Tag: diamond-approach

Magic that Liberates

The Miraculous: more magical than Harry Potter

Human beings seem to have a love and fascination for the magical and miraculous. Look at how many books, TV shows and films have themes of magic and miracles: from Harry Potter to Merlin to Gandalf to Dr. Strange; from Excalibur and Bewitched to Jumanji and Hocus Pocus. Magic pervades our stories. Even lottery ticket sales reflect a certain amount of magical thinking.

In comparison to fancy thoughts of magic and miracles, daily life may seem a bit too ordinary, even boring. A little magic or a now and then miracle would certainly help to spice up the ordinary. And yet, when we look more closely at what science is revealing about the universe, the subatomic world, the human brain and the potential for technological and biological evolution – well, it all seem spectacularly magical and miraculous.

Recently, I attended a retreat with A.H. Almaas, founder of the Diamond Approach to Self-Realization. The theme of the retreat was The Magic of Realization. In his talks, Almaas addressed how we lose sight of the magic in everyday life, how the mind orients toward magic like everything else – externally and as a means to control external events; and how ordinary life from the perspective of deep realization is astoundingly magical and miraculous. By seeing the magic in everyday life, we can be continually inspired by our personal experience.

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August 17
The New Spiritual Path for the Age

Neuroscience Will be the Basis for the Next Spiritual Path

My interest in the interface between neuroscience and consciousness continues – as does my reading of The Ego Tunnel. My meditations are taking an interesting turn as well under the influence of this interest.

My 27-year interest in the Diamond Approach is fueled, in part, by seeing it as a “teaching appropriate for our times.” The Diamond Approach incorporates modern psychological knowledge and understanding into a new spiritual teaching paradigm.

As I observe the influence of my recent readings on my meditations, thought processes, matrix of attention and index of curiosity, I have little doubt that within my lifetime, I will see a new spiritual path emerge that draws heavily on the insights and knowledge afforded us by those pioneering the field of neuroscience.

The beginnings of this can already be seen in books like Mindsight, where Dr. Dan Siegel is applying understandings of awareness, attention, and mindfulness to his psychological work with clients. Of course, spiritual teachers have understood much of this for millennia. However, spiritual knowledge and insight evolve as consciousness evolves.

Over the entire course of time, spiritual paths have arisen to meet the present-day needs of people’s consciousness and capacity for understanding. Deeper understanding of neuron firing, neural resonance, and brain synchronicity will lead to specific techniques and technologies to influence an individual’s state of consciousness or even deliberately induce a transcendent state of consciousness.

Neuroscience is taking a look from a unique lens at the fundamental spiritual question – Who am I?

I don’t think any amount or degree of technology will remove or reduce some of the basic barriers and hurdles to enlightenment, namely the challenge of embodiment and integration of the nondual as well as the clarification of the personality & ego structure into a transparent vehicle for consciousness. As I learned early in life – spiritual experiences are a dime a dozen, but real change is as rare as a selfless politician.

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June 24
Jessica Britt – The Great Alchemy

From New York to True Nature

Ian McKay interviews Jessica Britt, a Diamond Approach teacher, about her spiritual journey. Jessica has been a teacher of mine for over 20 years. In addition to teaching the Diamond Approach, Jessica works with the Medicine Wheel

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October 20
Sensing Looking Listening

It All Comes Down to Sensing, Looking & Listening

I was meditating. My mind was restless. As I worked on concentrating my attention, I naturally began sensing, looking & listening. It was early morning, about 5am. Quiet with just a bird or two.

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As I worked with sensing, looking and listening, I realized that these three modes of perceiving were really just simple discriminations of a more fundamental mode of perception – that of the soul. The field of consciousness which perceives is the perceiver, the perceiving and the perceived. (you can order a t-shirt by clicking on the image)

Continuing to sense, look and listen, I was soon hearing through my eyes and seeing through my ears. Everything is simply a form within the field of consciousness which is known by the simple fact that consciousness is a self-aware medium – not two.

When the meditation ended, I wasn’t quite sure what/who was getting up out of the chair. I did however note that it was a beautiful day arising, that somehow seemed to feel very close to the perceiver.

I first read abo9ut sensing, looking and listening in Waking Up by Charles Tart – that was a lifetime ago – about 1981. The Diamond Approach teaches sensing, looking and listening as one of its main practices. I remember John Davis, a teacher of the Diamond Approach saying that basically it’s all just sensing, looking and listening. His meaning being that the intention to sense, look and listen are all about presence, perception, emptiness. All spiritual practices are simply some version or elaboration of sensing, looking and listening.

Void of night
A dead calm sea
Ubiquitous stars
Above and below
Which is the reflection
The eyes cannot tell
Let awareness
Be like this
Holding the entirety
Equally
Inner – outer
Objective – subjective
Circles for the mind
Here
The vast infinite
Stretches you
Beyond the dual
Into everywhere

May 9
Living Being in Practice

A couple of notes from the Ridhwan 2009 Summer Retreat:

The View of Totality is outside dual and non-dual, it includes both.

Mysterious Being is behind the evolution of the universe and life and consciousness and the soul.As it evolves our experience, it manifests as the enlightenment drive.

Our responsibility, viewed from the perspective of the individual self is to practice, the Fulcrum is the agency of Being.

As the living being practices through the individual, luminosity pervades the soul and reveals the depth of true nature to itself.

Every time we practice, it is the living being practicing. The appropriation of practice is an important thing to pay attention to. It is not the practice of the self.

It is not an individual self putting out the Diamond Approach. It is through the practice of the living being that the teaching arises.

Items of Interest

Links of Interest

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September 7
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