[STAGE V | STATION 7 (SYNTHESIS)] The Diamond Body: The Invulnerable Star
In this dream, I witness—deliberately in slow motion, so its significance is not lost—a bullet striking a bulletproof block of glass. The impact cracks the glass, revealing an eight-pointed star. The central symbols here are the eight-pointed star, the bulletproof glass, and the moment of the star’s emergence.
The star represents our celestial, divine essence—our deepest and most essential self. The number eight is rich in symbolism, often pointing toward the Self.
Some Sufis take the point of light to be our identity when they say that the dhat (identity) is a star. (Almaas, 2001, p. 448)
The symbolism of the bulletproof glass deepens when one considers the stage of development at which this dream arose. According to the five-stage alchemical model, this dream took place during the Outward Stone: Station 6, which corresponds to Almaas’s quintessential dimension—co-emergent nonduality, or nondual presence. This stage marks the self-realisation of the greatest depth of Being (Almaas, 2001, p. 428).
Almaas correlates this level of self-realisation with certain Buddhist schools, such as the Nyingmapa, and their highest teaching: Dzogchen. This level relates to Buddha-nature, or Buddha mind—bodhicitta, the enlightened mind, and the experience of nondual presence. Here, enlightenment is fully embodied in the world, characterised as both clear and empty. The Tibetan term for this is rigpa (Almaas, 2001, p. 432).
The teaching emphasises the nonduality of experience, where presence is completely unified with all manifestation (Almaas, 2001, p. 432).
The bulletproof glass, then, symbolises the purified Buddha body and Buddha mind. This dream captures the mystical union of an individual spark of light—the star—becoming fully embodied within an indestructible, clear, and bulletproof glass body.
