A. H. Almaas

The opening installment in a five-volume series on the Diamond Approach—a path to greater self- and spiritual realization—presented by its founder Founded by spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas, the Diamond Approach presents a unique path to enlightenment that borrows from modern psychology and therapy. Through the method’s core practice of inquiry, practitioners engage with their inner world—the very qualities and experiences that make them human—as a means of unlocking their potential and discovering the true power of their spiritual nature. This five-volume series is a collection of Almaas’ lectures on the Diamond Approach. In Elements of the Real Man, he covers topics such as faith, commitment, nobility and suffering, truth and compassion, allowing, and growing up. Through these talks, Almaas offers valuable guidance and advice for those on a spiritual path, and he explores the challenges and psychological barriers faced by those seeking self-realization.

Diamond Heart: Elements of the Real in Man

Originally published: Berkeley, Calif.: Diamond Books, 1998.

The Enneagram of Holy Ideas

Facets of Unity

Ram Dass

Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality

Nondual Love

Well-known spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas uses the metaphor of the mysterious philosopher's stone to discuss a tremendous liberating power that leads to endless enlightenment For millennia alchemists sought the philosophers’ stone, the miracle substance believed to be the key to all the secrets of existence. The quest was fueled by some of the prime questions of human existence: What am I? Why am I here? How has this world come to be? A. H. Almaas shows that the tremendous liberating power of the mysterious philosophers’ stone is closer to us than we realize. In fact, it is the true nature of all reality—in all times and all places, without being limited to being anything in particular. Through the philosophers’ stone, real transformation can happen, our consciousness can become free, and we can open to all the possibilities of reality. Almaas discusses the factors that are involved in igniting the catalytic property of the philosophers’ stone and then begins to unpack the properties of true nature when it is free of constraints. Finally, we are left with the revelation that true nature is endlessly knowable, and yet nothing we can know or say about it exhausts its mystery and power. The result is a new understanding of what liberation and practice are—and a view of what it’s like when seeking ceases and life becomes a process of continual discovery. We begin to appreciate that the freedom of reality expressed in the complete and fulfilled life all human beings seek—and few find—is actually the simplicity of the ordinary.

The Philosophers' Stone and the Secrets of Existence

The Alchemy of Freedom

"The enneagram is a popular typology that understands human psychology through nine interconnected personality styles. It is broadly used in everything from pop psychology to more serious self-development. While many books offer the enneagram as a personality typology and go no further, A. H. Almaas looks into its spiritual dimensions. The originators of enneagram knowledge sought to understand reality at all of its levels and in all of its facets in order to find the ultimate freedom of consciousness. Their primary purpose was spiritual liberation. This book is dedicated to the same endeavor"--

How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type

Keys to the Enneagram

A passionate and deep exploration of how love is essential to our spiritual growth and development, from beloved author and teacher A. H. Almaas. Love is a universal energy--and a primary force that powers our movement toward spiritual illumination. All the ways we need love are simply reflections of our need for spiritual growth. In Love Unveiled, A. H. Almaas explores three dimensions of love: appreciative love--the true liking of somebody or something; merging or connecting love--a force that melts away separateness; and passionate, ecstatic love--capable of consuming us from inside. In their own way, each reveals the beauty and exquisiteness of our spiritual heart, which is the heart of the divine. However, the path of spiritual love is not without challenges. Almaas explores the barriers that tend to block our experience of loving awakening and provides experiential exercises throughout the book to help readers along their path. The exercises focus on the obstacles or misunderstandings that commonly arise for each quality or dimension of love. Presented in the form of writing or monologuing prompts, readers can work independently or in small groups to confront the emotional obstacles on their spiritual path. Regardless of where you are on your path, Love Unveiled will help you explore love in three essential dimensions and gain a deeper connection to yourself.

Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart

Love Unveiled

illuminating force of love in everyday life

The power of divine eros

Karen Johnson

The authors reveal how our relationships become opportunities on the spiritual journey to express ourselves authentically, to relate with openness, and to discover dynamic inner realms with another person.

The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday Life

The Power of Divine Eros

The Essence of Intelligence (Diamond Body)

Brilliancy

The Soul's Realization of the Unity of Reality

Inner Journey Home

Inner Spaciousness and Ego Structure

The Void

The founder of the Diamond Approach guides readers through the difficult process of understanding and accepting our true identity We live in a world of mystery, wonder, and beauty. But most of us seldom participate in this real world, being focused rather on the part that is mostly strife, suffering, or meaninglessness. This situation is basically due to our not realizing and living our full human potential. This potential can be actualized by the realization and development of the human essence. The human essence is the part of us that is innate and real, and which can participate in the real world. In this third installment of the Diamond Heart series, A. H. Almaas guides and orients individuals who are engaged in doing the difficult work of realization. It is a transcription of talks given by the author in both California and Colorado.

Diamond Heart: Being and the Meaning of Life

Founder and spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas continues his study of the Diamond Approach to uncovering the many facets of our human potential We live in a world of mystery, wonder, and beauty. But most of us seldom participate in this real world, being focused rather on the parts that are mostly strife, suffering, or meaninglessness. The situation is basically due to our not realizing and living our full human potential. This potential can be actualized by the realization and development of human essence. The human essence is the part of us that is innate and real, and which can participate in the real world. Comprised of transcriptions of A. H. Almaas' talks to inner-work groups in Colorado and California, The Freedom to Be is the second installment in a five-volume series on the Diamond Approach.

Diamond Heart: The Freedom to Be

In this book Almaas demonstrates that healthy ego development is part of the continuum of spiritual development. He also establishes the possibility of attaining inner realization and developing our essential being—"the pearl beyond price"—in the context of living a normal human life.

Integration of Personality Into Being, an Object Relations Approach

The Pearl Beyond Price

Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization (Diamond Mind Series, 3)

The Point of Existence

realizing your true nature through the practice of presence

The unfolding now

Indestructible Innocence

In Luminous Night's Journey, Almaas shares excerpts from his personal journal, which describe a certain thread in his own journey of realization and the processes involved in integrating that realization. This publication marks a fortunate development in our knowledge of how Being is realized in and through the human soul: The process of realization and integration of true nature described in the voice of one who articulates precisely and vividly the psychological and epistemological barriers which confront the individual consciousness as realization is integrated in the context of personal life. Almaas describes how his participation in the unfolding manifestation of Being ushers him into realms that expose and transform increasingly deep ego structures and attachments. Luminous Night's Journey clarifies how the unveiling of Being and the exposure of ego structures constitute one process, leading to the soul's integrated realization of absolute nature and the manifestation of the human being as a personal embodiment of that nature.

An Autobiographical Fragment

Luminous Night's Journey

For the first time in print, well-known spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas presents the highest level and most profound teachings of the Diamond Approach on the true nature of reality and the path to enlightenment. The teaching in this book is off the map—because reality itself cannot be captured in a map. In fact, reality is far more alive, far more mysterious than anything we can conceive of. It is always revealing itself by knowing itself; and knowing reality and living it becomes the fulfillment of our life. A. H. Almaas, the originator of the Diamond Approach, here presents a new paradigm for understanding reality: the view of totality. He reveals that our life can become an endless revelation of reality, an adventure with neither beginning nor end. A. H. Almaas has been developing and teaching the Diamond Approach, a spiritual path of self-realization and maturity based on an original synthesis of modern discoveries in the field of psychology and a new paradigm about spiritual nature, for more than thirty years. If we can say the Diamond Approach has a goal it is to realize the truth at progressively deeper levels until one reaches the ultimate Truth, the Absolute, and to become integrated into that truth so that we are a living presence and embodiment of that truth. The teachings of this path have been unfolding over time, and Runaway Realization presents—for the first time in print—the highest level of teachings in the Diamond Approach in the most profound work by Almaas so far. In this book, Almaas offers a detailed look at the true nature of reality and the nature of enlightenment. He also talks about practice--what it is and what it isn't, and how practice relates to the process of realization. He looks at what it is to be a human being and what our role is in the totality of the universe. The material includes a discussion of the nature of space and time, as well as a view of more and more subtle levels of realization.

Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery

Runaway Realization

From beloved author and teacher A. H. Almaas, an exploration of love beyond the boundaries of the individual self, revealing that nondual love is the nature of everything, including ourselves. Love is a transformative aspect of the spiritual path—and, in fact, it is our very nature. A. H. Almaas takes us on a journey beyond a narrow, individual understanding of love to an exploration of what he calls the boundless dimension of Divine Love. This is not the kind of love that we feel toward somebody else; it is nondual, a love without boundaries. Or put another way, it is universal true nature experienced as love. By shifting our focus beyond our individual human experience to the experience of the whole of existence, we are able to see the true richness of the universe. All of reality takes on a quality of inner light, of softness and ease, of sweetness and holding. When we are open to the dimension of nondual love, we can relax and trust our inner ground that is also the ground of everything: our true nature, free from limitations—a sense of complete release, freedom, and delight, that is free of conflict, fear, insecurity, and worry. Almaas discusses the obstacles that make it difficult to awaken to true nature in this form, such as our belief in a separate self and our past conditioning. Each chapter includes an inquiry or practice, such as explorations of attachments and worldly desires as well as inquiries into union, surrender, and grace.

A. H. Almaas

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