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Posts Tagged ‘A. H. Almaas’
The Force Behind Spiritual Evolution: Discovering the Source of Our Inner Fire
“Be attentive to the inner calling. Inner pleasure far surpasses outer pleasure.”
Ep. 210 (Part 3 of 3) | In Part 3 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali speaks about the evolutionary aspect of the creative dynamism of the universe. He explains there is an optimizing, transformative force that is responsible for one form changing to another, like a caterpillar to a butterfly. This developmental force is in alignment with Western concepts of evolution and progress, and applies to spiritual realization, too. There is also an optimizing force specific to the human soul, Hameed tells us, that fuels the hearts that burn with the desire for liberation. This is the force responsible for spiritual development. In Buddhism it is called bodhicitta, the desire for enlightenment.
Why do some people have a fierce desire to seek the truth, asks co-host Roger Walsh, but many do not? Hameed replies that most people are busy making a living, doing their best to get by. In this case the transformative force remains a potential but is not actualized. Seekers possessed by the flame of the search turn inward, asking, What is God? What is truth? What is reality? Scientists look at this externally, he says, but it is the inward turn that reveals the source of the inner fire, the logos, the word that speaks through our souls and through our hearts. Towards the end of the conversation, Hameed laughs at how upside down things are with us looking for answers everywhere but within and thinking the logos speaks through who we think we are, not realizing we ourselves actually are the logos. If we realize who we truly are, he says, the world itself becomes richer. Another infinitely inspiring talk with A. H. Almaas, filled with astonishing wisdom and loving humor. Recorded September 11, 2025.
Read MoreAligning with the Dynamism & Flow of the Cosmos with A. H. Almaas
“For the divine all is harmony, but for us human beings, it looks like mayhem.”
Ep. 209 (Part 2 of 3) | In Part 2 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the very creation of reality by the logos, the source of all life. Logos (an ancient Greek term) is often considered to mean “word,” but Hameed uses it in its deeper sense, where logos is not only the word but also the speaker—the living field of manifestation. The soul is very similar to the logos, Hameed adds, with the same sense of flow, dynamism, and creativity. Hameed points out that the universe could have been created haphazardly, but because it was created in an orderly fashion, it allows for our lives to be meaningful. And, he continues, it is the dimension of love implicit in the logos that brings a beautiful sense of harmony, love, and gratitude to the human soul.
What about all the disharmony in the world? co-host Roger Walsh asks. How can genocide happen in a world that is divinely harmonious? To help explain this, Hameed uses the human body as an example of two perspectives that co-exist: from the perspective of time, we die, he says, but from the perspective of the particle, all is perfect. Hameed also describes his personal experience of being aligned with the creative dynamism of the logos, creating himself and the world anew each moment, like the way frames in a movie are constantly being replaced. The more we live this, he says, the more we bring harmony to the world. Join us also for Part 3 of this deep and intriguing dive into the nature of reality, where Hameed continues to talk about creative dynamism and the logos, and explains how this pertains to our own individual spiritual evolution. Recorded September 11, 2025.
Read MoreHow Does Anything (Including Us) Change in a Nondual World? with A. H. Almaas
“All of reality is part of one unified fabric, so what does it mean when a bird flies from one place to another?”
Ep. 208 (Part 1 of 3) | In Part 1 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali enlightens us about the dynamic, creative force that generates our reality. “Dynamism is constant,” Hameed explains, “it never stops—it is constantly creating what we experience, what we perceive.” Hameed calls this nondual dimension of true nature—of our nature—creative dynamism. How do you explain change, he asks, if it’s not happening in time, and all of reality is one fabric, nondual? The dynamism Hameed speaks of, ongoing and total, has a radical implication: the entire universe is re-created, instant by instant. Not only the physical dimension, Hameed adds, but all dimensions—mental, emotional, and spiritual—are re-created anew.
As co-host Roger Walsh points out, Hameed’s teachings come from direct experience, and Hameed describes his own mind-blowing experience of the moment-by-moment re-creation of himself and the world in Part 2 of this dialogue. Nothing persists, he discovers, movement is not continual. In Part 1, Hameed also explores the subjects of free will, action, and choice as addressed from a nondual perspective, and the fact that we and our actions emerge from the totality of reality. As always, Hameed transmits his joy and exuberance at the mysterious and marvelous ways true nature expresses itself, and it is exciting to realize our own nature is as dynamic, creative, flowing and changing, as the universe. Recorded September 11, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 13, Part 2) – Our Deepest Knowing: Awakening to Pure Being and Pure Awareness
“Mind is not an obstacle. Not an enemy. The obstacle is the reified representation of mind. If we take the knowledge of that mind to be reality, that is the obstacle.”
Ep. 201 (Part 2 of 2) | In the thirteenth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the subject of knowing, or basic knowledge, at the deepest level of awareness. Different from ordinary knowledge, basic knowledge is inherent and immediate, an important feature of reality. You can know Being by being Being, he says; know consciousness by being consciousness, know peace by being peace. Being and knowing are the same thing, he explains, two sides of a coin. Some of what Hameed shares here is unique to his Diamond Approach teaching, and not found in other spiritual teachings, such as what he imparts about the origin of mind and the distinction he makes between pure being and pure awareness.
Hameed explains that we need our conceptual mind (to do our taxes, he laughs), but that reification—treating concepts as if they were real things—creates obstacles and alienates us from our true nature. The aim of all spiritual practice is to go beyond reification to immediate experience, he says. When Hameed describes the difference between pure presence and pure awareness, John wonders, how does Hameed remember the state of pure awareness when there’s no knowing in that state? And what does it feel like to experience no ground of being? Hameed answers in his usual enlightening, gently humorous way, leaving listeners in a state of open-minded wonder. Vastly illuminating, this conversation goes directly to the heart of being and the heart of knowing at the very foundation of true nature. Recorded July 17, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 13, Part 1) – Our Deepest Knowing: Awakening to Pure Being and Pure Awareness
“Being is the origin of mind.”
Ep. 200 (Part 1 of 2) | In the thirteenth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the subject of knowing, or basic knowledge, at the deepest level of awareness. Different from ordinary knowledge, basic knowledge is inherent and immediate, an important feature of reality. You can know Being by being Being, he says; know consciousness by being consciousness, know peace by being peace. Being and knowing are the same thing, he explains, two sides of a coin. Some of what Hameed shares here is unique to his Diamond Approach teaching, and not found in other spiritual teachings, such as what he imparts about the origin of mind and the distinction he makes between pure being and pure awareness.
Hameed explains that we need our conceptual mind (to do our taxes, he laughs), but that reification—treating concepts as if they were real things—creates obstacles and alienates us from our true nature. The aim of all spiritual practice is to go beyond reification to immediate experience, he says. When Hameed describes the difference between pure presence and pure awareness, John wonders, how does Hameed remember the state of pure awareness when there’s no knowing in that state? And what does it feel like to experience no ground of being? Hameed answers in his usual enlightening, gently humorous way, leaving listeners in a state of open-minded wonder. Vastly illuminating, this conversation goes directly to the heart of being and the heart of knowing at the very foundation of true nature. Recorded July 17, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 12, Part 2) – Opening to Pure Being: Awakening to the Fundamental Nature of Reality
“Practice is clearing the way, but whether awakening emerges or not is not up to you.”
Ep. 196 (Part 2 of 2) | n the twelfth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali guides us into the profound experience of pure being, which lies at the core of all mystical teachings. There are two nondual ways of experiencing the fullness of being, he explains. We can recognize we are infinite and boundless—as if we were the sky, but still experiencing this through our being—or, we can experience the oneness of being from the perspective of all manifestation: the mountain, the rocks, the molecules and atoms… “Wherever you go, physically or mentally, is pure being.” Hameed calls the first recognition “unity,” and the latter “oneness.”
Hameed clarifies the paradox of nothingness: “being and nothing are two ways of knowing the same thing; you can feel it as a fullness or you can feel it as an emptiness.” And he explains that being being and knowing being are the same thing, when knowing is understood in its deeper sense as gnosis. “Awakening is knowing our being or our awareness for what it is,” he says. Why is Hameed so uniquely articulate in talking about the experience of pure being? John asks him. This talk is an amazing teaching—visual and sensory, scientific and mathematical, deeply mystical and spiritual—Hameed comes at the subject of pure being from all angles. Recorded June 26, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 12, Part 1) – Opening to Pure Being: Awakening to the Fundamental Nature of Reality
“One way of experiencing pure being is from within itself; then there is experiencing it from the perspective of all manifestation. This is when we understand form is formlessness and formlessness is form.”
Ep. 195 (Part 1 of 2) | In the twelfth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali guides us into the profound experience of pure being, which lies at the core of all mystical teachings. There are two nondual ways of experiencing the fullness of being, he explains. We can recognize we are infinite and boundless—as if we were the sky, but still experiencing this through our being—or, we can experience the oneness of being from the perspective of all manifestation: the mountain, the rocks, the molecules and atoms… “Wherever you go, physically or mentally, is pure being.” Hameed calls the first recognition “unity,” and the latter “oneness.”
Hameed clarifies the paradox of nothingness: “being and nothing are two ways of knowing the same thing; you can feel it as a fullness or you can feel it as an emptiness.” And he explains that being being and knowing being are the same thing, when knowing is understood in its deeper sense as gnosis. “Awakening is knowing our being or our awareness for what it is,” he says. Why is Hameed so uniquely articulate in talking about the experience of pure being? John asks him. This talk is an amazing teaching—visual and sensory, scientific and mathematical, deeply mystical and spiritual—Hameed comes at the subject of pure being from all angles. Recorded June 26, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 11, Part 2) – The Boundless Dimension of Divine Love: A Potential Available to Us All
“The love is what makes us human—you can’t be really human without heart.”
Ep. 190 (Part 2 of 2) | The eleventh Wisdom Series dialogue with A. H. Almaas brings us to the second turning of his teaching, into the boundless dimension of divine love. Hameed explores this nondual dimension in detail: its qualities, what it’s like to experience firsthand, and what the effects of such an experience are likely to be. This boundless dimension of loving consciousness is the first of the five boundless dimensions, though love continues to develop throughout them all. Hameed gives a beautiful account of his initial experience with this dimension, when divine love and light permeated all of reality. “Why don’t more people experience this if love is always there? asks co-host John Dupuy, and Hameed explains that it’s always there in potential form though not always manifest; the experience is there for when we are ripe for it.
Having awakened to this dimension, one can’t help but want everyone to feel this way, Hameed says, and this is the main reason spiritual teachers teach. Hameed describes the obstacles that prevent us from experiencing the reality of divine love, how it challenges our perceived separateness, and tells us that after experiencing this unity, returning to separateness is not a choice. It turns out that experiencing boundless love is not a panacea for enlightenment, but creates an upwelling of obstacles and a state where our boundedness feels even more restrictive than before. Hameed also relates how hatred and greed can exist in this reality of pure goodness, and tells us that it is here, in the ocean of love and light, that they are transformed. A wonderfully numinous, illuminating conversation. Recorded May 1, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 11, Part 1) – The Boundless Dimension of Divine Love: A Potential Available to Us All
“Full nonduality: not just nonduality between subject and object…but where nothing is separate from anything else—one indivisible medium of loving consciousness.”
Ep. 189 (Part 1 of 2) | The eleventh Wisdom Series dialogue with A. H. Almaas brings us to the second turning of his teaching, into the boundless dimension of divine love. Hameed explores this nondual dimension in detail: its qualities, what it’s like to experience firsthand, and what the effects of such an experience are likely to be. This boundless dimension of loving consciousness is the first of the five boundless dimensions, though love continues to develop throughout them all. Hameed gives a beautiful account of his initial experience with this dimension, when divine love and light permeated all of reality. “Why don’t more people experience this if love is always there? asks co-host John Dupuy, and Hameed explains that it’s always there in potential form though not always manifest; the experience is there for when we are ripe for it.
Having awakened to this dimension, one can’t help but want everyone to feel this way, Hameed says, and this is the main reason spiritual teachers teach. Hameed describes the obstacles that prevent us from experiencing the reality of divine love, how it challenges our perceived separateness, and tells us that after experiencing this unity, returning to separateness is not a choice. It turns out that experiencing boundless love is not a panacea for enlightenment, but creates an upwelling of obstacles and a state where our boundedness feels even more restrictive than before. Hameed also relates how hatred and greed can exist in this reality of pure goodness, and tells us that it is here, in the ocean of love and light, that they are transformed. A wonderfully numinous, illuminating conversation. Recorded May 1, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 9, Part 2) -The Diamond Vehicle Revelations: True Nature’s Messages and Messengers of Wisdom
Ep. 178 (Part 2 of 2) | In the ninth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed gives a fascinating account of how four distinctly different wisdom teachings came to him in succession, directly from true nature, embodied in the form of diamonds. “In the beginning, I didn’t know…what the hell were these? Is it my imagination?” Hameed laughs. But then his colleagues and students experienced the diamondness too. Like angels of revelation, each diamond vehicle brings a different type of wisdom: the first diamond vehicle, Guidance, brings clarity and initiated the practice of inquiry; the second embodies the wisdom that pleasure is what we are, bringing an understanding of pleasure from a spiritual perspective; the third diamond vehicle holds the wisdom of how to conduct our lives from a place of truth, and the fourth the wisdom of true knowledge—knowing by being—the knowing that is needed for awakening.
Not only do we hear marvelous stories of how the diamond-shaped wisdom messengers appeared to Hameed, but he also imparts a wonderfully comprehensive yet succinct rendering of the teachings they brought, and the conversation flows from embodying wisdom to embodying pleasure, the inward turn, and why bliss must be combined with emptiness for enlightenment to occur. Also, how to live a life of truth with the inner compass provided by the third diamond teaching, the pitfalls of the ego’s tendency to accommodate others, how being is inseparable from knowing, and lots more. A very full, warm, rich conversation, filled also with humor, sparkle, and delight. Recorded January 30, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 9, Part 1) -The Diamond Vehicle Revelations: True Nature’s Messages and Messengers of Wisdom
Ep. 177 (Part 1 of 2) | In the ninth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed gives a fascinating account of how four distinctly different wisdom teachings came to him in succession, directly from true nature, embodied in the form of diamonds. “In the beginning, I didn’t know…what the hell were these? Is it my imagination?” Hameed laughs. But then his colleagues and students experienced the diamondness too. Like angels of revelation, each diamond vehicle brings a different type of wisdom: the first diamond vehicle, Guidance, brings clarity and initiated the practice of inquiry; the second embodies the wisdom that pleasure is what we are, bringing an understanding of pleasure from a spiritual perspective; the third diamond vehicle holds the wisdom of how to conduct our lives from a place of truth, and the fourth the wisdom of true knowledge—knowing by being—the knowing that is needed for awakening.
Not only do we hear marvelous stories of how the diamond-shaped wisdom messengers appeared to Hameed, but he also imparts a wonderfully comprehensive yet succinct rendering of the teachings they brought, and the conversation flows from embodying wisdom to embodying pleasure, the inward turn, and why bliss must be combined with emptiness for enlightenment to occur. Also, how to live a life of truth with the inner compass provided by the third diamond teaching, the pitfalls of the ego’s tendency to accommodate others, how being is inseparable from knowing, and lots more. A very full, warm, rich conversation, filled also with humor, sparkle, and delight. Recorded January 30, 2025.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 6, Part 2) – Awakening to Our True Nature: Releasing Limiting Ego Structures and Freeing the Soul
Ep. 163 (Part 2 of 2) | In the sixth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali tells us that whereas pure consciousness is already perfect and does not change or grow, individual consciousness is an impressionable organism—alive, changing, moving, developing. Hameed explains that because the soul is impressionable, the impacts of experience are imprinted upon it, shaping our very consciousness. Ego structures form from repeated impressions, and although they are necessary for survival and to function in a relational world, these structures make it difficult to experience the living presence of our true nature. We experience the ego self instead, mistaking our self-image for what we truly are. When we loosen our conditioning, with help from practices like inquiry and bodywork, our soul becomes free of its imprint and our true potential arises naturally, along with greater compassion and other qualities of the soul.
Simply and clearly, Hameed brings us to a deeper understanding of our soul, elucidating what holds us to our limited self-identity and describing what we have to look forward to as the myriad imprints hammered into us by experience become diaphanous, and new impressions no longer make indelible imprints. Hameed also delves into the different ways various traditions talk about the soul, the difference between ordinary knowledge and “knowing,” or gnosis, and tells us that sudden enlightenment and gradual enlightenment are an artificial dichotomy, sharing a story of a sudden enlightenment experience of his own. Once again, Hameed transmits an extraordinary amount of wisdom in a relatively short time, and we emerge brighter, hopeful, and inspired as to our boundless spiritual potential. Recorded November 14, 2024.
Read MoreA. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 6, Part 1) – Awakening to Our True Nature: Releasing Limiting Ego Structures and Freeing the Soul
Ep. 162 (Part 1 of 2) | In the sixth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali tells us that whereas pure consciousness is already perfect and does not change or grow, individual consciousness is an impressionable organism—alive, changing, moving, developing, growing. This is why “it’s easier to experience pure consciousness than it is to experience individual consciousness,” Hameed says. He explains that because the soul is impressionable, the impacts of experience are imprinted upon it, shaping our very consciousness. Ego structures form from repeated impressions, and although they are necessary for survival and to function in a relational world, these structures make it difficult to experience the living presence of our true nature. We experience the ego self instead, mistaking our self-image for what we truly are. When we loosen our conditioning, with help from practices like inquiry and bodywork, our soul becomes free of its imprint and our true potential arises naturally, along with greater compassion and other qualities of the soul.
Simply and clearly, Hameed brings us to a deep understanding of our soul, elucidating what holds us to our limited self-identity and describing what we have to look forward to as the effects of the myriad imprints hammered into us by experience become diaphanous and let us go. Hameed also delves into the different ways various traditions talk about the soul, the difference between ordinary knowledge and “knowing,” or gnosis, and tells us that sudden enlightenment and gradual enlightenment are an artificial dichotomy, sharing a story of a sudden enlightenment experience of his own. Once again, Hameed transmits an extraordinary amount of wisdom in a relatively short time, and we emerge brighter, hopeful, and inspired as to our wondrous spiritual potential. Recorded November 14, 2024.
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