The Higher Self

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We begin to understand what is divine through our efforts to be present. Presence is consciousness. Since sustained or continuous presence is only achieved with effort, we eventually recognize that being present, being truly awake, is the rarest and highest of all experiences. It is an experience that can so easily be undervalued, but when experienced deeply enough shows us what is real and what is not real. Without presence we really have nothing except our physical energy and our possessions. With presence we have our self, our Higher Self.

The Higher Self is our real Self. It is our Divine Nature. It is the part in us that is immortal and survives death.

Our real Self emerges more definitely the more we are present, and the more deeply we are present. Over the centuries esoteric literature has described the experience of the Higher Self in a myriad of forms: the god Re in Egypt; the Buddhist state of nirvana; the Garden of Eden and the Sabbath of the Judeo-Christian tradition; the Third Eye of Zen; the Beloved in Sufi literature; and in more modern times Real I, as opposed to the many 'I's of our mechanical life.