Being

The reason we have the capacity to experience Being is that the self is an actual ontological Presence, a presencing of Being, not simply a construct, and this Presence has the capacity to be self-aware. Thus for the self to become directly aware of the realm of Being is for it to directly experience its own nature. (The Point of Existence, pg 14)

Being and action

Being means no reaction, no mental activity that defines who or what one is. In fact, Being is not an activity at all; it is an existence, a suchness, a thereness, a Presence that is not doing anything to be there. Since Being is itself existence, it does not need the mind to be there. It is like a physical object, which does not need the activity of mind to exist. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 57)

Alignment with being

Realizing that our experience, both inner and outer, always reflects the action of our Being’s dynamism means that, in principle, it is always possible to know whether we are aligned or not with the optimizing force of Being, to discern whether we are progressing, backtracking, or on idle. We don’t need someone else to tell us. All the information we need is in our experience at each moment if we can perceive it clearly. (Spacecruiser Inquiry, pg 203)

Being and awareness

Awareness of the Presence of Being does not exclude awareness of the body and its sensations, feelings and emotions, the mind with its thoughts, images, and ideas, and the totality of the functions of the psyche – such as imagination, thinking, planning and remembering – and the rest of what ego psychology calls the ego functions. (The Point of Existence p30)

Simply being is not a matter of being anything in particular; it is not a matter of being according to any view of ourselves, realistic or not. Simply being means the absence of any activity, inner or outer, to be ourselves. Simply being is just that: Being. (The Point of Existence, pg 81)

Since Being is pure consciousness capable of direct awareness of itself, it does not require thinking and deduction for it to know itself. This is what most distinguishes it from the personality of the ego, which knows itself through reference to the past. One reason it is not easy to have a clear experience of Being is that the habit of ego is to know itself through reference to other perceptions, as in Descartes' "I think, therefore I am." (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 65)

Experience of being

There are basically three ways to experience Being. The first way the self can experience essential Truth is easily accessible; the self experiences truth as Presence, without experiencing itself as Presence. In this condition we retain the normal feeling of identity. We experience ourselves as an individual, with a sense of identity, who is experiencing the presence of truth. In this situation the subject is the conventional self and the object of perception is the presence of truth. The second and third ways of experiencing Being arise from the functions of the Essential Identity. We have said that the Essential Identity provides the capacity to situate one's awareness in any form or dimension of Being. For instance, we may experience Being in the aspect of Truth, not in a subject-object relationship, but by experiencing ourselves from within and through the Essential Truth. In this direct experience of Truth we do not perceive ourselves experiencing Truth, but we are present as Truth. The third way of experiencing Being is similar to the second with an added quality. The Essential Identity provides the self not only with the capacity to situate awareness within Essence but also provides the feeling of identity... In the third mode, Truth and Identity are completely coemergent, absolutely nondual. (The Point of Existence, pg 147)

Being and knowledge

Then it is possible to see that Being itself is knowledge, knowledge that is not a content of our minds, but rather is the ground for it, as well as for the universe in its entirety. We recognize here that this Being is not only patterned as knowledge which makes up the totality of existence, but that Being in its purity is a knowingness, a consciousness, an awareness. It is both knowledge and knowing. It is the knower and the known. It is both the presence of knowledge and the capacity for knowing, which is implicit in all knowledge. This ultimate knowledge reveals itself also to be the ultimate good, for it is both our essential nature and the nature of everything. It makes us see that everything is available, and that everything is ultimately good in a realm beyond the dichotomy of good and bad. (Diamond Heart Book 3, pg 148)

Being and personality

So what is Being? Being is alive and still at the same time. In Being, you know that you are alive, that you are, but there is no movement; there is just complete stillness. There is stillness through and through. Even though the deepest level of the body is full of movement -- the blood circulation and movement within all the cells and even the movement of the atoms -- Being is deeper than all of that. Being has no agitation whatsoever. Being is new, always new, and personality is old, because it is always generated from the past. The personality always feels somewhat stale compared to Being. It is a left over. The personality is the remains of the past that have not been completely digested, metabolized and eliminated; it would have been eliminated long ago if it had been completely understood, and could therefore dissolve. The personality is always getting older, fermenting, while Being is always fresh, always new, it is nowness itself. (Diamond Heart Book 3, pg 185)

Being - as the play of light

The richness that is the world only appears when that world reflects its nature as Being, when it is transparent to its ground, its source, its truth. It is the bright, clear radiance of true nature that gives our life its power to delight us. How much more delighted our soul can be if she can see that radiance directly for what it is! From the deepest perspective of Being there is no external reality of events, activities, and people; there is no physical world: all of it is a play of light and color and delicacy. This is the dance of delight, the true unfolding of Being, and the adventure of discovery that inquiry makes possible to the soul. (Spacecruiser Inquiry, pg 433)

Unity of being

So Being is the nature, Essence, and substance of all physical objects, or mental objects, and all experienceable manifestations. It is the body, the feelings, the thoughts, the actions, the sounds, the sights, and the meanings. Being is everything. At this level of realization, we come also to perceive the unity of all manifestation. Since Being is an indivisible medium (not composed of parts), it follows that everything makes up the unity, a oneness. There is one existence, as opposed to two, or many. It is merely an infinite Presence that possesses a pattern. This pattern is everything we perceive, including all persons and objects. So everything is connected to everything; there exist no separate and autonomous objects or persons. (The Point of Existence, pg 406)

Being is a unity, implicitly complete and perfect. When we engage in ego activity to sustain and protect our sense of identity, this activity blocks the experience of Being. It specifically blocks the Diamond Will. Blocking any quality of Being constitutes a barrier to full realization, because Being is a unity and does not exist in isolated parts. (The Point of Existence, pg 270)

Being brilliancy

Usually there are only a few brilliant people around, and the rest of us are brilliant only occasionally. And the people that we consider brilliant have only a drop or two of Brilliancy in their heads. Imagine if we could take such a person and work with him or her and activate the Brilliancy to the extent that the whole body and the whole psyche is immersed in the ocean of Brilliancy. Do you have any idea what kind of being this individual would be? Do you know what kind of intelligence this person would have? This would be a person who is intelligent, who is brilliant, in all of the human capacities, in all areas of functioning. Brilliancy would not only be a quality of the mind, but this person would be Brilliancy, the embodiment of intelligence. This kind of experience can only happen to a realized being, for it is a spiritual experience. It is the experience of the brilliance of Being, the radiance of the Absolute Truth. (Essence of Intelligence, pg 34)