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

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

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