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In this Soul Snack, Gary Zukav explores reverence as the experience of perceiving beyond appearance and into essence, a direct, essence-to-essence contact with a person, an animal, a plant, or any living thing. He explains that an unprecedented new consciousness is transforming the human species, and that every moment offers a choice between two inner worlds: one rooted in gratitude, patience, and contentment, and one rooted in anger, worry, and despair.
Gary illustrates the difference between essence and appearance through the image of a beloved friend showing up to a dinner party in an outfit you don't care for. He explains that what someone wears has nothing to do with who they are, their joys, challenges, and aspirations, and that as a person becomes multisensory, they begin to experience themselves as a soul wearing a personality, rather than being their personality.
The invitation is simple: recognize the personality, with all its attributes, as an "earth suit" that the soul adopts and uses for a period of time to grow, and let reverence be the practice of looking past that suit to the essence underneath.
What You’ll Discover in This Episode
(00:02) — Reverence is defined as perceiving beyond the shell of appearance and into the essence of a thing, a person, a bird, a plant, or an animal - an essence‑to‑essence experience.
(01:12) — The metaphor of a friend arriving at a dinner party in an outfit you dislike illustrates that appearance - what someone wears, or their personality itself - is an aspect of the Earth School, separate from who they truly are.
(01:12) — Becoming multisensory is described as the shift from experiencing yourself only as a personality to experiencing yourself as a soul, with your personality as an appearance that clothes your essence rather than defines it.
(02:39) — Personality and all of its attributes are described as “earth suits” - garments the soul adapts and adopts for a time, used by the soul to grow in the areas it has chosen to grow.
Embrace the Soul Step Challenge
Think of someone in your life whose appearance, style, or personality traits you find yourself reacting to or judging. Pause and ask yourself: am I in contact with this person's essence, or only with their "earth suit"? What would it look like to greet this person - and yourself with reverence today?
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