Value

Right, that’s what we're talking about: your existence itself. It is not valuable; it is value. It is the source of value; it is what makes anything else have value. We usually don’t let ourselves see that deeply. Value, value-as-such, is an aspect of Essence. It can be experienced as absolute value. Some of you here have experienced this. It is independent of what the mind says. My value is independent of what my superego or anybody else’s superego says. It is independent of what happens… So this is one of the ways we can experience Essence – as value itself. Value can exist without any object. I am value. That is how Essence manifests. All the qualities of Essence are fundamental on this level, just as truth, for Essence, is not truth about something, it exists as truth. (Diamond Heart Book 1, pg 84)

Value and loss of Essence

There is another more universal and general reason why we don’t value our Essence. We talk here about how much of your suffering, how much of your conditioning resulted from the lack of love in your environment. Your environment wasn’t supportive, wasn’t loving, did not respond to you appropriately according to your needs, did not see your value. That is true. But we don’t see the fundamental thing that happened. The fundamental thing that happened, and the greatest calamity, is not that there was no love or support. The greater calamity which was caused by the first calamity is that you lost the connection to your Essence. That is much more important than whether your mother or father loved you or not. You lost your own love because of that. (Diamond Heart Book 1, pg 125)

Value and the meaning of life

So looking for value is looking for oneself. People ask, “What is the meaning of life, what is the value of life?” The answer is not in words, as you see. When you see yourself as value, it becomes much easier to let the Essence really unfold, in its beauty, its majesty, its grandeur, with its pleasures and joys. You will see, when you experience value in yourself, that value is the ground, the basis, of what we call the Personal Essence, what is in you that is you. You are based, then, in value. Value is so definite, so palpable, that it has a color, and a taste, and a texture. (Diamond Heart Book 1, pg 86)