I just returned from a 10–day retreat with A.H. Almaas. The retreat was held at Asilomar near Monterey, California.

The focus of the retreat was Quintessence which Almaas refers to as the Essence of the Essence. In his book, Brilliancy: The Essence of Intelligence, he refers to brilliancy as the essence of the essence.

I asked Almaas about this and he replied that this was an example of the evolution of his teaching – The Diamond Approach to Self-Realization. When he became aware of brilliancy as an essential quality, he saw that it contained all the other essential qualities within it in a unique way. He started referring to brilliancy at times as the essence of the essence to reflect this capacity of brilliancy.

Later, when he discovered the Quintessence, he started to refer to it as the essence of the essence. He no longer refers to brilliancy as the essence of the essence.

So, brilliancy can be viewed, in part, as the essence of all essential qualities, but the quintessence is fundamentally the essence of the essence.

Which probably raises the question for you – what is the quintessence?

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French quinte essence, from Medieval Latin quinta essentia, literally, fifth essence
Date: 15th century

1 : the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies 2 : the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form

More on that later.