We need to verify the truth of something through direct experience. Every problem that we face as humans can be seen as the result of identification. There’s only ever one problem: the need to cease all identification. The only hope to loosen its hold is to awaken conscience. Conscience absorbs and subsumes identification. We come from greatness and we return from whence we came. The primary aim of self-observation is to reveal that in us which blocks our true nature, which is love. First there is identification, then imagination takes hold and we are lost to reality, the present, and love. A thought becomes thinking. The law of identification is that we become that which we identify with. Identification is unconscious, mechanical, habitual, and repetitious. It restricts consciousness, love, or God. To be conscious is to be non-identified. We believe we are the body, but this is 100% identification and imagination. We are presence and attention in a mammal body for a short time. Our fear of death is because we are identified with the body. Conscious attention slowly melts the hold identification has on attention. Conscience is our refuge, hope, and guide; it awakens through self-observation and self-remembering. The main function of a guru is to serve as external conscience. Conscience suffers, and its first suffering is shame. This can become remorse, which is transformational. Conscience always points us in the direction of love and helps essence to mature. Personality blocks conscience from manifesting. The aim of the Work is for conscience to be the active force instead of personality. Conscience always includes the other—it’s how God let’s us know what is needed and wanted from us in every situation. Red Hawk is an acclaimed poet and the author of 12 books, including Self Observation, Self Remembering, The Way of the Wise Woman, and Return to the Mother.