Potential

As the soul unfolds her potential she changes not by disposing of the old forms, but by integrating them into a more complex organization, in which more elements and levels are integrated into a functional whole. As forms emerge and develop they subsume the previous ones, creating a more complex organism. This process happens in all the sectors and manifestations of the soul. Mental development is a clear example of the appearance of increasingly complex forms. At first we are capable of perception, then recognition, then we can use images and symbols, then concepts, then complex thought. This again points to a basic property of the soul, a property implicit in its unfolding dynamism that we can understand and experience explicitly: the property of growth. (Inner Journey Home, pg 109)

When we finally experience potentiality directly and fully, we understand our soul, and our potential, in a completely new way, an unexpected and wonderful way. We learn something fundamental about soul, something we cannot see by knowing of our potential inferentially or intuitively. The experience here is of the conscious presence characterized by potentiality. The presence is the presence of potential. Just as potential knowledge is the presence of pure knowledge, potential is the presence of pure potential, as a category on its own, as a fundamental quality that we experience here explicitly and directly. We experience ourselves as pure potentiality. We do not experience ourselves as having potential; we experience ourselves as potential. We are the potential for all experience, all perception, all knowledge, all qualities, all capacities, all functions, all processes, and all developments. In this experience we do not surmise that we are potential; we know we are potential by being potential. Our presence is the presence of potentiality. Here, presence and potential are the same thing. This shows that when we recognize that a particular individual has a great deal of potential, we are actually recognizing that person’s soul, seeing its potentiality. (Inner Journey Home, pg 70)

The soul grows as she unfolds, actualizing her emerging potential. The soul does not stay the same. She is not primordially complete and mature, and hence she can have phases and stages of development. She can be primitive or advanced, simply organized or highly integrated, immature or adult and seasoned. She can be infantile, young, or ancient. She can be arrested in her development, underdeveloped, undeveloped, quite developed, or complete. All these are characteristics that apply to the soul, but not to Essence. For the presence of pure consciousness, these qualities do not make sense (Inner Journey Home, pg 111)