Glossary of Spiritual Wisdom
Excerpts about No Diamonds
Concepts that Precede the Personal Discursive Mind
The moment we recognize that the aspect is a concept, the transparent black diamond form becomes increasingly nothing, until it fades away. As it fades away we find ourselves to be the boundless presence of undifferentiated being. And we understand that we are not only powerful enough to be ourselves, but that we are boundless power itself; for we are boundless and infinite Being. We can be ourselves; we are not afraid of being ourselves, because we are the infinite Supreme Being itself. This process is repeated for each of the essential aspects, where each aspect appears as a huge, sharp diamond of a particular color and quality. As we directly and experientially recognize that each aspect is a concept, it dissolves and reveals the nondifferentiated ground of pure presence. Each essential aspect reveals itself to be a conceptual differentiation of pure presence, conceptual not in the representational sense but as a discrimination in basic knowledge. Each aspect is a differentiated and discriminated form in basic knowledge. Each of the aspects reveals itself as a universal discrimination, a natural cognitive differentiation of true nature itself . . . . . . We recognize that each essential aspect is a universal concept, a concept that embodies in an explicit way a particular perfection of true nature. We refer to these diamonds as “concept diamonds,” for they are actually the original concepts, the original conceptual differentiation of pure presence. We need to stress again that by concept we do not mean ordinary mental and representational concepts, which are elements of ordinary knowledge. We are discussing concepts that precede the personal discursive mind, elements of pure basic knowledge that are free from the reflection of ordinary knowledge. We also refer to them as “no-diamonds,” meaning nothing-diamonds, referring to the fact that they are discriminated differentiations of nothing and also to the fact that because they are differentiations they do not exist independently. They are empty of an independent essence, for their true essence is the boundless pure presence that is the indivisible ground and
nature of everything.