As ego activity diminishes, it becomes easier to stay with and experience fully the selfless openness of the black space. The student can tolerate the absence of the familiar self with little difficulty and may even appreciate this absence. This sets the stage for the manifestation of the Essential Identity. The black space appears as the night sky where the Essential Identity may arise as a brilliant star in the pure darkness. A brilliant point of presence and awareness takes form in the endlessness of space, with the inner recognition: “I am here now.” The student feels specifically present, as a singularity of presence, totally autonomous from all images, representations, or concepts of self. There is a new element in the experience: The sense of authentic identity is present, and it is experienced as oneself. One does not experience it, one is it. This development takes one to a new dimension of experience, as if one is experiencing things from the other side. When one is completely being the Essential Identity, the experience no longer takes the form of being or seeing a point of light. The sense of size disappears, even the feeling of identity disappears. Self-realization becomes a matter of being, purely being, with an increasing understanding of what this means. There is a sense of simplicity and innocence, of just simply being. It is not a matter of being oneself and knowing this by reflecting on the experience of oneself. There is no reflection on the state, no desire to analyze it. There is a sense of being alone, without the concept or feeling of aloneness.

Experiencing either the Point or the Brahman does not bring the understanding of how they are linked. This new kind of Diamond Guidance, comprising only completely transparent diamonds, provided the synthetic capacity of mind to make the necessary connections between the two. Although the Point does not feel bounded, neither is it experienced as extended in space. Imagine yourself as a point of gleaming light on the infinite ocean and becoming the light itself. The luminosity spreads over the surface, and now you are the infinite, radiant presence at each drop in an ocean of profound depth. Experiencing the connection of the Point to the Brahman showed us how the Point is the individual expression of the deepest ground of Being. The Point is the spark of that depth. Thus, the realization of the brilliant Point became the exit from a more located individual to the universal nonlocal witness. In this state, perception remains local – I still see the table and chairs in my room – while the presence of the witness is infinite, proceeding from the deep vastness that is everywhere and every-when. It is at once outside of time and space and viewing all of creation.

The way I see it is that the Diamond Guidance is a structure of many different colorful diamond qualities, in the center of which is the Point. The Point goes through the consciousness, and the diamond structure focuses there. It is not that you’re following the Point; the Point is going through and revealing what is going on. So your consciousness is focused on what is being revealed. That’s actually what is happening, although we don’t always see it that way when we’re inquiring.

So far, it might seem as if working on the shell and the emptiness led to the realization of the point of light. But then I remembered that even before this entire sequence of inquiry, before the shell and the narcissism and the hurt, I’d already had experiences of this point of light. Once in a while, the point of light would arise and, once in a while, I would become it, but not as completely as in the experience that I described. When I examined it more closely, I realized that the whole sequence of work on narcissism—the mirroring and need for support, the wounding and narcissistic sensitivity, the shell and the emptiness—was actually caused by the initial experience of the point of light and presence. The point of light, the experience of the condition of self-realization, was guiding the whole unfolding inquiry. It was already arising and, finally, I realized what was happening by recognizing myself as the point. So I understood that even my interest in narcissism as the thread of my inquiry was a result of the point arising in my consciousness. The whole thread—the questions I had, the books I was reading, the feelings I was having, the object relations I was focusing on—was caused by the point arising in consciousness to reveal itself as my true identity. That was what generated in me all the questions and all the states that I described. The experience of the point of light actually got me interested in the narcissism and interested in knowing myself because it was my real self arising.  

The Point, the Essential Identity, is needed in order to comprehend our experience—to reveal it as a unified whole—because the Point is the organizing center of our circle of experience. It is the center of our personal mandala. It is also the direction of ultimate understanding. In other words, the function of the Point, as part of the Diamond Guidance, is to continuously deepen our understanding. How? By pointing it toward our ultimate nature, our final identity. So the Point has to do not only with getting the point, but also with pointing. The presence of the Point points to the depth, so that our awareness and knowledge can penetrate directly to the depth of our Being. It is interesting that the Essential Identity is a point, given that the term “point” is used in our everyday language in relation to meaning and understanding. In this case, our language has a great deal of wisdom. Consider our use of the expression “getting the point.” That’s how the Essential Identity, the Point, contributes to the function of Guidance. When we say that the Point points, this doesn’t mean that it does anything. By its mere presence, it points. When love is present, it affects our consciousness in a certain way. It makes us generous, it makes us give and appreciate, it makes us do wonderful things. Similarly, when the Point is present, it affects our consciousness in a certain way: It brings us to the point, and it points to the point by its very nature. It doesn’t actually point a finger. If it weren’t for the Point, inner guidance would stay on the same level. The nature of the Point causes inquiry to penetrate, to go deeper, because it represents identity all the way to the Absolute. The Point is really nothing but the reflection of the Absolute in the soul. It guides consciousness and inquiry toward itself as if by magnetism.

The Point is a point of presence, and when it is in consciousness, it focuses our attention. The moment the Point manifests, our attention is spontaneously focused in a very powerful way. The Point is a point of singular presence and brilliance, so its presence in our experience naturally focuses our soul. It does this by providing the capacity to focus on all the levels of the soul’s functioning – perception, thinking, feeling, and action.

Brilliancy is the father of the Point. The Point is you; it is your essential self and identity. The Point is different from Brilliancy. The Point, when you experience it, has a living quality to it—it’s living, alive, and responsive—while Brilliancy is just a presence, a brilliant presence. We’ve talked about many ways that Brilliancy manifests. Now, you can attain a quality of Brilliancy where it becomes like the Point. That is more like what people call God, where you see the whole universe as a living, breathing, pulsing presence—just like the Point, but infinite. That’s what we call the Father of the Point, which is a sense of a very immense presence. You experience it by perceiving that at the core of everything there is a living, brilliant intelligence. It is manifesting in everything all of the time, directing everything. It is not directing it in the sense of “do this, do that,” but directing it by making it happen. It is the intelligence that, by its manifestation, brings out life, brings out appearance, brings out all kinds of things.

This dimension of Brilliancy is the connection to the Point, which some people might start experiencing. The Point is a brilliant presence that is who you are, your true self. We can say it is part of the living ocean of Brilliancy, one of its atoms. Brilliancy is not a point, not a concentration of presence. The more you experience it, the more it is in the room, the more it expands and fills the room. It has no specific shape or form. Also, the more it expands the more you feel the sense of cleanness. Everything is clean, which is what I meant by elegant; everything is very sharply, smoothly, and elegantly delineated. There is no dullness on the edges. Everything is bright, clean, and pure. Everything is washed with some kind of pure oil. That is the sense of clarity and brightness you are experiencing as you regain your own eyes through integrating Brilliancy.

The Point, the Essential Identity, is needed in order to comprehend our experience – to reveal it as a unified whole – because the Point is the organizing center of our circle of experience. It is the center of our personal mandala. It is also the direction of ultimate understanding. In other words, the function of the Point, as part of the Diamond Guidance, is to continuously deepen our understanding. How? By pointing it toward our ultimate nature, our final identity. So the Point has to do not only with getting the point, but also with pointing. The presence of the Point points to the depth, so that our awareness and knowledge can penetrate directly to the depth of our Being.

<p>This is a beautiful description of the relationship of the Essential Identity to the self and the Absolute. The drop of dew is the self, which has a name and form, while the sun is the Absolute, where the light is its awareness. The point is the reflection of the sun in the drop of dew; the Essential Identity is the manifestation of the Absolute in the individual soul. The understanding that the point is the manifestation of the Absolute in the individual soul is nowhere clearer than in <u>Nisargadatta’s</u> following statement: “You are always the supreme which appears at a given point of time and space as the witness, a bridge between the pure awareness of the Supreme and the manifold consciousness of the person.” (Nisargadatta, 1982, p. 64) And: “Look within and you will find that the point of light is the reflection of the immensity of light in the body, as the sense ‘I am’. There is only light, all else appears.” (Ibid., p. 392–393). It is very clear in the following statement that by “the light,” he means the Absolute, for he describes it in a similar way to how we understand it: “By itself the light can only be compared to a solid, dense, rocklike, homogeneous and changeless mass of pure awareness, free from the mental patterns of name and shape.”(Nisargadatta, 1982, p. 34) (See The The Pearl Beyond Price, Beyond Price, p. 468 [Almaas, 1988].</p>

Self-realization fulfils the meaning of our lives. The true significance of all experience is the essential Presence. The point of existence is the Essential Identity. It is profoundly significant that the Essential Identity is experienced directly as a brilliant point of Presence, a point of Being, which is true existence. We can say, then, that meaninglessness is pointlessness, and the feeling of pointlessness is an indirect awareness of the absence of the essential point, the Essential Identity.

When you are who you are, when you are just precisely yourself, you are your "point." Just that. This has nothing to do with any qualities, functions, capacities, and skills you may have. It has nothing to do with your status in the world, and nothing to do with living this life in a body or not in a body. It is your nature. The Pearl Beyond Price is a connection between this genuine center and all capacities, skills, and understanding that are a part of your growth as a human being. It allows your capacities, functions and accomplishments to develop in a genuine way as an outgrowth of your spontaneous unfoldment. It is the result of living in the moment, living in a way that is true to who you are. This is your genuine personal life, your development, your own growth. The Pearl is the actualized individuation of your Soul.