Tag: almaas

The Nondual Duel
Nonduality is Not the Final Word on Reality

I recently received this email from a fan of Open-Secrets:

John there are many nondual psychotherapists, among them Stephan Bodian, author of ‘Wake Up Now’, and the authors of ‘The Sacred Mirror’ and ‘Listening From the Heart of Silence’. who criticize all progressive approaches. They say to put all ones resources into realizing oneself AS aware Presence first and then return to embody the Realization into ones personality afterwards.

They claim that the Diamond Approach keeps one endlessly mired in one’s history and is sort of an endless treadmill that never really crosses the gateless gate. It can be too easy for the ego to think of these states and stations as attainments for the personality, and that the direct approach cuts through the ego activity much cleaner.

I understand and agree with Hameed that this seems like pushing oneself into a condition that might not be the natural unfoldment of the souls dynamism, and that by surrendering to where one is in the moment is much more appropriate.

I only say this because they have started an online journal that looks very interesting and are asking for contributions from bloggers and others interested in the field of nondual psychotherapy. I would personally love to see a discussion started on the benefits and shortcomings of the direct / progressive paths. I really like your blog and would love to see someone with a background in the Ridhwan school represented in the journal.

if you are interested the web address is http://undividedjournal.com/ Thanks for your awesome blog.

I make no claim of being established in nondual realization, though I have had enough experience of the nondual to recognize it and compare that state with others.

Here’s where my curiosity leads me in regards to the above:
- I’m curious about why this has significance to the author of the email. It’s an interesting point that he brings up, but people have been misunderstanding and taking exception to A. H. Almaas and the Diamond Approach for years. In addition, the DA is just one of many valid teachings and paths that assist people in moving toward the truth and realization of reality.
- My experience is that many people have experiences of the nondual, but then reify their experiences into intellectual understanding which can then be debated for the rest of time. Rumi had the same problem with intellectuals of his day.
- I have no idea if Stephen Bodian lives and abides in the nondual and I am making no assertion about him. If he does have the position stated above, then my curiosity wonders about “nondual positions” an oxymoron in its own right, and the answer to this question – Is there no value in learning and developing skills and insight that move one in the direction of reality and help to ease daily suffering?
- It’s true, some people become endlessly mired in working on their object relations. Some get endlessly mired in meditating, or efforting toward nonduality. Ego identity, loves the muck and the mire – intellectual debate about the merits of anything can be a mire.
- Almaas does not see nonduality as the end-all of the spiritual journey. It is just one manifestation of the infinite potential of True Nature. No one manifestation of TN has any more or less merit than any other – except to the subjective consciousness of the experiencer. Almaas has, over the past 6 or 7 years, been teaching more and more about Total Being and Freedom. This is what he refers to as the 4th turning of the wheel of the Diamond Approach. The 3rd turning of the wheel is associated with nondual awareness.
These are a few of my first response thoughts. Now, I am returning to…

BTW – Almaas will be speaking at the 2012 Science & Nonduality conference in October – sounds like a reat opportunity to get his personal take on all of this.

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March 30
What happens when ego is matabolized?

What is the agent of transformation?

I’ve often wondered how the inner experience of oneself changes with the transformation of ego identity and structure. I know how my life is freer and more fluid from the years of work and exploration, but I still have a very active subjective inner life with habitual mental activity, concerns and attitudes, old patterns, and historic identities.

I found this reflection by A. H. Almaas on his experience to be very poignant and instructional.

November 29
Obsidian Samadhi

Obsidian Samadhi – Diamond Approach Summer Retreat

I’m at the annual summer retreat for the Ridhwan School (Diamond Approach). About 700 students are gathered at Asilomar near Monterey California.

Hameed Ali, who writes under the pen name A.H. Almaas began the first session with a meditation he calls Obsidian Samadhi = clear awareness, calm alertness.

The subject of the 10-day retreat is Fulcrum (dictionary -a: the support about which a lever turns b : one that supplies capability for action). The inquiry will revolve around – Practice is Realization, Realization is Practice.

On first blush, it seems to me that the fulcrum is the soul or the personal consciousness where practice is initiated and applied and realization arises. We shall see.

Items of Interest

Links of Interest

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August 14
Quintessence – Quintessential Dimension
A.H. Almaas’ summer retreat on Quintessence explored the subtleties of “the world of appearance,” the non-dual perspective and co-emergent reality (being/non-being).

A lot of attention was given to non-doing – relaxing the attention to simple awareness and presence.

Here is the title list of the 16 sessions:
1. Inner Sanctum
2. Treasure Trove
3. Living Wonder
4. Bowing Royalty
5. Private Quarters
6. The Timeless Now
7. Spacious Mansion
8. Ocean Without Shores
9. Crystal Mirror
10. Kernel of the Kernel
11. Transcendent Science
12. Royal Courtyard
13. Bejeweled Palace
14. Divine Sport
15. The Missing Bridegroom
16. Quintessential Delight
What thoughts do these titles raise for you?

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September 5
Quintessence – Essence of the Essence

I just returned from a 10–day retreat with A.H. Almaas. The retreat was held at Asilomar near Monterey, California.

The focus of the retreat was Quintessence which Almaas refers to as the Essence of the Essence. In his book, Brilliancy: The Essence of Intelligence, he refers to brilliancy as the essence of the essence.

I asked Almaas about this and he replied that this was an example of the evolution of his teaching – The Diamond Approach to Self-Realization. When he became aware of brilliancy as an essential quality, he saw that it contained all the other essential qualities within it in a unique way. He started referring to brilliancy at times as the essence of the essence to reflect this capacity of brilliancy.

Later, when he discovered the Quintessence, he started to refer to it as the essence of the essence. He no longer refers to brilliancy as the essence of the essence.

So, brilliancy can be viewed, in part, as the essence of all essential qualities, but the quintessence is fundamentally the essence of the essence.

Which probably raises the question for you – what is the quintessence?

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French quinte essence, from Medieval Latin quinta essentia, literally, fifth essence
Date: 15th century

1 : the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies 2 : the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form

More on that later.

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September 3
Lighting Up the Now

If we experience ourselves in our true self-existing condition, we will see that what we actually are is a being of light.

So says A.H. Almaas in his new book – The Unfolding Now. Chapter 13 of the new book is titled – Lighting Up the Now – and is available as a free download here.

We are beings of light in the fluid state—completely frictionless, completely luminous, totally radiant and free. Now, everybody knows that because light has no mass and no weight, gravity does not affect it. So, in our True Nature, we have no heaviness, no thickness, no weight. We are substantial only in the sense that fluid light has a fullness, a bodyness to it. But that fullness, that substantiality, is completely light and smooth. That is the nature of awareness. And because it is light, it doesn’t help us see—it is what sees, it is what perceives. Thus light, awareness, consciousness, perception, sensitivity are all the same thing.

In this chapter, Almaas asks the reader not to believe, but to imagine – open the mind to the implications of our true nature being light.

What are the implications of this for understanding what it means to be ourselves? If we apply it to our internal life, we can see that the more we are present and the more fully we are experiencing and being our essential presence, the more we will experience things slowing down. This seems to be a law of time—not that linear time is being altered, but more time becomes experientially “available” to us. Thus, the slowing down of our experience of time will place us more and more in the present. The more we are the presence, the more we are in the present. So, the slowness of time has a lot to do with being in the present.

June 5