Exploring the Depths of the Soul: Bridging Ancient Wisdom & Modern Psychology Using the Practice of Inquiry with A. H. Almaas (Part 2)

Ep. 144 (Part 2 of 2) | In the second A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series conversation, Hameed Ali describes how the practice of inquiry can aid us on our spiritual journey, illuminating our understanding of our personal experience and our soul. He uses the example of inquiring into a sense of worthlessness to illustrate what happens as we begin to investigate the terrain of our consciousness. There comes a point when the inquiry leads beyond where a psychologist would normally end—when it slips from psychological into spiritual inquiry. “If you stay with the wounding, something will emerge: a sense of inherent value. You recognize ‘I am presence’ and this presence has value—all the way to nondual presence and beyond.” 

In introducing us to the Diamond Approach’s inquiry technique, Hameed covers a rich array of topics: the dynamism of consciousness; the importance of scientific objectivity in our exploration of inner experience; modern psychology’s revelation of how our sense of self develops; the essential qualities of curiosity and love of truth; and how understanding the ways in which the past influences the present disentangles it. Hameed is a masterful teacher—with just a few words he can illuminate vast territories of spiritual landscape for the purpose of helping his students learn to live their lives from a deeper, liberated condition. Rather than aiming to transcend our experience, Hameed assures us there is a way through, an unraveling we can do, as we discover never-ending realizations about individual consciousness and the nature of reality. Recorded July 4, 2024.

“The soul is a living embodiment of the life force.” 

(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2

• Basic trust: fundamentally we are an indestructible nature, but our basic trust can get whittled away (00:50)
• Feeling the love inherent to reality (05:27)
• Marrying ancient knowledge of the soul with advancements in modern psychology (06:09) 
• Psychology provides us with answers about how our sense of self develops but not about what gets structured—the soul (09:35)
• Individual consciousness is impressionable, otherwise learning would not be possible (12:31)
• The self is nothing but the soul structured through the ego stages of development (14:28)
• Psychodynamics and the self-liberating quality of the soul (15:29)
• We need our sense of self in order to survive—and in order to become become illuminated, we need a body (17:21)
• To stay with the ego self is arrested development, but we can develop further to become conscious of consciousness itself (19:53)
• We can understand the terrain of experience rather than simply transcend it—we can go through it, unravel it, and open up different dimensions of reality as we go (21:40)
• As we inquire we go deeper, bringing liberation into ordinary life (24:58)
• The emphasis in the East is on liberation—the emphasis in the West is on how to fulfill life (26:06)
• What many nondual teachings don’t understand is the individual soul (27:14)
• The enlightenment drive: motivation beyond ego (30:38)
• Beyond the enlightenment drive: pure being coming through individual consciousness (34:45)

Resources & References – Part 2

• The Ridhwan School, home of the Diamond Approach, founded by A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali)
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality*
• A. H. Almaas, Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery*
• Ramana Maharshi, Hindu sage and liberated being, Who Am I?: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi*
• Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Bodhicitta

The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home* (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.

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A. Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more. 

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell