The Pearl Beyond Price - Integration of Personality into Being
an Object Relations Approach
By A.H. Almaas
Ego as Imitation of Reality
"Understanding that ego is a reflection , or an imitation,
of a true reality makes it possible to connect to this reality.
One need not go the usual spiritual route of abandoning one's personal
life and the values of that life, but rather one must look deeply
into those values and explore the true reality that they are approximation.
Most people are not willing to abandon their personal life for a
spiritual quest, not merely because of attachment to ego, but because
they sense a truth in the values and aspirations of personal life.
For such people, the overwhelming majority of humankind, understanding
the reality underneath ego is a more accessible means of spiritual
development than the traditional methods striving after impersonal
reality. This is not only because in this method they do not have
to abandon their personal lives and aspirations, but also because
this path reveals the deeper values and truths of those aspirations
and strivings toward actualization." (page 18)
Spiritual Practice
"Spiritual practice is primarily the cultivation of presence,
understanding, awareness and surrender.These are capacities needed
for the later stages of psychic
metabolism. Awareness and understanding are needed for the purification
of ego identification. Presence and surrender are needed for the
process of absorption
itself. One learns to be open, vulnerable and present to one's experience,
in order to allow effective metabolism. This means that one learns
to be in direct contact with one's experience, which in turns requires
the presence of the Personal Essence, which is the aspect which
can make such direct contact without defensiveness. Thus, when one
is realized as the Personal Essence, metabolism becomes a natural,
spontaneously occurring process. Effective metabolism leads to the
realization of Personal Essence, and the Personal Essence, in its
turn, makes metabolism a natural process of living. The life of
Personal Essence
is a continuing ever-expanding process of integration and individuation."
(page 168)
Unity and Uniqueness
"The simultaneous universality and uniqueness in the human
experience is something to remember and respect, especially in the
process of inner realization.
It is this manifestation of the universal and unique in the Personal
Essence that requires that one approach the work of realization
with openess and respect toward oneself and the process, integrity
in how one approaches one's experience, and sincerity in staying
with exactly what one actually experiences. One need believe nothing
about reality or oneself. One only needs enough integrity and personal
experience, and the Truth will invariably reveal itself. It will
reveal itself within the specific individual as a unique actualization
of the human potential.
And the beauty of it is that this uniqueness will reflect the true
unity of both humanity and all of existence." (page 484)
