Hierarchy of Existence

At the heart of the Self Realization Mantra lies a profound understanding of existence itself. While you don’t need to understand this hierarchy to practice the mantra, it can be helpful to explore the fundamental layers of reality from which it arises.

This Hierarchy of Existence begins with the unmanifest source known as Amness, and progresses through Being, Consciousness, Awareness, and finally, Experience.

1. Amness — The timeless, sourceless, unmanifest ground of all existence. Pure beingness itself. Amness is not a thing — it is the primordial no-thing from which all thingness, time, and manifestation arise.
2. Being — The first arising from Amness. The shift from the unmanifest into manifest existence.
3. Consciousness — The field that arises from Being. Within Consciousness exist the four aspects of Self: Iself, Allself, Godself, and Noself. These four aspects co-arise together rather than appearing in sequence.
4. Awareness — Focused attention within the field of Consciousness. The spotlight of knowing.
5. Experience — That which arises from awareness. If you’re not aware of something, you didn’t experience it, even if something happened.

Godself is the creative, animating principle within Consciousness — the active power that does all the doing.

This hierarchy shows how reality flows from the most fundamental (Amness) all the way down to our everyday human experience. The Self Realization Mantra works directly with the layer of Consciousness and its four aspects, while always pointing back to the source: Amness.