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Prologue
Human beings mostly live at a fraction of their full potential. Try as we might, money, relationships, possessions, and prestige cannot fill the inner void. Potential and fulfillment, like satisfaction and joy, must be authentic and real. In fact, they must be inner. We have a deep integrity about life and a great curiosity. Human beings have been questioning and questing for thousands of years. At the forefront of their field of interest is the search for their true nature, for something that is deathless. Some call it God, or Brahman, Allah, YHWH, or Great Spirit; it is changeless, omnipotent, omniscient, and immanent—more here than we are—and it is our human destiny to awaken to it. This book charts the course of awakening to your essential self in three stages. The fulfillment of these three stages of human development is within our innate capacity, and it is attained through a single, connected process of awakening. The first stage, The Process of Self-Discovery, describes how we explore, understand, and finally transcend our small sense of self through identifying and shedding restrictive life conditioning and emotional and behavioral patterns, becoming whole, and fulfilling our personal potential. The second stage, The Transformation into Authenticity, describes how we can reach the state of permanent change and personal authenticity by stabilizing in the personal changes we made in the first stage and empowering ourselves to relate authentically and compassionately to other people and the outer world. This stage is the flowering of personal inner work. The third stage, The Source of Consciousness, describes the experience of living in the world when we have touched transcendent reality and understand who we really are. Through shedding illusion, living in the present, and re-centering in the true Self, we at last live our divine nature. Each stage includes abundant exercises and practices for your ongoing growth and development. You may simply wish to read Your Essential Self, but you will get far more out of it if you engage with the book as an interactive experience, because above all, awakening is an