Is anyone else here following the "Diamond Approach" of Almaas?

[GliderGuider]

I've had a hard time getting onto a spiritual path over the last couple of years. Being brought up a hard-core rationalist atheist left me with a deep resistance to paths that veered too close to religious belief. the closest fit seemed to be Buddhism, especially Zen, though I knew in my heart there was deep personal value in the mystical aspects of Christianity, Hinduism and Sufi.

What broke me open initially was a weekend retreat called The Inner Journey developed by a German-American man named Michael Schiesser. As a follow-on to that seminar Michael conducts an ongoing series of weekend workshops that explore and resolve issues around personality and spirituality using tools like deep inquiry, the Enneagram and the Sufi concept of the lataif. I had heard Michael use the term "diamond approach", but until recently I didn't appreciate that this referred to a well-developed body of psychospiritual teaching by a contemporary teacher named A.H. Almaas. As I began to understand what underlay all of Micheal's teaching, I realized I had found a path that resonated very deeply with me, and aroused virtually none of the resistance I had felt with more traditional approaches.

For anyone who has been stuck for a while, or can't seem to resolve some of the barriers that keep self-realization an elusive goal, I'd recommend giving it a look. Here's a quick introduction from Almaas' web site.

THE DIAMOND APPROACH

The Diamond Approach is a contemporary teaching that developed within the context of awareness of both ancient spiritual teachings and modern depth psychological theories; hence the perspective of this teaching recognizes the inherent synthesis between the spiritual and the psychological domains of experience. The spiritual and the psychological can be separated only in theory, for in experience they are two dimensions of the same human consciousness. Recognizing this truth makes it possible to approach the path to inner realization informed with modern psychological knowledge, and thus allows the process of understanding one’s psychological experience to open one’s consciousness to the deeper truths of our spiritual nature.

This teaching approaches the path by taking into consideration, amongst other things, the structure of reality, both inner and outer. It views reality to be fundamentally the eternal truth of spirit that manifests itself in various dimensions, from the deepest dimension of absolute emptiness to the physical realm. The appearance of this manifestation is what is conventionally known as reality, including the physical universe and all beings with their minds and psyches. The inner truth of this reality is true nature itself, pure spirit, which is the ultimate and real nature of both the universe and all beings.

In the hands of a competent and caring teacher this work is remarkable. Even just reading Almaas' books wwill take a committed seeker a long way towards the realization of their true self.

[westerebus]

1. Namaste.

[GliderGuider]

2. Shanti Shalom

:hi: