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Ipseity

Recognizing the Absolute as Ipseity
The absolute is both my nature and my identity. Is the nature of the soul and her very identity. It constitutes her manifestations but it is also her depth and deepest essence. Alternatively, we can say the absolute is our true self, our objectively actual self. But it is also the nature of the soul. That is why we like to refer to the absolute as ipseity, for the word ipseity means both nature and self. To recognize the absolute as ipseity is a profound experience, for it is the self-realization of this dimension of true nature. (Inner Journey Home, pg 407) Absolute Reality & Ipseity The Sufis refer to this reality as the “divine essence,” the essence of God, but also as the final nature of all existence. They use the Arabic word dhat to refer to it, which means self, identity, nature, and Essence all at the same time. The closest English equivalent of this term is the word ipseity. In the experience of ipseity, the absolute truth of Being, duality ends as we perceive that the identity and nature of everything, including ourselves, is inseparable from everything. Everything is the radiance of absolute ipseity, just as light is the radiance of the sun. (The Point of Existence) Ipseity & The End of the Search When the soul arrives at her absolute home, recognizes her true beloved, and realizes it as her ipseity, many insights, realizations, and feelings spontaneously arise. One’s life begins to show its overall pattern, seen from the perspective of the inner journey home. This culminates in the personalization of the absolute ipseity, where we learn to be a human being, a person, and to still abide in the absolute.
Inner Journey Home, p. 24   •  discuss »
The Thing and the Nature of the Thing at the Same Time
Nevertheless, I have various favorite names for the Absolute, depending on how the Guest is manifesting. Today my favorite name is the Secret. Two days ago it was the Guest. A while ago I called it the divine ipseity. Ipseity is a very good name for it. I like it because most people don't know what it means. It’s good to give it a name that nobody knows because if you think you know what it means, it's not it. Ipseity is a name that was used in the past for the same reality we're talking about. The dictionary defines it as something like the final selfhood. The word “ipseity” was used by early Christians. In Arabic the Sufis refer to it as hawiyyah. Ipseity is not exactly identity and not exactly self, but both and also something between the two meanings; it can also mean nature or self-nature. Ipseity means it is its own nature and it is its own self. Hence it is both self and the nature of self. Ipseity means the nature of all things, but also the self of all things. It is a nature, a reality that is the self. So, it is not the self in the sense of being an entity or identity or having a sense of self. It is the self in the sense of being the actuality of what is. It is both the thing itself and the nature of the thing. It is both the gold and the lion in the golden statue of a lion. The gold is the nature, the lion is the self, but the ipseity is both, is the golden lion.
Diamond Heart Book V, p. 51   •  discuss »

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