functioning of our consciousness, of our soul, that has to be flexible, responsive, and playful for it to be truly intelligent. It has to be inspired by intelligence and informed by understanding. As you inquire, you need to use your intelligence, and you need to apply whatever understanding you have to the experience of the moment. Inquiry is not a matter of asking a question haphazardly; all questions have to be asked in an organic way. That is what intelligence is: an organic and appropriate responsiveness to each situation. Intelligence gives our inquiry the capacity to modulate itself according to the particulars of the situation. Sometimes you recognize the need for a great deal of determination, a lot of power and will, to penetrate through a certain manifestation, for there might be a stubborn inertia or fear. Or perhaps the situation can become so subtle that you do not see it, and you need to become quiet, peaceful, and delicate so that your inquiry is a very gentle probing into the situation. In this case, even the will becomes a gentle receptiveness, an effortless presence, as you probe very delicately into the situation. Sometimes the situation requires the tenderness and warmth of compassion because pain and hurt arise. Sometimes you need the humor and playfulness of joy for the inquiry to continue to unfold in the face of hopelessness and despair. 

So, yes, intelligence can infuse your instinctual and intuitive functioning. When your physical capacities and sensitivities are operating intelligently, you may think of them as functioning intuitively or instinctually. I believe this is a common tendency. And in fact, what we frequently call instinctual or intuitive is nothing but the absence of mechanical or linear functioning. And, as we are seeing, it is a property of functioning based in organic intelligence. Instinctual functioning also indicates that intelligence is not just a mental activity but is a quality of the functioning of our consciousness, of our soul.  

Experience alone will not transform who and what we are. How we see the truth of the experience—what it is and what it points to and what its relevance to other things is—is also important. People frequently have insights without the presence of this discriminating intelligence, but that sort of intuitive insight or realization is isolated and short-lived. When we have integrated the penetrating intelligence of true nature, we have this capacity of understanding at our command. This means that whenever we want to explore something, that capacity is available. But being at our command does not mean we own it. It means that there is a selflessness that allows it to operate freely. It is actually at the command of true nature. Even though we cannot appropriate it, it nevertheless functions as our capacity. It feels like what we are, and with no self to hinder it or appropriate it, it can function with the entirety of what we are. It doesn’t belong to the individual, but it has at its disposal all the capacities of the individual. In this sense, the discriminating intelligence is the functioning of our higher intellect, our divine intellect. Imbued by the discerning capacity of true nature, this intelligence can operate on all dimensions at the same time. 

The sensitivity and precision of this discriminating intelligence is what gives inquiry its power. The more that our inquiry embodies these capacities, the more powerful our inquiry is. The functioning of the penetrating intelligence of true nature both contributes to essential activation and is one of   its expressions. The presence of this guidance of being opens the possibility for essential activation because it is already a response to the selfless love of truth for its own sake. Such love, when it is constant and operative, is both an opening for essential activation and an expression of it. At the beginning, it is an opening that invites the activation of being and, as that happens, further capacities are developed that enhance the functioning of guidance. The inner guide is a prevalent and powerful notion in contemporary culture. In our teaching, the discriminating intelligence of reality can function as guidance in the sense that it points the way, but it is not somebody or something different from who we are. In other words, guidance is the functioning of our intelligence, of our truth sense, of our heart combined with our mind in a synergistic balance that allows us to see what is happening and what it means, to penetrate the opaqueness of our experience in a way that illuminates it and that reveals further facets of the truth. In this way, this intelligence becomes a functional tool of Total Being in its revelation of the truth. 

The enlightened view includes the recognition that everything is always happening, that happening always happens. Nobody does anything; it all simply happens. The appearance of reality always instantly arises and transforms. From a more limited perspective, we see it as us doing something or as somebody feeling something or as the weather changing. Of course, we can explain the weather as various forces, pressure, and temperature, which makes sense because it helps us understand something, but actually the whole thing—whether it is a hurricane or a gentle breeze or a stillness in the air—is all always the cosmic creativity happening. The Quintessence expends no more energy to create a hurricane than a gentle breeze; it is always one ease. The important part about recognizing this dynamism in everyday life is that it is ultimately what moves us; it is ultimately what moves our arms and our legs. In limited situations we might experience the cosmic dynamism of reality as a sense of spontaneity, a sense of flow, a sense of ease of movement. So when we understand something and we have an insight and recognize true nature, we don’t take it to mean that it is my mind doing it. We take it to mean that it is the dynamism of true nature manifesting through my limited mind at that time and revealing itself to itself. We can see the agency happening without anthropomorphizing it into a figure that comes and teaches me something. It’s more that true nature appears within the individual consciousness as a capacity for understanding, for insight, for responsiveness. The dynamism of true nature appears as the functioning of the real heart, the functioning of the real mind, the functioning of real action. These are the ways that the dynamism manifests in individual life. 

A good way to get a glimpse of the view of functioning elucidated by Holy Law is to look at transitional or intermediate experiences of it in which one perceives the functioning of reality, but without the complete loss of the boundaries that define most people’s experience. For example, you might experience it when you are in the midst of doing something and you realize that there is no striving—there is a sense of ease, a smoothness to the action that is like a slippery flow. Physical reality is the most difficult to perceive as part of a whole unfolding pattern. We usually think of physical reality as static, clunky objects outside of ourselves and we have the sense that time passes—both are very difficult perceptions to get beyond. But when observing your inner experience, it is easier to see that there is always an unfolding occurring that you are not making happen. Your sensations, thoughts, and feelings are unfolding and manifesting constantly. In fact, they are unfolding regardless of what you do. Can you stop your thoughts? There is a continual renewal of inner experience going on all the time. It is easy to see that it is not as though our inner experience is happening inside the body while time passes outside it. In reality, our body feels different in each moment. When you become aware of this, you begin to perceive the inner unfoldment of the soul. You might even experience the substance of the soul itself as a dynamic flow with an energetic aliveness. This is close to the sense of the overall unfoldment of reality, in which the flow is not happening just inside of you but everywhere.  

The Holy Ideas constitute a map of the view of reality as unity. Each Holy Idea is a view of reality which reflects an understanding of the wholeness and unity of the world or universe, of human beings, and of the functioning of reality. The understanding of unity—the nonduality of the various elements and dimensions of existence and manifestation—is an element of every traditional spiritual understanding. Both Eastern and Western teachings that include a method of inner work toward realization of reality inevitably lead to the perception of the nonseparateness of human and world, physical world and consciousness, divine and mundane. Many of these teachings understand human suffering to arise from ignorance of this truth, that is, separation or alienation from awareness of the sacred or the real. In the Diamond Approach, we find several dimensions of Being which involve a perception of nonduality. Many seekers who approach or read about the understanding of unity or nonseparateness associate the idea of unity with a kind of homogeneity. For example, on one level of perception the seeker sees directly that all of manifestation is made of one medium. In this perception, the emphasis is on the awareness that everything is made of one something, one substance, and discrimination of different aspects of manifestation is not part of the experience. This is what we call unity. Another level that involves a perception of nonduality is the nonconceptual, that is, direct awareness of reality more fundamental than or prior to conceptual thinking. Here, too, there is a sense that there is “one thing” which constitutes all of reality, and from this perspective it is clear that there are no separate objects. Reality on this level can appear as one solid “block” which cannot be separated even conceptually. Another level of perception which includes awareness of nonduality is what we call oneness. In this perception, the awareness of nonseparateness is clear, but within that whole, unified reality, discrimination is present. One sees the different colors, forms, and movements within manifestation, without those differences appearing as separating boundaries. It is clear that the whole of the universe is one living, harmonious manifestation. Discriminated form and movement are seen as occurring within a whole, not as the movement of separate parts. 

To understand the view of the hierarchy of the dimensions of Being, and its usefulness, is to understand the usefulness of the perspective of ascent, as the experience and exploration of each of these dimensions. To understand each dimension on its own, as we have done in the last five chapters, is to recognize and appreciate its specific and necessary contribution. Such understanding is necessary for understanding the principles governing the path of realization and liberation, which requires a full grasp of the functioning of Reality and of the soul. At the same time, the integrated dimension adds the insight that Reality is not one of these dimensions, but they are all necessary for both its existence and our experience of it. This insight points to the truth that realization is not a matter of realizing one of these dimensions of true nature, but of realizing all of them simultaneously, for that is the true structure of Reality. 

Each of the different ways that Essence appears has recognizable properties and characteristics that differentiate it experientially from the other aspects. Because Essence is not a physical substance, we do not actually perceive its presence with our physical senses, but it can be clearly perceived and recognized through the functioning of subtle inner capacities that correspond to the physical senses. (Chapter 21 explores in more detail the nature of these subtle senses.) Subtle perception is readily available to some people and not others, but it is an inherent capacity in everyone. With regular practice and careful attention, one’s ability to discriminate the perceptual characteristics of inner experience becomes increasingly clear and precise. In time, we can recognize each essential aspect by its texture, color, taste, and so on. Most important, each aspect has a discernible feeling tone—a specific affect or experiential flavor. This becomes more definite and recognizable the more we are able to perceive the other properties such as color, taste, and texture. 

Need for mirroring: The normal need for mirroring becomes exaggerated at this point. This need is one element of the overall functioning of the normal self, but at this point it takes center stage, revealing its importance for our sense of identity. We become more aware of our fundamental need to be seen, recognized, admired, appreciated, and so on. This need has two elements: The first is the need for someone outside us to see us accurately, understand what we are about, how we feel, what we think, and so on. It is a matter of another person functioning like a mirror for us, thus shoring up our sense of identity. The second need is that the mirroring feedback has to be not only accurate, but extremely positive. We need to be seen with admiring and appreciative, even idolizing, eyes. The need for mirroring reflects the insecurity and instability of the sense of identity. The individual expects the positive empathic feedback to shore up this self-structure. However, because this insecurity reflects the fundamental weakness of the ego identity, which is due to the alienation from the Essential Identity, it is an expression of a deeper need. This deeper need is for our true self to be seen and appreciated, simply because it is not seen, by anyone—ourselves or others. 

The essential intellect or nous operates not only with the enhanced intellectual capacities of discrimination and synthesis, but even though it is essential presence it can operate in conjunction with the soul’s normal intellect, with its logic, reason, and ordinary knowledge. Here, instead of ordinary knowledge obscuring our basic knowledge, the nous uses it to reveal and unfold the infinite potentials of basic knowledge. The essential nous can also operate in conjunction with reason and logic, applied to spiritual experience in all its dimensions and subtlety. The essential nous is one of the natural secrets of the wisdom teachings; it was mentioned and discussed a great deal, but most contemporary investigators miss it for they do not understand it. They cannot understand it because they are subject to the dissociation of knowing and being. We can mention one more thing about the functioning of the nous: it can combine with ordinary thinking to the extent that thinking becomes the flow of essence and its aspects, in a stream that scintillates with insight and understanding. Thinking becomes objective thinking, intentional, truly rational, steady, focused, and to the point. It is the operation of true nature in the process of discerning wisdom.  

In Absence one experiences oneself to be a pure subject, that is not an object. One is the source of awareness. One is not the witness, not the witnessing, not the witnessed. One recognizes oneself as an Absence, unknown and unknowable. When one looks inward there is no perception; there is absolute Absence without consciousness of Absence, because Absence is not an object of perception. It is in fact the absence of an object of perception. When one looks at phenomena one observes functioning. There is absolutely no self-consciousness, so there is complete spontaneity. There is awareness of phenomena and functioning, but there is no involvement at all. It does not feel that there is someone or something observing or aware of phenomena. Everything is the same as usual, except that there is no self. There is no person or presence who feels or thinks he is doing or perceiving. The perceiving is present, the doing is present, without being related to a perceiver and doer. This is completely incomprehensible to ego. Ego cannot conceive of perceiving or functioning if it is not present at the center of it. For ego, functioning is always the functioning of the person or self. This experience is dumbfounding to the mind. One realizes that one has always assumed, and has taken it to be the absolute truth, that there cannot be functioning without a functioner. But here, in the experience of Absence, one realizes that one has been wrong all along. Functioning happens smoothly and spontaneously, and does not need the presence of any self or personality. There is perception of the body moving, doing what it normally does; eating, talking and so on. However, all this is seen as functioning, completely spontaneous, not belonging to a person or a self. It is also not seen as separate from any other functioning in the universe. There is Absence and the awareness of the oneness of existence, which is experienced as in a state of functioning. 

We understand the general situation to be that the physical organism is the immediate holding environment for the soul. The more complete and healthy is the body, the more of her potential is the soul able to actualize. The completeness and health is not a matter of appearance and general health, but more importantly of the inner functioning of the physical organism, and more specifically the functioning necessary for the experience and functioning of the soul, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. For instance, the brain and nervous system need to be healthy for optimum experience of the soul. Some deficiencies in the functioning of the brain, for example, might not be apparent for everyday living, but might crucially affect the development of the soul. For instance, some deficiencies might limit the discriminating or the synthetic capacities necessary for many stages of the inner journey, or might make it difficult for the organism to discharge excess tension and go into inner relaxation. Nevertheless, because of the immensity of the soul’s potential, many physical limitations might not appreciably hamper her development, and may sometimes stimulate it. But it is clear that for the full development of potential a sound body is necessary. Physical handicaps may contribute to the soul’s dissociation from its essential ground, but they are more relevant to the overall development of the soul. 

A further, unselfish interest develops by now, manifesting as the desire to help and serve other beings. We learn increasingly that we are not so separate from other human beings and from life in general, and we begin to see that our own interests and the interests of others are very connected. This impels us to want to free and realize ourselves on more and more profound levels so that we will have the capacities to be of help. This selfless desire grows out of the love and compassion that we experience in greater depths, but ultimately, the more it is impregnated by its essential qualities, the more it is recognized to be a natural functioning of the self. In other words, something akin to what the Buddhists call the “Bodhisattva attitude” develops spontaneously as part of the natural spiritual development of ourselves. 

We refer to these qualities as essential aspects, or aspects of essence. Each is presence knowing itself as presence, but also and simultaneously recognizing this presence as the particular quality. Each essential aspect is actually the presence of essence, qualified with a particular noetic quality. It is the presence of essence, with the addition of one of its implicit perfections, now made explicit in experience. The noetic quality is not separate from the presence; it is completely indistinguishable from it. The knowingness of presence is now simply inseparable from the recognition of the quality. The knowing here is that of basic knowledge, so it is pervasive throughout the presence, not a recognition apart from it. The differentiations are not man-made, not constructs of the individual mind, not even products of a cultural or collective mind. No person’s mind is able to come up with such perfect differentiations. The direct perception of noetic forms shows us that the abstractions of ordinary mind are relatively gross and vague. The differentiations we perceive directly are the creation of the dynamism of our true nature, manifesting its perfections in explicit forms for the recognition and functioning of the soul. They are universal also in the sense that they manifest the same to all souls. The quality of inner peace is the same for all souls that experience it. Individual variations are minor, having to do with the shape and size of the field, its intensity, depth, brilliance, etc. The labeling of the forms can be different, depending on a person’s background and circumstances; but what is labeled is the same noetic form. 

Because what happens is the functioning of the organism that is the universe, there is no randomness to the changes that occur within it. Events may appear random to our subjective point of view, but from an objective perspective, an inherent intelligence is seen to be operating, moving things in a particular direction. As Albert Einstein is reputed to have said, “God does not play dice with the universe.” This means that the universe does not function mechanically; it is a living, conscious presence, so its functioning is an organic unfoldment. Perceiving that the functioning of the universe has a particular momentum, and moves in a particular direction with a particular intelligence and a particular force, is the meaning of Holy Will. You are seeing, in other words, that there is a unified will in the total functioning of the universe. 

This brings us back to what we discussed earlier. Remember we saw that the function, life, and evolution of the soul is a development and a maturation process: The soul perceives more and more of the truth until she sees the completeness of the truth and is thus unified with the Source. Now, we can recognize that this movement of love that the soul feels—when love is urging her and pulling the heart toward the Source as if it were a magnet—is the same movement of love that is creating the universe. It is actually a continuation of the creativity of truth revealing itself to itself. And it is manifesting in us, in human beings, through our souls, in a more and more complete way as we approach that Source. So, what we experience as the love that is pulling us toward the Source is nothing but the Source revealing itself in us through love. Rumi goes on to say, I have found no aspiration in me, it all comes from thee. What does this mean? It means that all the aspiration, attraction, and magnetism comes from love. And love here is nothing but the creative force of the truth. You could also say that that truth is our ground, and love is the creative force of truth and the means of expressing it. That is why, as Rumi says, the language of grace, a language of blessings, arises as a manifestation of this creative force of love. So, to be in touch with love, with the motivation of love, with the force of love, and with the action of love, means to participate in the functioning of the universe— to participate in the truth that is revealing itself through the desire of love.   

Although discursive knowledge is a subset of basic knowledge, it does not include some very important dimensions of consciousness. The more abstract it becomes, the less of the inner sensory dimensions it includes, until it is constituted only by the mental knowing dimension, a cognition that relies only on representational concepts and words. The most important dimension it loses touch with is that of pure consciousness; it loses most of the sensitive presence of consciousness. It becomes a disembodied knowing, where only the outlines of the forms of experience remain, and their interrelationships. This is what thoughts are. These thoughts arise within basic knowledge, embodying basic knowledge, but generally lose touch with the ground of this basic knowledge, and become disembodied knowledge. The functioning of this thinking capacity evolves various rules and principles that we call logic and reason. Although knowledge is not static, but is always in a state of change and transformation, these transformations are not chaotic or haphazard; they follow fundamental patterns that reflect the self-organizing intelligence of the soul. In fact, as we will see in later chapters, they reflect basic patterns of Reality, including Being and universe and their relationship to the soul. 

Brilliancy usually flows in the body through the cerebrospinal fluid in the spinal column. As such, it is directly involved with the nervous system and the brain, so it affects the functioning of thought. Imagine Brilliancy flowing through your synapses; imagine feeling it in your nerves. Imagine the sensation of exquisite smoothness and purity coursing through your nervous system, lighting it up, setting it ablaze with the brilliance of intelligence. Like a lubricant or a conducting substance of complete smoothness in your nervous system, Brilliancy dissolves any resistance in the nerves with its smoothness and flow, with its incredible ease, speed, and penetrating power. Brilliancy makes the inner sensation of your consciousness so delicate, so subtle, so exquisite, that you truly know what the refinement of consciousness means. Although its presence can be quite full and immense, Brilliancy makes you feel as if your senses have been cleansed with some kind of divine shower, so that your very sensations are exquisiteness itself. Even clarity is seen as an external reflection of that pure radiance. Brilliancy is the explosion of illumination from which clarity comes. 

Inner support gives us a sense of confidence in this cooperation. Why is that? Because the sense of grounding, which is a function of embodying the Will, is an expression of the universal will in the soul. The universal will is the optimizing force of Being’s dynamism, the force that actualizes the revelation that our heart desires—the realization of who we truly are. The more we have our own inner solidity, grounding, and support, the more we feel confident in our inquiry, because this confidence is an expression of the universal will, which is the force of the optimizing dynamism. In other words, having our own inner support makes us aware of the functioning of true dynamism and lets us know that this dynamism functions to optimize experience. However, not feeling connected with our inner confidence and support doesn’t mean we cannot inquire. It simply means that inquiry will be more difficult. We might still have our courage or our love, for example, and we can rely on these qualities until we feel connected to our inner support. However, having our inner confidence will support the process to move much more. Inquiry will then be like a well-oiled machine that functions effortlessly and naturally. 

This is a true life, then: instead of trying to get satisfaction, fulfillment, happiness, love, we allow ourselves to have basic trust. Then all that we do, our relationships and all our activities, are an expression of the satisfaction, fulfillment and love. The true life is a spontaneous activity that arises out of our essence, and there is no need for the efforting kind of will. You’ve got everything. You simply need to see the truth, and what needs to happen just happens. You don’t need to do anything about it. The functioning of true will causes you to do what is needed: if you need to go buy something from the store, or to talk with someone about something, the impulse will come spontaneously. You don’t need to ruminate about it. All of you have had such experiences, when everything flows spontaneously. You just do what’s right. As adult human beings, we actually have the capacity always to do what is right, for ourselves and for everyone else. We have lost that confidence, that basic trust. And we see that the way to have it is actually to start doing it. It’s not something you gain; you actually practice it. You practice it by staying with what is there, by not going along with the usual tendency to reject what is there and try to get something else.