Zigzag Idiot and the ladder of Objective Reason

[Zigzag Idiot]

Self Love

As it’s commonly used in contemporary times, Self Love is addressed as a positive thing. 
Maurice Nicoll like Gurdjieff, though, used the term self love as being synonymous with egotism. All of chapter 14 in Gems Of Wisdom is devoted to self love as it was used ordinarily back in the day,,, I really see no contradictions. These words are just being used with different usages. A different frame of reference perhaps between world of personality and world of essence or being.,,,,,maybe? Castenada’s use of the term self importance is very much in line with Gurdjieff’s and Nicoll’s use of self love.

I get a kick out of reading Nicoll. He’s a real hoot sometimes. Like In this first paragraph.

CHAPTER 14
SEEING SELF-LOVE AT WORK
A DESCRIPTION
“I well know as a medical psychologist the awkward point where I had to say to the patient: ‘Yes—I can see you have been badly treated, never appreciated, never properly understood. You have told me all that very clearly. But do you think that it is possible that you are not quite the ideal person that you seem to imagine yourself to be, and that there may be some quite serious faults in yourself?’ Now you can all imagine the haughty look, the frozen smile, the magnificent rising from the chair—and the slamming of the door—without, of course, the fee being paid. Yes—but what has happened. . . What has been touched? What would you call it? Whatever you call it, it is this factor that prevents self-change...If he sees for himself something of this factor in him, which is so formidable and the source of so much violence, then it is not aroused antagonistically. He sees himself: he begins to accept what he would never have accepted from another. It is in this way that the Work deals with this otherwise intractable fac- tor in Man.” V. 3, pp. 1165-1166
PRIDE AND VANITY
“You must study Pride and Vanity in yourselves and all their different gradations. Do you know your own forms of Vanity and how much they occupy you? Do you know where your Pride lies? Where do you feel that you love yourself, that you admire yourself? Where do you most feel that you are utterly different from other people? Where are you most conceited? What do you boast about? What are you silent about? Vanity is frequently very talkative, whereas Pride is silent. Which is the deeper wound, wounded Vanity or wounded Pride? What is it you cannot forgive? You know that if you cannot forgive it is because of some form of self-love which, ideally speaking, has to be smashed out of you.” V. 1, p. 360
SELF-LOVE
“One can feel very startled when one realizes that it is alwa this thing called oneself that is being comforted, exalted, tittilated, soothed, flat-
70

tered, satisfied, and that when it is not, it begins to whimper like a baby. And it is always this odd restless thing that is being offended, upset, negative, indignant, downcast. Cast down from what? From its centrepoint of self-love.” V. 2, p. 472
SELF-LOVE II
“Ask yourself sometimes: ‘Why am I doing this?’ or ‘Why am I say- ing this?’ or ‘Why am I behaving in this way?’ or ‘Why am I writing this?’ Whatever imaginary robes of self-righteousness we clothe our- selves in, these questions tend to undress us again...When we have gone more deeply into self-observation and self-knowledge, we simply have to give up a lot of the manifestations of the self-love, disguised as something genuine.” V. 2, p. 476
SELF-LOVE III
“No one can possibly act beyond some degree of ‘self-love’—that is, beyond self-interest, self-feeling, self-esteem, self-admiration, self-delight, self-praise, self-seeking, and so on...I t is difficult to catch even a glimpse of the forest of self-love and all its pseudo-creations. How- ever, if one does, it is a very startling experience. It is a real shock, like the realization of mechanicalness. It creates a sense of being under- mined, an empty feeling...When you feel you have been betrayed by a friend you feel undermined. But to feel you have been betrayed by yourself is worse.” V. 2, p. 471-2
SELF-LOVE IV
“One can hate its falsities. But what do we find? We find it seems impossible to get rid of it. We seem fastened to it. We react to its influences continually. It has so many tricks, so many pretenses and deceptions, that we simply cannot deal with it. We are just too late. But new emotions can catch it in time. You remember that the speed of emotions is greater than that of thoughts. In short, we cannot deal with it without the help of something else. . . The object of all real esotericism is connect Man with the Will of God and to break him from his own self-will.” V. 2, pp. 472, 479
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SELF-LOVE V
“The life of self-love is death...The self-love always regards itself. It cannot look up...Self-love is not cognitive. It lays down no memory for ‘next time.’ It makes darkness, not light...You can cease to do this only by observing little by little, what you are really like.”
V. 5, pp. 1638-9
SELF-LOVE VI
“You cannot get to certain emotions that come from beyond the zone of self-love, if you take yourself as one... Something else in you, apart from the self-love, has to see the truth of such ideas. And if there were no emotions possible beyond those belonging to the self-love this would not be possible and so no development would be possible. It is upon the appearance of these other and new emotions and their gradual strengthening, that development depends, and this is when being changes.” V. 2, p. 474
LAUGHING AT ONESELF
“Now one way to attack the self-love is through self-observation.
. . . It is wonderful to catch a glimpse of your self-love and be able to laugh at it. One loses the former highly-explosive over-sensitive feeling of ‘I’ more and more. That means more balance. That means becoming softer.” V. 5, p. 1604
ENDURING DEVALUATION
“It would be impossible to catch a glimpse of one’s level of Being unless one could endure it. Now the only way you can endure it is by having something else you can hold onto. If you have something else that you value and that you can hold on to and trust, you can then endure a certain amount of devaluation of yourself.” V. 2, p.509
ENDURING DEVALUATION II
“When you begin to feel your own nothingness you begin to receive the help of the Work to replace that nothingness by something. So you have to go down a long way before you begin to go up.”
V. 3, p. 878
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A CHANGE OF STATE
“You cannot change your inner state if you cling to what you are based on, just as you cannot leave your room if you persist in clinging to all the articles of furniture in it...The feeling of Real ‘I’ can only come to you when all such false ‘I’s are diminished in you. All of you may think that you never speak like that man (in the Gospels) who prayed: ‘Thank God I am not as other men,’ but have you actually observed how often you do enact this without actually saying it, how often you act from this basis?” V. 1, p. 344
TWO KINDS OF ‘SELF’
“We know that all these different divergent elements in us can be fused into a unity, which means that our present level of being in the total Scale of Being from a stone up to Divine Being is far lower than it was made to be; and this we need to feel at all times. Why? It helps us to undermine self-complacency, self-righteousness, and self-merit, self-applause, and all this tedious self stuff, except Self-Remembering. It is Self-Remembering. The Self you try to remember is above yourself. It is there: and you need always to feel so, for that lets in a certain influx of interior light, which self-emotions shut out.”
V. 4, p. 1495

[Zigzag Idiot]

Fried a skillet full of deer meat today. It turned out pretty good.

I didn’t consult the Oracle until late in the day.

Hexagram 8 - Holding Together 

changing lines 1&3 producing a 2nd hexagram - After Completion

Insightful commentary. I’ll try to upload it shortly. My attachments space is full up and I need to make some room.

 

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

The I CHING commentary I mentioned just above-

 

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

I walk several paths. Right hand, left hand, sometimes the middle way,,,, sometimes the Fourth Way

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-hand_path_and_right-hand_path

I don’t believe in the existence of an all evil being, like Satan aka the Devil. The human ego is the devil.

[fridjonk]

8 hours ago, Zigzag Idiot said:

Fried a skillet full of deer meat today. It turned out pretty good.

 

Always wanted to taste deer meat. Only had reindeer meat, which turns out to be my favorite. Do you know if they're any similar in taste? 

[Zigzag Idiot]

3 hours ago, fridjonk said:

Always wanted to taste deer meat. Only had reindeer meat, which turns out to be my favorite. Do you know if they're any similar in taste? 

I’ve never tasted reindeer so I googled it. Seems to be a toss up beyond the variables of - time of year,age,  diet and condition of animal and stress during death. It sounds like white tail deer are prone to having a more gamey taste. But as you probably know, there are remedies for that. Like letting the cuts soak in milk over night before frying.

[Zigzag Idiot]

 

 

I’m still a work in progress. Purification of the emotional center certainly doesn’t happen overnight.

Have you ever caught yourself in the midst of a negative emotion and expression but we’re somehow by an inner recognition bring it to a stop and reversal. Not easy for sure. It’s a big accomplishment. I’ve noticed on the rare occurrences I’m able to manifest this experience soon follows an inner quiet and what seems like a subtle bump of energy.

If I don’t manage this and continue to complain and piss and moan, my energy spirals down rather quickly as a rule.

Have you ever busted yourself enjoying some form of negativity such as juicy gossip about a friend or family member?Perhaps even feeling that inner dirtiness that’s comes with it?

More Maurice Nicoll-

TRANSFORMATION OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
“The observation of our negative states and the separation from them is one of the most important sides of practical work. The transforma- tion of negative emotions belongs to the Second Conscious Shock and here the whole Work comes in and the whole evaluation of it. You may be negative but you must feel that it is not you that is negative but It. This is the beginning of inner separation, of not identifying with negative states, of not identifying with oneself.” V. 2, p. 530
OBSERVING NEGATIVE ‘I’S
“In the Work, the enjoyment of negative states must be observed sincerely, especially the secret enjoyment of them. The reason is that if a man enjoys being negative, in whatever forms, and they are legion, he can never separate from them. You cannot separate yourself from what you have a secret affection for.” V. 1, p. 214
WATCHING REACTIONS
“Once you have realized that this reaction of yours is quite typical, and you have always had complaints in exactly the same way, it will give you a shock. It will startle you. You will see that it is this complaining itself that you have to notice in yourself and not what you imagine causes it. Next time that these complaining ‘I’s begin to resume their customary activity, the shock that you had may just be able to give you the emotional force to observe them before they start using your mouth, in your name. You will have the shock of remem- bering yourself.” V. 2, p. 449

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

Transferences

The need to be seen,,,, 

The personhood or ego self can’t help but have narcissistic tendencies.

Interesting excerpts from AH Almaas glossary

 

A Way of Exposing the Emptiness of One's Sense of Self

The narcissistic transferences are present for everyone all the time, but are usually in the background. In our work they come into the foreground, and become the focus of the work when the emptiness of the normal self-identity becomes increasingly obvious. Working with the narcissistic transferences is the primary psychodynamic work on the narcissistic sector of the self. Working with these transferences is a way of exposing the emptiness of one’s sense of self, especially for students with significant narcissistic personality components. Awareness of narcissistic transference as transference again will bring out the sense of meaninglessness. Three factors elicit narcissistic emptiness and meaninglessness: first, the normal process of maturation in which one outgrows defensive aspects of the identity; second, the pressure of doing spiritual work and experiencing essential presence, which tends to expose the relative unreality of the level of personality identifications; and third, working with the narcissistic transferences, that is, bringing to consciousness the object relations that have been supporting the more superficial sense of self and helping one to avoid the sense of emptiness. These narcissistic transferences are very powerful; they are not easy to work through. However, it is necessary to work through them in order to expose the support for the superficial identity, as well as to deal with the defenses against emptiness, helplessness, and aloneness. These defenses prevent our openness to the realization of our true essential nature. 

The Point of Existence, pg. 229

 

Transforming the Self-Identity Structure

This process of self-realization naturally applies pressure on the conventional sense of identity. Issues arise which affect the central narcissistic structure, that of self-identity. The transformation of narcissism consists largely of the transformation of this structure, leading to the realization of the Essential Identity. The increasing pressure on the structure of self-identity exposes its underlying vulnerability and shakiness. The student attempts to find ways to shore up his sense of identity, but can no longer turn so easily to idealization; he has seen through it. So he turns to mirroring self-objects to help him preserve the integrity and cohesion of his capacity for self-recognition. This manifests as the need for mirroring, particularly in the mirror transference onto the teacher. Investigating this narcissistic transference in depth leads us to a thorough understanding of the sense of identity and its underlying structure. We become increasingly aware of the properties of the self-identity, which we have up to now taken for granted to be part of who we really are. This awareness begins to transform the self-identity, making it more flexible and realistic. So this structure becomes less and less opaque, until it is transparent enough to reveal the essential identity. This is the central process of the transformation of narcissism, which begins by observing and understanding the need to be seen and mirrored.

The Point of Existence, pg. 277

 

When One's Relationship With Others Becomes More Markedly Narcissistic

As the emptiness of the shell approaches conscious awareness, one's relationships to others become more markedly narcissistic. Kohut called the narcissistic object relations narcissistic transferences (he later named them self-object transferences), referring especially to those seen in the clinical situation with the analyst. The narcissistic transferences generally function to shore up the sense of identity, to make that sense of identity feel supported. In our work these transferences arise in the student's relationship to her teacher. 

The Point of Existence, pg. 229

These last 2 quote adds to my theory that the majority of Actualizers at some point go through a Zen devil phase. It kind of has that smell. I’ve pondered on this over time,,,,Anyone have thoughts on this notion?

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

From Time to Time
by Dr. Jim Rosen
©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen
 

    If you could relive just one day of your life, which day would it be?  You get to pick the day, and you decide how to relive it.  You can keep it as it was then, or you can go back and make a few changes in your own actions.  So what would it be for you?  Would you like to share that special day of love with the love you lost?  Would you go to an earlier period when you were much younger and free from present responsibilities?  Would you like to go back in time and repair a day of regret, a day that stuck in the back of your mind for all these years?  After you decide, I'd like you to examine your choice.  Look at the particular day you picked.  What does it say about who you are and what your longings are?  What does it indicate about the mistakes you don't want to repeat?  What does it show you about what's really important to you?  What does it suggest about the path you have chosen?

[Zigzag Idiot]

We’re two natured beings. Part animal and part angel. Neither one being complete. In the beginning when we think we know we need to recognize that we’re upside down and the certainty of our views need to be reassessed.

We become completed beings through solar coating. Our own conscious efforts. 
We can become wise through lunar coating but to become Self Realized we must undergo through our own conscious efforts, solar coating. Solar Coating polishes off the angelic part of us. In becoming right side up the ego is metabolized by essence with the angel at the helm. Essential realization is just one of many phenomena that’s possible. If you start crying that’s fairly normal. Along with a recognition of a new vividness in perception.
 

When "Normal" Traits are Narcissistic Phenomena

Everyone knows that he has some measure of selfishness, self-reference, a need to be seen and appreciated, a deep wish for esteem and admiration from others, and some distortion in his self-concepts. Although we are accustomed to thinking of these traits as normal, they are in fact narcissistic phenomena. They are universal to all non-realized individuals, reflecting the fundamental narcissism that is the result of not knowing oneself at a deep level. This is what we call the “narcissism of every day life” or “fundamental narcissism.” 

The Point of Existence, pg. 26

 

Requirement for the Resolution of Fundamental Narcissism

The issues of basic trust and the surrender that it engenders are not specific to the work on narcissism. However, some resolution of these issues is necessary for the surrender involved in slowing down and ceasing ego activity. The realization of this quality of love, which we call Living Daylight or Loving Light, resolves these issues. The presence of the Living Daylight helps us to let go of the empty shell, to allow the narcissistic wound and accept the narcissistic emptiness. This boundless, loving presence makes it easier for the self to relax and cease activity. One also comes to understand that it is this love which actually acts, and not the self. It is the melting action of this love that finally dissolves the ego activity. Our discussion of the quality of Living Daylight is necessarily short, but it illuminates the deep dynamics underlying the activity which perpetuates the identity structure. We can see why the resolution of fundamental narcissism can come about only with a deep spiritual orientation. Realization requires a fundamental surrender of the self.

The Point of Existence, pg. 344

 

Perpetuation of Narcissism

Our discussion and critique of the views of the self and narcissism in the theories of Kohut and other psychologists has established the following:
1. Viewing the depth of the self as primarily emotional fixates the self on a partial manifestation of its nature, and hence, perpetuates narcissism.
2. Identifying the self with the body also fixates the self on a partial manifestation of it, which both causes and is the outcome of fundamental narcissism.
3. Ego activity, which is the dynamic property of the center of the ego-self, perpetuates the disconnection of the self from the deeper truth of its Being, and hence, both causes and is caused by fundamental narcissism.
4. Identification with mental representations, or a psychic structure patterned by such representations, is the most fundamental cause of narcissistic disturbance.
5. Fundamental narcissism, the specific and most central manifestation of the disconnection from the essential core of the self, the presence of Being, underlies all other forms of narcissism.
6. Pathological narcissism is a distortion or an exaggeration of fundamental narcissism.
7. Fundamental narcissism is an intrinsic property of the ego-self, which is the self as experienced in the dimension of conventional experience.

The Point of Existence, pg. 90

 

Characteristics of Fundamental Narcissism

At all times, however, the characteristics of fundamental narcissism, the alienation from the core of the self, can be seen to underlie all these manifestations. The need for idealized and mirroring self-objects, exaggerated self-reference and entitlement, grandiosity, propensity towards slights and hurts, superficiality and fakeness, and the tendency towards narcissistic rage and devaluation, will always be discernable whenever she is dealing with narcissism.

The Point of Existence, pg. 360

If I didn’t write something shocking in the beginning, very useful information would be overlooked. By many, it probably is anyway.

[Zigzag Idiot]

 

I’m glad I don’t have to do this anymore. 

[Zigzag Idiot]

I just love this guy. What an intellect as well as an original thinker!
Back in the mid 1990’s I had a 30 minute vhs tape of him laying out his theory about 2012 and the transcendental object at the end of time. I had no idea about his extensive knowledge until years later. Being exposed to many of his edited short YouTube’s definitely furthered my appreciation. His ability to speak of the cuff about a wide range topics is also impressive as well.

[Zigzag Idiot]

I get on my own nerves sometimes. It feels like an in between state of identification once it gets observed.  I believe it’s that side of me that stays in the blind spot. It’s the annoying part of me that other people have to endure. Awareness is curative applies here as well. Very much so. As two natured beings we stand between two realities. 

Some applicable Maurice Nicoll quotes-

TWO REALITIES
“We stand between two realities, one given by the senses and the other given by our relationship to Higher Centres. One is external and the other is internal and, I would add, eternal. It has often been said that this Work is to prepare the lower centres for the reception of Higher Centres.” V. 4, p. 1322

CLEANING THE MACHINE
“The first stages of the Work are sometimes called ‘cleaning the machine.’ . . . The Work tells you more about what not to do than about what to do. Now people often ask: ‘What am I to do?’ On that side the Work says only two definite things: ‘Remember yourself’ and ‘Observe or notice yourself.’ That is what you must try to do. But on the other side the Work says many things about what not to do. It says, for example, that you must try to struggle against being identi- fied, try to struggle with mechanicalness, with mechanical and wrong talking, with every kind of internal considering, with every kind of self-justifying, with all the different pictures of yourself, with your special forms of imagination, with mechanical disliking, with all va- rieties of your self-pity and self-esteem, with your jealousy, with your hatreds, with your vanity, your inner falseness, with your lying, with your self-conceit, with your attitudes, prejudices, and so on.”
V. 1, pp. 160-1

INNER STABILITY
“Other feelings of oneself are possible that are not derived from life and personality, and these feelings give a man a sense of stability that nothing outside him can take away. And it is from these feelings that a man begins to feel himself free, because they depend on nothing outside him...Personality, roughly speaking, lives by comparison with others...Real ‘I’ does not exist through comparison.” V. 1, pp. 274-5
INNER STABILITY II
“We have to make something very strong in ourselves by the help of the Work little by little so that we can withstand the shifting scene, moments of happiness followed by moments of depression, moments of hope followed by moments of despair, in order that we may have a centre of gravity within ourselves . . . a certain point of consciousness that is invulnerable. This is the beginning of the birth of Real I in you which is not influenced by outer circumstances. One then works the other way round—that is, the machine formerly driven by outer events is now worked from within—from what is higher than life.” V. 4, p. 1343

WEAKENING THE HOLD OF PERSONALITY
“Now the realization of one’s mechanicalness and the realization of one’s ignorance—for all knowledge leads into mystery—are necessary for any transformation of oneself to take place. Why? Because they weaken the hold of the acquired Personality.” V. 3, p. 1051

ADDING VERSUS TAKING AWAY
“The first step in the Work is to begin to free oneself from oneself. This Work is not adding something to oneself but taking away from oneself and it is only what is useless to one’s development that the Work seeks to take away.” V. 2, p. 425
THE POSSIBILITY OF ESCAPE
“It is a marvelous thing to find you can move in new directions inter- nally and escape from this spurious invention of yourself. Just say to yourself: ‘Why am I always like this? Why do I always feel this? Why, in short, am I always the same fixed person?’ ” V. 3, p. 983
THE TRAJECTORY OF WORK
“The increasing feeling of the Work as stronger than life and all its ups and downs and swinging to and fro between the opposites brings about a state of Self-Remembering that is not due to chance nor is merely a fleeting experience. But for a very long time we mix the Work with our associations, with the machine of personality, which
is driven by life and reacts to it mechanically. And this is inevitable because only a gradual separation is possible. A person cannot be torn away suddenly from personality. It would destroy him. So even though we try to work, we identify with the reactions of personality.” V. 1, p. 332
THE TRAJECTORY OF WORK II
“You may be sure that once your evaluation of the Work is strong enough and you hear it enough and reflect upon it enough, you will see gradually unfolding the mystery of your own development. This mystery is different in each person. That is why it is so important not to compare yourself with other people. A great deal of negative emotion arises from comparison. Remember always that the Work is equally difficult for everyone and that it does not become easier. It is always difficult. And yet it is not too difficult if one will remember enough and maintain a certain inner strength of will in regard to it.” V. 3, p. 959
 

 

 

[Preety_India]

 

 

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

#3“You only have freedom when you realize you have no freedom or free will”.,,,,

#4 Are you identified? Which means are you judging yourself? ,,,,

 

[Zigzag Idiot]

I just finished redoing my profile. I forget about the thing and hardly ever go there. Took out some Fourth Way links but added a little commentary and links to Maurice Nicoll and Almaas Glossary along with a quote. Speaking of which,,, I almost posted this one in the forum just now but thought better. 

The Simple Recognition that You Can’t do Anything

If we read about the lives of enlightened masters or mystics, we see that often their enlightenment or realization happens when they hit bottom, when they get to the point of being completely helpless and hopeless and incapable. They throw in the towel and completely and truly give up. You can’t fake this; it really has to happen. You have to exhaust all your capacities and truly give up, not out of cynicism or despair but out of the simple recognition that you can’t do anything. When this truly happens, satori is possible and awakening can erupt as true nature manifests with its blazing light. True nature wakes up by revealing to itself the delusion that it is this little self that is trying to practice and get somewhere. And when it sees this, it does not put its energy into the functioning of that little self. It doesn’t put its intelligence and its will into the action of that little self, because that little self can impede the whole process of true nature awakening to itself. It’s not that the little self has the independent power to impede awakening, but because true nature still hasn’t woken up to itself, it is putting all its power into the activity of the little self. So when the little self feels that it can’t do anything, that it is poor in capacity, it is in fact recognizing the power of true nature.

The Alchemy of Freedom, pg. 94

Yesterday I was thinking that there could easily be different usages for awakening as there are different usages for ego. The way @Leo Gura uses the term awakening seems slightly different than how it’s used in esoteric Christianity. Not implying that one way is more right than the other. Each has its validity. Just a half baked thought,,,,

Edited March 14, 2021 by Zigzag Idiot
Typo

[Zigzag Idiot]

You Don't Need Guilt
by Dr. Jim Rosen
©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen
 

    Guilt doesn’t come out of the sky and grab you.  It is something you put on yourself, like a heavy coat you really don’t want to wear anymore.  Guilt is a belief – a very false belief.  It’s a way of telling yourself that you are bad to the core and therefore unable to change.  Guilt doesn’t fix any of your problems.  In fact, it makes you hang onto them.  It ties your hands and binds you and puts you in a state of mind where you can’t change.  Remember, you’ve told yourself that your doings make you a bad person, and you can’t erase them and make yourself a good person.

    You can trade it in.  You can exchange guilt for a healthy dose of responsibility.  Taking responsibility is entirely different than taking on guilt.  When you take personal responsibility, you are looking in the mirror and saying, “OK.  These thoughts, these behaviors, these emotions are mine.  I make them and it’s up to me to change them.”  It’s not blame; it’s not guilt.  It is looking honestly at your own choices and your ability to make new and different choices.  This is a prescription for learning and growing and healing.  Now the heavy coat is off, no longer weighing you down.

[Zigzag Idiot]

Putting it in my own words. In the Ridhwan School this is how reality is framed, so to speak.One is not their thoughts, feelings, or the physical body. The soul is a field of impressionability. This field is One’s presence or Being and some would say the understanding data that’s in our Causal body that gives each individual their uniqueness. We’re a mixture of energies that adds up to our individual vibration number. 
Being has you could say has different flavors or aspects. Aspects of being or Essence and different qualities and mixtures thereof accounts for each souls uniqueness. Different aspects of essence could be strength, joy, compassion, will, brilliance and so on. I haven’t heard of an exact number of essential aspects but I imagine that there is a limited number. As I just mentioned, brilliance is an aspect that’s related to intelligence. 
When we become integrated,the twistedness of the ego becomes/matures into one’s unique personal essence, This is the station of what some call the Pearl beyond Price. 
I don’t speak on behalf of the Ridhwan School. Everything written above is mostly my paraphrasing. So for those who are reading this please take with a grain of salt.

@seeking_brilliance, because of your screen name, I’ve had in mind for a while now to send you some excerpts that’s related specifically to the essential aspect of brilliance. I didn’t want to come off as trying to proselytize this path so instead of sending them to you in one of your journals I thought I would just create this post in my own journal. That’s what this post started out as but to begin with I thought it necessary to give a little preamble before sharing the excerpts.

So after all that, here they are.

 

Brilliance of Being

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.

Brilliancy, pg. 34

 

The Self-Existing, Unified Synthesis of All Essential Aspects

Brilliancy is different from all other essential aspects in that it is a self‑existing, unified synthesis of all essential aspects. When you experience Brilliancy, you feel complete in the sense that all essential aspects are present but are not differentiated. So Brilliancy is the nondifferentiated essential aspect. We can say that it is the source out of which all essential aspects differentiate. That is why in the past I used to call Brilliancy the Essence-of-the-Essence. Its very presence has all the qualities of Essence implicit in it: Strength, Compassion, Love, Clarity, and so on. All of them are there, but completely synthesized as one presence.

Brilliancy, pg. 31

Almaas wrote a whole book about Brilliance titled naturally Brilliancy. Actually it’s not one of my favorite books of Almaas’ but Ithought I’d mention it. If readers happen to be interested in more excerpts about Brilliance I’ll leave a link down below.

https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/brilliancy

[seeking_brilliance]

@Zigzag Idiot wow thanks! Very much appreciated. I am waiting for the right time to really sit and digest this. Thank you for thinking of me ? could you remind me in a week or two, just for good measure? ?

Edited March 16, 2021 by seeking_brilliance