The other famous answer to this question is often in religious or spiritual terms, such as ‘I am a child of God’, or’my true nature (or identity) is spiritual’.  In other words, we are not really of this world; our real self or the true identity is something transcendent.  The literal meaning of the word, transcendent, by the way, means ‘beyond knowledge and experience’. So instead of being a businessman or a married woman or someone who loves movies, we are linked to some part or aspect of the Absolute, however we may choose to define or call this transcendent agency.
 

There is a third understanding or ‘answer’ to this great question, and this is the one that I believe is a vital and important one - even if you have a fixed belief in one of the two forms above. This involves the process or skill of observing different aspects one’s mind and behavior.  It is not an answer in the form of a socially constructed identity, nor is it an answer clothed in anything universal or Absolute.  In fact, there is no specific answer as such.  This is the way of Self-knowledge.

It involves the ability to come to terms, notice and realize at last three aspects of the self:
 1) the realization of a transcendent part of the mind

 2) the identification of functional aspects of the identity and behavior

 3) the uncovering of dysfunctional aspects of the mind and behavior
 

After reading this, you may actually realize that you do observe these within yourself, and the reply to this is absolutely true.  Everyone has some degree of self-knowledge in this ‘third form’.  The art of self-knowledge, though, involves - cultivating - the understanding and recognition of these three.  This takes a certian amount of training and dedication.  In ancient Greece, it was considered the art of ‘philosophy’ or the literal, love of wisdom.  To know the self according to the great philosopher Socrates, involves ‘examination’. 

This examination involves the art of observing all aspects of the self: the transcendent, the functional and the dysfunctional.  When one has the capacity to identify and recognize what causes all of these three aspects of the self, one lives ‘the good life’. 

You will find that when the art of self-observation is learned, one will discover deeper spaces of the mind, known as meditation.  These will propel the discovery of deeper Qualities, such as freedom, authenticity, autonomy, order and love which is the cause of the second aspect, which is social functioning and competence. 

Finally, you will be able to look at the more dysfunctional aspects of behavior more clearly, and see it for the way it is, instead of blaming self and world, leading to the typical distortions of everyday life.  All are part of the process of Self-knowledge, the way of discovering who one really is. 

One of the beginning methods to engage the third way of Self-knowledge is to learn to “be in the present”.  This way, one looks at all three of these aspects of experience: the transcendent, the functional and the dysfunctional.   You do this by contacting four sensory zones: sight, sound, touch and balance (of the body in space).  When you contact these four areas, you can easily see your experience clearly, for you are looking more closely.  Secondly, you can begin to observe the mind more clearly, because the engagement of “hearing” - or the listening to sounds - is transferred to thinking.  Thinking is the “hearing” of the thoughts in our head.  When we listen more closely to our thoughts, we can see how the manner in which we classify our experience causes many of the problems in our living.  This is Self-knowledge; you are learning about your self by discovering underlying causes. 

We may not destroy or eliminate all aspects of dysfunctional behavior, but we can learn to look at these patterns more clearly, and with this clarity, not allow them to rule over our behavior.  Secondly, we will still retain cultural wisdom or functioning in the world.  The more we look and slowly transcend much of our inappropriate patterning (from childhood conditioning), we actuall learn to be more functional in the world.  This is what is behind much of our popular personal growth strategy. 

However, without the third form or path, the path of Self-knowlege, we will never uncover our real nature, which is contained within the depth of our being.  This can only be accessed when we not only transcend dysfunctional or inappropriate patterns, but also our functional ego conditions (with their appropriate functioning) and look at what we see when there is no social or personal patterning at all.   If we are too attached to our functioning (feeling good about all the positive aspects of our life), we will not uncover more deeper areas of the mind, which are beyond ego.

The transcendant aspect of our self is utterly transparent, but not literally divorced from human experience.  We transcend in order to include or involve ourself in the world.  We can function better in the world when we can feel a deep “letting go”, because more problems occur through “hyper-involvement”.  But this must be done with the Transcendent aspect of ourself, which can only be accessed through the right form of Self-knowledge.   

    William Edwards 
    Author and trainer
    www.wisdomskill.com
    wisdomskill@gmail.com

Let’s give an example of the Real Self and the ordinary or conventional self.  Let us take the conventional self 
first.  If I were a tennis player and won three straight sets, then I would base my identity upon this match or my performance.  I may think to myself, ‘I shot a good game today’, or even ‘I am a good tennis player’.  Notice that it is a constructed self-image. It is an internal construction, based upon a personal conclusion of how I think I played in this particular sport. Now, let us look at an idea of what could be the Real Self.
 

The Real Self is not based upon a personal conclusion or an internally constructed self-image.  It is actually
beyond our normal thinking and feeling processes or functions.  What could this be?  The Real Self depends upon contact with a deeper part of the mind that is beyond our normal thoughts and feelings that are forever processing our relationship to the world, or the various social processes.  It is the depth of the mind that witnesses these things.  However, there must be some aspect of the self that is more worldly, or is contacting specific social areas we are engaging.  Let us explain how this works.
 

This Witness or the Space beyond our thoughts and feelings, along with our essential Existence or what some
philosophers call our essential ‘Being’, will form one or more Qualities that enable us to act appropriately in the world.  There are many of these Qualities: joy, love, dexterity, clarity and purity are some of them.  When a person contacts their Real Self, they not only realize or tune into the transcendent portion of the mind, but with the assistance of their innate Being, they form or ‘produce’ universal Qualities that not only optimize our functioning, but actually ‘feel’ like a part of
 who we really are. 

So, in the example above, the constructed, conventional identity involve the different images, feelings and thoughts around myself winning the tennis game.  The Real Self, however, is experienced as the deeper portion of the mind, together with different Qualities, such as Energy, Joy and Dexterity - held together by Being, or Pure Existence.   In other words, I am not just a tennis player or a winner of a game, but I am the deeper Qualities that involve the higher functioning of the game, itself.   I feel the joy of the tennis game: or I am joy.  I feel or experience the dexterity of the tennis match; therefore, a deeper part of me is dexterity and so on.
 

The conventional self or socially constructed Identity is not, literally, wrong or false, as long as it is does
does not contain emotions or opinions that are not objective.  To realize that I won the tennis game is true and this is how this can be communicated or understood in conventional terms.  It is silly to try to forget this or ignore it.  On a practical level, I won the game.  On the other hand, if I were to think that I am the greatest tennis player in the world, just because I won this game would be a false identity.  However, the ‘Real’ Identity is something that is deeper and valuable because it is not based upon a changeable, self-image or personal conclusion, but upon the realization of a vital aspect of living intelligence. 

The way that we can construct the Real Self is the through different trainings which develop or transform our basic structures of experience, or what the ancients referred to as the “faculties”.  Normally, we use them in ways that are not conductive to higher development, and thus, we contact our conventional identities, which are usually superficial and some times even false.  Throught the exercising of our newly developed structures of experience, such as our instincts, attention, volition and so forth, we can the deeper part of our self, or our Essential Identity. 

When the trainings have been implimented, we can discover more of who we really are, instead of only constructed social identities.  These have practical use, but do not at who we really are.  Our attachment to them is what causes the constant ups and downs of life, that reveal nothing more than emotional instability.  When we have the courage to look with more honesty, we will realize that we hold on to these identities for fear of our own emptiness.

There is nothing to fear when we look at our own minds and emotions; we may temporarily find ‘nothing’, but this is an aspect of who we really are.  Our own pure consciousness reveals an empty nature, which not only is very interesting but full of peace and the originator of many other wonderful qualities, that are not so easily accessed through the conventional ego and personality.
      
     
William Edwards
Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom
www.wisdomskill.com  wisdomskill@gmail.com
     

The problem is that thought is often very subjective.  In other words, the way we think is often corrupted or polluted by our personal and subjective agendas.  For example, we can think that we need a new car and then apply our thought process to anticipate the cost and other criteria that not only involve the purchase, but how this would effect our lifestyle. 

However, other subjective factors often enter our thinking process, which have the effect of complicating our minds, rendering the whole process confusing and conflicting.  In the above example, we begin to think about status, worries about what the neighbor thinks and other types of matters that have little to do with what is actually needed to buy a car (on a practical level). 

 What happens when we attempt to suspend thought?  Of course, we need to think constructively; however, we do not normally see that there is a hidden treasure of Wisdom which is beyond thought that truly understands our own experience.  Partially, this inherent belief in thought stems from our prejudice that only conceptualization brings understanding.  We believe that if we stop thought, it would make us dump or stupid.  Just the opposite, actually. 

 Why would the absence of thought bring any understanding?  There are at least two answers to this. 

First of all, finding the Space between thoughts brings us to a deeper area of the mind that is detached.  When we can be detached, be can see things more clearly. 

Secondly, and this may seem hard to fathom, but this deeper area of the mind is Wise.  It is as if there is a wise man or woman underneath all the thinking that we normally do.  It is not that our normal thinking is wrong or impractical.  It is just that we often do not know what to do, how to interpret our experience clearly, or where we are going. This deeper and detached aspect of the mind can not only understand experience better, but work with the functioning intellect to establish clear perception and decision making. 

 We need thought, but we need the absence of thought to truly understand experience. To encounter this treasure trove of understanding we need to learn how to temporarily side-step our normal ways of thinking, and this takes a specific training.

What we will discover is that through this inherent Space of the mind that transcends thought, we can discover deeper Qualities that are inherently wise and intelligent, such as Automomy, Clarity, Freedom, Order and Love.  These are easily assimilated and realized when we enter the inner Space and temporarily suspend (not eliminate) the many ideas that are often running in our heads in an almost compelling and mechanical manner. 

This internal material will be seen, though this intelligent Space of the mind, as narcissistic, subjective and not real.  Thought can be linked to undersatnding only when it is purged of subjectivity; then thought can be linked to Understanding.  This is the origin of the Greek philosophical notion of ”Reason”.   The opposite of this is “opinion”, which  does not just refer to our common understanding of the word, which implies a kind of non-professional attempt at solving some sort of dilemma, but to the way we normally think, which is highly personal and subjective. 

Most of our thinking is influenced by emotion, and this emotion refers to aspects of our self and mind which relates to our own image and worth.  This often renders our conclusions, assumptions and positions non-objective or without Reason. The manner is which we transform this is not through repression or trying to eliminate emotion through the idealization of Pure Intellect, but through the process of Self-Observation.

Self-observation is the means by which we can look squarely at our feelings and how they not only pertain to narcissistic perceptions and thus, distortions of self-and world, but how they connect and form our normal thinking and conclusions.  By learning to doubt what we think and feel and adopting an “experimental” approach to our mind, we can realize how much we base our conclusions on feelings which are unfounded.   For example, we “think” this person is ridiculous, but when we enquire into our minds, we realize that she just hurt our feelings, which prompted me to label her as such.  

Whenever there is lack of internal objectivity, we tend to distort self and world.  This brings mis-understanding and leads to all the conflicts, confusions and complications of our daily lives. 

   William Edwards

   Author, Trainer
   

   www.wisdomskill.com

   wisdomskill@gmail.com

 The other definition of illusion is philosophical; may people believe that what we see in our life is an illusion; that if reach some spiritual state or condition, we will finally understand that what is out there in the world, is really not there at all.  Then we will discover what is really Real.  Or on the other hand, if we use some metaphysical, religious or spiritual ideal or doctrine and apply it to all of life, we will really understand what is really going on.

 There is a different understanding of the illusion (of Reality) that I wish to identity.  This is the notion that our perception of daily experience becomes illusory, through faulty habits of interpretion and emotional reactivity. 

 For example, if somebody I encounter in the market, let’s say, that I have indeed met before, and he looks over at me but does not respond; I may come up with the following interpretation:  ‘This jerk is trying to act like he does not know me’.  Now, let us assume that the person in the market is nearsighted (because she forgot her contacts lenses) and therefore, cannot not recognize me at all.  If I use my original interpretation, I have actually deluded myself and this is actually an illusion of perception.  I see her as she is in relation to her physical form (that is real); however, I do not see her social characteristics accurately.  Therefore, I have distorted my social perception of her.  That makes my perception distorted, and thus, “unreal”.

 Illusions do not always involve the presence or absence of “things and objects”, like in magic tricks.  It involves the presence or absence of clear perception in our daily life.  What is the difference between looking and perceiving a fruit instead of a base-ball and misperceiving a social situation, like the one above?  There is no difference; only different modes of misperception.  The cognition of the a fruit instead of a baseball is an example of a visual misperception and the other is a cognitive misperception.  They are both misperceptions, and thus, distortions.

 You would be surprised at how often we make these misperceptions and thus render our experience, unreal.  How does this occur?  From the fact that we do not know how to observe our minds, and differentiate the difference between what is real and not.  From this lack of examination, we often believe immediately what is going on in our minds, with out much understanding or scrutiny. 

Our habitual patterns of subjective thinking and feeling are extended - or ‘projected’ - into social perception (thus constructing beliefs and conclusions) and this turns our experience into an illusion of personal and social misunderstanding.

How can anybody get out of this predicament? We can learn to see our self and our life clearly by learning the science of self-observation.  There is a method of training that gives a clear understanding of how the minds works and how this can be can be transfered into actual perception. 

 When perception clears up - thus, ridding itself of illusion - we make better decisions, and act wisely.  Then life becomes more real.  We do not need to do any magic tricks to know how to get out of our delusions.  We just learn to perceive our self and the world in a clear manner. 

 We start with the inner self or our own mind.  When we can perceive what is going on in the mind, then the world will also be clearer and without distortion.  It is like cleaning a window; when it has been wiped, even to a degree, we can see outside.  There is no illusion.

Similarly, when we learn to clean up our minds, we can see external experience clearly, and we do not fall into the faulty habits of emotional and cognitive misperception. 

 To facilitate this, we need to understand how to look at the mind.  An appropriate training and theory can teach you to ‘clean up your mind’ and thus, ‘clean up your act’. 

Everything starts with the mind, because it is here that illusion begins to form.  However, just because the problem rests with the mind, this doesn’t mean that we just work with thought or perception alone.  This can be done, but it is arduous.  We can also use other structures, such as Attention.  Transformation really occurs by “putting together” different structures into a holistic process or matrix. 

When we process experience, we just do not use our minds, but also other structures (or “centers”), such as attention, instinct and emotion. 

However, much of our illusion starts with thought and perception, as shown in the examples above.  One of the best methods of objectifying our misperception is to elist the faculty of Attention to enable us to be more cognizant and aware of what our minds our doing.   Being attentive is a “yoga” in itself, and takes an extroardinary amount of discipline and interest.

Why is this so?  Because just as it is easy to mispercieve our present reality, it is similarly easy to lose our attention and get lost in thought.  In other words, if we learn to bring our attention into the present moment, we can “catch” when our thinking becomes muddled in narcissistic conclusions and perceptions.  Attention is pure and can be counted on to notice things that are impure, such as unobjective conclusions about our self and others. 

Remember, “illusion” actually is the misperception of self and world, which easily comes about through the “transferring” of early, childhood patterns into adult experience.

Another structure that can be utilized in the transformation of illusion or misperception is the faculty of instinct.   In this case, we will use breath.  The breath that is deep and centered is the “belly breath”; the breathing through the diaphram which brings us into our self in a full manner.  When our thoughts and feelings run away from us, our breath will naturally move away from this deeper form of breathing.  Therefore, it we are aware of our breathing and move it into this other position, we can tell when our thoughts and feelings run away from us (which usually implies a misperception),  from the way we are breathing.  The deeper breath feels “wise”. 

We can also access this type of breathing through meditation.  When we sit very still, our breath slows down and moves into this place.  Here, we can then watch our minds and see how it runs away from us and forms all sorts of interesting conclusions about self and world.  We have seen how attention, breath and body stillness all coordinate to transform misperception or illusion into Reality.

  William Edwards

  Author, Trainer

  www.wisdomskill.com

  wisdomskill@gmail.com

It may be a surprise to the reader that even though these two paths appear different and of course, they are to a certain degree, there is a way in which both of these directions are similar.

The direction towards success in the world and success in the ’spirit’ both do similar things: they attempt to transform our basic structures, or what the ancients referred to as the ‘faculties’. There is common sense to this. If a person is not getting along well in the world, or he or she is troubled, confused or having any negative experience, it is usually because they are using their basic structures, instruments or faculties in an inappropriate manner.

For example, if a person has a gambling problem and they are depressed, because they have a strong compulsivity towards this and it is complicating their life, then he or she can analyze or take a close look at these problems and find that the core structures are in a ‘negative’ position.  Their motivations, thoughts, feelings and actions were in a negative position.

What are these key structures, centers or faculties? There are many lists, and a simple, generic one is mind and body. To be more precise, we can add emotions, movements and instincts. An exact list is not important, but it is vital to understand that both secular and sacred traditions aim, and give precise exercises to transform these basic structures.

What is a true transformation? I believe that a true transformation occurs as a result of bringing both of these well trodden aspects of life together, the transcendent and the immanent. To do this requires that you use different trainings to transform the normal structures that we use in our daily life. When we do this in a certain manner, we will discover that we can achieve both things: a functional and successful entry into into worldly life, and also to realize a deeper part of the mind, which is transcendent.

When we tune into both aspects: being in the world and at the same time, paradoxically, transcending it, through contacting a deeper state of our mind, we “awaken” to our true condition.

We not only know who we are, but through the production of deeper qualities, understand how to act appropriately in the world. We do not just focus on one process: only success in the world, or on the other hand, only success in the spirit or ‘transcending’ our ego or normal, conditioned self. Through this we transform our self, because our normal means for acting in the world have been profoundly altered - through training - and secondly, we feel spiritual, as if there is a greater purpose to our life and journey in this world. This is real transformation.

It does not intrinsically need any specific religious orientation, nor does in involve any specific social status or outcome. It fulfills the great living process of ‘being in the world, but not of the world’.

Being in the world, means that one creatively can navigate those social processes that are appropriate and to apply deeper Qualities to them, thereby rendering them, “meaningful”.  On the other hand, through letting go of many of the intrusive, mechanical and compulsive thoughts and feelings, one can discover or realize our intrinsic internal nature nature, which is both empty and deep.  This also produces peace and understanding, working alongside of the aspect of our self which is “in the world”.

We do not have to push back and forth:  first being wordly and then, through frustration with this, push ourselves into the transcendent. Through one process and training - re-organize our core structures - enter both guadually and completely.

This “work” is always ongoing.  It is never completely finished; otherwise, there would be no reason for being here on this planet.  It appears that this is some kind of large “growth school”.  Nevertheless, we can always feel that wherever we are in our process, it is “perfect” in its creative potential.  It is always as it should be, even though growth and improvement is required. 

For example, if I get angry because someone who I care about does not notice me in the way that I need, then that anger is “perfect” in its unfolding.  It is not as if it is not suppose to be there.  (Of course, it is always more beneficial or wise, not to not express this anger outwardly, which may in turn cause repercussions).   However, we can use this anger as the precursor of growth and transcendence.  That is also perfect.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom
www.wisdomskill.com
wisdomskill@gmail.com

Most of our eating habits have been conditioned from youth. These are strict physical habits, such as the love of certain foods, like cake, ice cream or salty foods. Secondly, there are emotional habits that have conditioned our eating patterns, such as eating comfort foods, when we are emotionally down (and not really hungry).

The use of diet as part of one’s personal transformation, involves not only inserting in one’s routine specific aspects of right eating, but also the process of Self-knowledge, which allows us to observe our dysfuctional eating habits. These, as stated, arise out of emotional patterns that are not really resolved.

Therefore, the whole process of transformation through diet involves a gradual understanding of why we eat the way we do, plus the implimentation of right habits, not the immediate acquisition of an ideal pattern.

We start with four major forms of regulation. These do not include a specific regemin, but very generic processes that can adapt to one’s physical size (thin, medium or large) and biochemical (metabolic) individuality. They are very ordinary and are not esoteric or extreme.  In fact, we use most of these daily, at least to some degree.

* Choice - this is a very commone sense notion. When we eat, we “choose” our foods: what foods we think we need or perhaps, want and desire. However, in this process, there are certain general food groups that we work with and observe when and how we veer off course. The major food groups are fruits, vegetable, nuts, seeds, grains, beans and a minimum or moderate use of dairy and meat products. The foods that we - experimentally - avoid, are the common “junk foods” such as cakes, cookies, candy, highly processes foods and so forth. When we do indulge, we are not doing anything wrong, only should look at how one came to the decision to eat this way. When other trainings are used, one will slowly move away from these habits.

* Amount - this also is a very common process that we impliment daily. When we eat we adjust the amount of our intake to what we can comfortable handle. However, we know that we do not always do this. We often “over-eat” and pay little attention to how this affects our mental clarity and energy (typical outcomes in transformation). Also, we tend to hit the extremes of over and undereating. Undereating causes over-eating, because the body will go into “hoarding” mode, when there is hunger, through evolutionary processes.

* Frequency - We not only attend to choice and amount, but we decide when to eat, which implies the choice of how many meals in a day. There is different energy that is produced if we eat two meals in comparison to four. Similarly, there is a different energy produced if we eat most of our food at night or in the first part of the day. Experiment with eating two larger meals a day, and compare it with eating four or five smaller meals.  Also, eat lighter during the beginning of the day and compare this to eating heavier breakfast.   Try to find which is the best time to eat more heavily and which are best to eat light meals.

* Purity - This involves the inclusion of a certain percentage of live or “raw” foods in the diet.  This is the not the cultic lifestyle of attempting to eat 100 percent, or the focus of the whole spiritual transformation into diet.  It is the experimentation of maximizing the diet with the percentage of raw foods into the total intake.  With certain people, it may include 50 %; others, 90%.  This purifies the whole body and leads to the purification of mind and soul.

The transformation of diet involves the re-hauling of the instinctual center or structure, which is often the disrupter of a transformed life.  In other words, we attempt to work on our self, but the body has other things in mind.  This is why, along with other trainings on other centers or structures, we slowly introduce more a more condusive diet towards transformation.  This will slowly bring in a bodily, “alchemy”, which allows a complete transformation of mind, heart and body.

We waste so much energy through wrong eating, because the body uses so much energy in order to digest food.  There are as many neurons in the intestine as there are in the whole brain!  Therefore, it stands to reason, that if we make intelligence choices in our dietary intake, we can preserve so much energy.  This energy is transferred to other aspects of our training and living processes.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com

This is the first process of Awakening.  What does this imply in our daily life?  In our ordinary waking state, we are forever processing social experience.  This means that when an incident occurs, we try to figure it out or process it, usually from a person or subjective standpoint.  If we were totally objective, there would be little narcissistic concerns and we would handle it rather quickly.  However, this is not the usual case.  We string together thought, feeling, memory and motivation together in a compelling, mechanical form that - blocks - Consciousness.  We do not, literally, “lose” consciousness; otherwise, we would be in a coma.  However, the light of Awareness (another word for Consciousness) recedes in the background, as it were.  In other words, the more these structures are placed in our Consciousness, the less conscious we are. 

Simply put, if we have a lot of stuff going on in our minds, because we are trying to figure out our experience, the less we can contact our pure Consciousness, in itself.  That will leave us less conscious and awake.  Therefore, the key here is to let go of the material in our minds.  When we let go of unneeded material - the constant, compelling movement of thought, feeling and episodic memory, we can find or realize our inherent original mind or Pure Consciousness.

That is not enough, though.  As much as we need to be awake, through our essential Consciousness, we still have to act in the world.  Pure Consciousness is essentially detached in that it just witnesses activity (inner and outer).  Consciousness is always there, and there is no literal seperation from the world.  It is simply “untouched” by experience.  However, there is always a world that we are contacting from moment to moment, and just as we cannot escape our own Awareness, we cannot escape the world.  We are thrown into the world, as it were, because there is always some social process that we are connecting at all times of the day.

What are these processes of the world?  They are our home life, our careers, our families, social norms, government, entertainment, art, transportation, religion and so on.   We are always contacting at least one of these throughout our day, no matter what our lifestyle is.  Therefore, we are always in the world, as much as we have the capacity to transcend the world. 

We experience this double or dual aspect, even in mundane life.  When we go through an experience, particularly one that is eventful or somewhat intense, we do two things.  First, we detach our self from the experience in order to understand it.  Now matter how much we react, we have to step back and understand it.  Even if this reflection is not as detached as Pure Awareness, the cognitive interpretation is still divorced from outside action; therefore, it it is, officially, detached.

Secondly, we must act in response to this event.  There are few events that have no repercussion, especially if reacted to the event.  We will make some kind of decision to do this, not do this, confront, avoid or whatever.  We are always “in” and we are always, “stepping back”.   This is the most generic, human orientation to the life, the world or the environment.

Awakening involves two processes; the ability to let go of internal material (thoughts, feelings and memory) and realize our pristine Awareness, and secondly to bring different primordial qualities into experience, thus fulfilling Being (living)-in-the-World.  We have to be detached, so we can be clear and wise as to how we think and act, but we also need to act intelligently in the world, as it pertains to how we relate to social process.

The way in which we accomplish these two goals is to enact a training which covers all six of our major structures, centers or “faculties”.  This will immediately help us contact our essential Non-Being, which is Pure Consciousness and our essential Being, which extends into the world of experience.  We are both processes and these are our essential identities.  The more we embrace them, the more we “awaken”. 

*We have a transcendant aspect of our minds or psyche that is Awakened, Spacious, Empty and Objective: the Witness

* We are always engaged as a being-in-the-world, which we cannot transcend, except in sleep or death.  We are always “in the world”, because we are always contacting some social process throughout the day.

*True human development is to engage both fully: to meditate and to realize transcendent areas of the mind (Pure Consciousness or Awareness) and secondly, to realize or develop transformative Qualities - such as Kindness, Autonomy, Compassion, Confidence, Love, Freedom, etc.) that allow us live appropriately in the world.  This is the real Good-Life.

William Edwards

Author, Trainer

The Skill of Wisdom

www.wisdomskill.com

wisdomskill@gmail.com